COUNTRY	POPULATION	SIZE (square miles)	POPULATION DENSITY (# of people per square mile)
USA	301, 139, 947	3, 539, 225	85
MALAWI	13, 931, 831	36, 324	147

Most people usually hear about the slaves that were brought in from Africa to the west. In Malawi it was different. The Malawians were sold by Swahili-Arab traders and the Yao across the Indian Ocean. This slave trade continued from the 1830s to 1889. In the year 1859, a Scottish explorer named David Livingstone found out what was happening in Malawi during a trip there. Suddenly, the whole world found out about the cruelty in Malawi, which led to many mission trips there. In 1889, Great Britain declared that they would “protect” the people of Malawi. The slave trade still lasted until 1907, when the British ended it, and made Malawi the colony of Nyasaland. During the time Nyasaland was a colony of Great Britain, the people were taxed. They had to pay their taxes in cash, not crops, etc. Most people had to work on plantations for the little money that was paid, or they had to migrate to find jobs that paid cash.

This colonization didn’t help the people of Malawi (Nyasaland) at all. Because of the taxes they were forced to pay, some people had to leave their families in search of jobs. As I have already stated, the people of Nyasaland had to work long, hard hours on plantations. Just because Great Britain had ended the slave trade, it didn’t mean that Malawi would be perfectly safe. Great Britain had made the mistake of replacing the slave trade with taxes.

Eventually, in 1958, a man named Hastings Banda came to Nyasaland to help them win independence. He held many independence talks. Banda inspired the people of Malawi. In 1961, they held elections, and the elections were won by Banda’s Malawi Congress Party, or the MCP. Then it became a happy time in Malawi. The people’s country had just won independence; they had just broken free from Great Britain.

In 1966, Malawi became a one-party country. It was governed by the MCP. The next year (1967), Banda saw that South Africa was run by a white racist government. He helped South Africa out, and got trading deals and economic support from South Africa and its allies. The happy time in Malawi didn’t last long. Soon there was a huge opposition to Banda because of economic problems. In Mozambique, refugees fled to Malawi, and interrupted exports to the coast. The World Bank demanded political reform, and in 1993, Malawi’s one-party country, came to an end. Bakili Muluzi won against Banda during the 1994 election. Now Malawi was being governed by the United Democratic Front, or the UDF.  In 1999, Muluzi was elected again, but during the election of 2004, Bingu wu Mutharika was elected.

Today, Malawi is still a very poor country. Men often leave to find jobs in Zambia. Malawi does not have very many resources, and the ones they do have, are limestone and coal. Malawi does have many industrial goods, including cotton, soap, bricks, blankets, textiles, soap, chemicals, and cigarettes. Tobacco is a very important crop in Malawi. Children hang tobacco to dry as one of their chores. There are things that Malawians are good at too. Carving in wood and soapstone, and creating decorative beadwork, are some things Malawians are skilled at. Malawi is also much crafted at making hats, rugs, and baskets from raffia. What attracts people to Malawi most of all, is the fact that it has many tourist attractions. They have beautiful scenery, and also many beautiful, sparkling lakes.