Part 11 (1/2)

The Lake Chilwa region has always been identified with rice production and, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the colonial government unsuccessfully tried to turn it into a major rice-growing area. Another goal of the DANIDA is to increase the productive capacity of this potential rice-producing wetland. For ornithologists and bird watchers, the area is said to have more than 161 species of birds. It is expected that the project will improve the quality of the environment of the area to the benefit of its communities and of its fauna. One of the main islands of the lake is Chisi, which is home to many fishermen.

LAKE CHIUTA. Located on the MalawiMozambique border, it is an area inhabited mostly by Yao speakers.

LAKE MALAWI. Also known as Lake Nyasa, Lake Malawi is Africa's third largest lake, and it forms the southern part of the Great African Rift Valley. It is 363 miles long, 10 to 50 miles wide, covers 11,430 square miles, lies at 1,500 miles above sea level, and is as deep as 2,310 feet in its northern section, especially the portion between the Livingstone Mountains of Tanzania and the Nyika and Viphya Highlands on the Malawi side. A freshwater lake, it is fed by rivers such as the Songwe, the North and South Rukuru, the Luweya, Dw.a.n.gwa Bua, and Linthipe. Through the s.h.i.+re River it drains into the Zambezi and, eventually, into the Indian Ocean. Because of the ready supply of water, the fertile soils around it, and the many species of fish, the lake has for time immemorial attracted people to its sh.o.r.es. Parts of its littoral have the largest concentration of population in Malawi, and they include the Karonga plains, Usisya, and southern Nkhata Bay district, and Nkhotakota. The lake has two main islands, Likoma and Chizumulu, which since the late 19th century have been centers for the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA).

Malawi shares the lake with Mozambique and Tanzania, where it is still called Lake Nyasa, the name that Dr. David Livingstone gave to it in 1859, itself a misnomer because nyasa is the Mang'anja word for lake. Long before the arrival of Europeans, the lake was an important transport avenue, providing the princ.i.p.al link between the various parts of the region. It is not surprising that bomas were established on the sh.o.r.es of the lake, and they include Fort Johnston (Mangochi), Nkhotakota, Chinthechi (later, Nkhata Bay), and Karonga. Lake transport continues to play a major role in the economic life of Malawi. See also FIs.h.i.+NG; TOURISM; TRANSPORTATION.

LANCASTER HOUSE CONFERENCE. See BANDA, HASTINGS KAMUZU; ELECTIONS.

LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE POLICY. Although during colonial rule English was the official language of communication, expatriate government officers in provincial and district administration had to learn ciNyanja (basically the same as chiChewa) and pa.s.s a required examination. CiNyanja was taught in schools, and government papers, such as Msimbi, had ciNyanja sections; it was also one of the princ.i.p.al broadcast languages in the period before, and during, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. CiTumbuka was taught in schools in the northern province.

The situation did not change until 1968 when ciNyanja was officially declared Malawi's national language. CiTumbuka ceased to be taught in schools in the north and was no longer featured in the print and broadcast media. English continued to be the official language. After the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government was defeated in 1994, the United Democratic Front (UDF) government greatly modified the language policy. While the status of English remained unchanged, ciNyanja lost its position as the national language in that others, including ciYao, ciLomwe, ciTumbuka, ciSena, and ciTonga, began to be broadcast on the radio; they had already been used in the opposition papers from 1992 to 1994. CiNyanja continues to be taught in schools and is one of the subjects at the Malawi School Certificate (MCE) or O level. The Democratic Progressive Party government of Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika has maintained the policy of its immediate predecessor. See also ETHNIC GROUPS.

LAST CHURCH OF G.o.d AND HIS CHRIST. See MSUMBA, JORDAN; NGEMELA, ISAWANI BEN.

LAUDERDALE ESTATE. Located near Mulanje Mountain, this was the first estate to seriously grow tea in Malawi. In 1891, the African Lakes Company (ALC), owners of the estate, employed Henry Brown to open Lauderdale as a coffee-growing venture. Having been recruited from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where tea was gradually replacing coffee, years later, Brown started to experiment with tea planting, initially using bushes from the Blantyre Mission gardens. Within a few years, the ThyoloMulanje area was established as the main tea-producing region of Malawi. Later, Henry Brown opened his own Thornwood Tea Estate, not far from Lauderdale.

LAW SOCIETY OF MALAWI. This organization regulates the standards, ethics, and practices of the legal profession in Malawi. As a professional body, it can also initiate debate on legislation emanating from the National a.s.sembly. In the early 1990s, it played a major role in advocating for political reform and in pressing for a return to respect of human rights; the society was represented on the Public Affairs Committee (PAC). In the postHastings Banda era, the Law Society has continued to guard against any infringements of human rights.

LAWRENCE, ISAAC ”ISA” MACDONALD. Founding treasurer general of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and, with James Sangala and Levi Mumba, leaders in the new organization, Lawrence was responsible for changing the name from Nyasaland African Council to Nyasaland African Congress. A widely read man, through publications such as Clements Kadalie's Worker's Herald and Marcus Garvey's Negro World, he had for some time followed the progress of black organizations in Africa and America. In the 1920s, the colonial government had taken him to court for possessing this type of literature, which it deemed dangerous and illegal.

LAWS, ROBERT (18511934). Born on 28 May 1851, this founding member of the Livingstonia Mission party that arrived in the Lake Malawi area in 1875 qualified as a medical doctor at Aberdeen University and was ordained a minister of the Free Church of Scotland after attending the United Presbyterian College in Edinburgh. The Rev. Dr. Robert Laws served in Nyasaland for over 52 years and exercised considerable influence on the socioeconomic, cultural, educational, and political lives in the British colony. Although, initially, Dr. James Stewart of Lovedale (see LOVEDALE MISSIONARY INSt.i.tUTE) was the official leader of the Livingstonia Mission, in practice, Laws was the effective head from the beginning, overseeing its work from the Cape Maclear base, supervising its relocation to Bandawe in 1881 and, in 1894, moving its headquarters to its permanent site at Khondowe. At the latter place, he established the Overtoun Inst.i.tution, for a long time one of the best educational centers in colonial Africa. Laws envisioned the inst.i.tution playing a major role in the socioeconomic development of the region through the training of teachers, clergy, and government clerks, as well as apprentices in technical skills. At one stage he even seriously entertained the idea of a university at Livingstonia.

His belief that training in European skills was a prerequisite to African development drew opposition, including that from Donald Fraser, who feared the destruction of village life. Fraser also objected to the education of a few, preferring a ma.s.s education approach. By the 1920s, others were questioning the relation of fine industrial training to the village way of life. Despite the strict rules affecting their lives at Overtoun, many Malawian apprentices were trained and employed by Europeans in Malawi, other parts of southern Africa, and nearby Tanzania and Zambia. Although Laws's Overtoun Inst.i.tution had been criticized as an object to promote the colonial (not African) economy, the inst.i.tution was responsible for producing many articulate and politically adept graduates who became leaders in local African Welfare a.s.sociations and, later, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). Laws was supportive of these groups, believing that an outlet for political expression was necessary. Many former students of the inst.i.tution, including Clements Kadalie and Tomo Nyirenda, had distinguished careers outside Nyasaland.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Laws encouraged the Moir brothers to expand their African Lakes Company (Mandala) stores in an effort to promote legitimate trade to compete with the growing influence of the Swahili-Arab traders in the Lake Malawi area. Early colonial governors such as Sir Alfred Sharpe respected and valued the missionary's judgment and counsel. In 1912, Laws was appointed a member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO), and it was he who requested an inquiry into the origins of the Chilembwe uprising in 1915, in part because Livingstonia and other missions were under attack for educating Africans and presumably inciting them to protest European rule.

Laws wrote several school primers in local languages and was instrumental in translating the New Testament into ciTumbuka. He also published a mission magazine, AURORA and, later, wrote his memoirs, Reminiscences of Livingstonia (1934). Laws and his wife, Margaret Gray, left Malawi in 1927; he died in August 1934.

LEAGUE OF MALAWI WOMEN. This wing of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was initiated by Dr. Hastings K. Banda and organized by Rose Chibambo in 1958. At the same time, Banda organized the Youth League (see YOUTH). Both wings acted as a political vanguard to the Malawi Congress Party and remained zealous supporters of Banda for most of his presidency. Banda listened to the league, and, in noncontroversial matters, the league had an influence on the life of the president. The league enjoyed a monopoly on the sale and distribution of a millet brew, with the monies going to the Women's League for its projects and charities. The Women's League was encouraged to maintain the strength of the MCP by urging people to renew their party members.h.i.+p cards. Appeals were made to league members to attend party meetings, to enroll in home craft and literacy cla.s.ses, and to practice traditional dances in their local areas.

Referred to as his mb.u.mba (female members of his family), these women had to buy special Women's League uniforms and perform at every official appearance of the president. Their compositions always praised him, describing him as their guardian and as Malawi's savior. Modern houses were constructed for senior party mb.u.mba, especially those single and widowed women, as a reward for their loyalty and diligence, and their utility bills were paid for them by Press Corporation. The league had branches in every town and district and had chairwomen appointed to oversee the many social activities and charitable functions engaged in by the members.h.i.+p. The league reached every rural part of Malawi; women farmers who may not have seen or known an extension service officer knew the league chairwoman in their villages. Women who for some reason did not want to attend MCP functions or did not have the money to buy the party's uniform were often subjected to unpleasantness.

Since the fall of the MCP government, the Women's League has become an insignificant wing of the party. Many members, remembering the manner in which they were forced to attend MCP functions, have deserted the party for new ones such as the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD).

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL (LEGCO). In 1907, the Legislative Council was created as the consultative and legislative body in Nyasaland. Generally, the power to initiate legislation lay with the governor, who also appointed the members. LEGCO members included the governor, three ex-officio members of the Executive Council (the chief secretary, attorney general, treasurer), and three (six in 1911) nongovernment members nominated by the governor. The unofficial members consisted of European planters, traders, and missionaries. It was the missionary members of LEGCO who acted as the representatives, not of African persons, but of African interests. Many missionaries accepted their role with sincerity and spoke out against thangata, hut taxes, labor migration, and the sale of African land.

Until 1949, no Africans (or Asians) had direct representation in LEGCO, despite the fact that African Welfare a.s.sociations and the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) had made such a request. Earlier in 194445, the government established the mainly African Provincial Councils, dominated by traditional authorities. From the three councils, 20 people were chosen to form a Protectorate Council. The Protectorate Council was allowed (1949) to submit the names of five Africans to the governor who would choose two (three from 1953) to become LEGCO members. In 1949, E. A. Muwamba and J. Ellerton Mposa were the African representatives and P. Dayaram was the Asian representative. Europeans had appointed their first women to LEGCO just prior to that: Mary Tunstall Sharpe (daughter-in-law of Sir Alfred Sharpe) in 1946 and Marjorie Barron in 1947.

During the Federation (195363), Europeans in LEGCO gained the right of direct election, thus eliminating the nominating process by the governor. In the 1955 Const.i.tution, a common roll for Europeans and Asians and a separate roll for Africans were created. At the same time, the unofficial members.h.i.+p of LEGCO was increased to include five Africans (to be elected by Provincial Councils) and six Europeans. Following this, the NAC won all five African seats, and the members were Henry Chipembere, Murray Kanyama Chiume, Dunstan Chijozi, James Chinyama, and Nophas Kwenje. By 1960, there were seven African members in LEGCO, of whom three were elected and four were nominated by the Protectorate Council. In the 1961 elections, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) won all 20 lower-roll seats and two of the eight upper-roll seats in LEGCO. Two years later, LEGCO was renamed the Legislative a.s.sembly and reconst.i.tuted to include 53 members, 50 elected from a general roll and three from a special roll.

LEMANI, FINLY DUMBO (?2005). Finly Lemani was a minister in the United Democratic Front (UDF)led government formed after the 1999 elections, previously a minister of state in the office of the president, and in 1994 minister of energy. Born and raised in Zomba district, Lemani spent part of the 1960s in prison because of his a.s.sociation with Henry Chipembere and other cabinet ministers who had rebelled against Dr. Hastings Banda's policies and style of rule. After his release, he worked in Blantyre and became famous nationally as a first-rate football organizer and club manager. In the late 1980s, he became a pastor, and when the agitation for political reform surfaced in 1992, Lemani became a founding member of the UDF. In 1994, he was elected to the National a.s.sembly and served as, among other capacities, minister of energy. In the 1999 elections, Lemani was returned as member for Zomba Thondwe, retained his position as UDF's director of campaigns, and was appointed as special advisor to President Bakili Muluzi. In November 2000, he became minister of state for presidential affairs. He died while still in office.

LENGWE NATIONAL PARK. Covering about 50 square miles and located in Chikwawa district in the area south of the Mwanza River and west of the s.h.i.+re, Lengwe was declared a game reserve in 1928. In 1963, the government's Forestry Department a.s.sumed responsibility for wildlife conservation, and, as a result, 20 miles of connecting roads were constructed and a rest house was built on the site.

LEPROSY RELIEF a.s.sOCIATION (LEPRA). In 1963, the British Leprosy Relief a.s.sociation established the Malawi Leprosy Control Project at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. Through its expatriate and locally trained staff and through the use of modern medicine and methods, LEPRA aimed at treating large numbers of leprosy suffers, and, in the process, it hoped to eradicate the disease from the country. Initially, the project covered an area of 2,000 square miles with a population of about 1 million people, with 10,000 to 12,000 leprosy patients. The LEPRA's innovative method was to use mobile treatment units located in Blantyre, Zomba, and Mulanje to visit treatment centers in the rural areas. This way, patients remained near their homes; it also reduced the cost of treatment. Later the area of the project extended to other parts of the country. In 1978, the LEPRA in conjunction with the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the World Health Organization TDR (Tropical Disease Research) Programme began an intensive study of the epidemiology of leprosy, using Karonga district as a starting point. From 1986, trials for a multidrug therapy of Dapsone, Lamprene (clofazimine), and rifampicin commenced in the area of the Karonga Prevention Study and would last 8 to 15 years, and a trial for a vaccine was also planned. By the mid-1990s, leprosy had been much reduced, exceeding expectations, but new cases of the disease continue to be reported. From 2000 onward, the Wellcome Trust funded the study, and the project's work now included an a.s.sessment of antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) on patients with HIV.

The LEPRA Health in Action continues to a.s.sist the Malawi National Leprosy and Skin program in, among other aspects, training community health workers, especially in parts of the country where leprosy is particularly prevalent.

LEVER BROTHERS. See UNILEVER SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA.

LIFE AND WORK. This influential publication was started by Rev. David Clement Scott, and it was the official magazine of the Blantyre Mission used by the missionaries to oppose government policies, especially those concerning land and labor. It was not popular with the European settler and business communities. Nevertheless, they and the government paid attention to its opinions.

LIKAYA-MBEWE, SMART. An entertainer whose acting name, Kapalepale, is synonymous with popular culture in Malawi during the period 196692. Kapalepale was also the t.i.tle of a 30-minute chiChewa play aired on Radio Malawi of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) every Sat.u.r.day evening. Until the late 1970s, the play centered on issues concerning everyday life, the type most people easily identified with: feuds between neighbors in an urban context; a person from a remote village mesmerized by life in a city he or she is visiting for the first time; an adulterous village headman. It was the most popular program on the radio, making the main character, Kapalepale (Likaya-Mbewe), a household name. His rise from a simple messenger at MBC to a national personality enhanced his reputation, as, for many, he became a role model. However, from the early 1980s to the 1990s, the play became influenced by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) politics, and it came to be identified with the ruling party's propaganda.

LIKULEZI. This is the location of a major Catholic center in the southern region and of two seminaries. It is the home of the Oblates of the Holy Family, a Malawian order of brothers; it is also the mission station where nuns of the Diocesan Society of African Sisters are trained. In 1969, it became the site of the Catechetical Training College directed by Father Matthew Scoffeleers, and the curriculum included pastoral anthropology, Malawian culture, and Africanization.

LIKUNI. Likuni, in the heartland of Chewa country, became one of the main Catholic missions of the White Fathers in 1903. A few miles southwest of Lilongwe city, it is now a major Catholic educational center, boasting a girls' and a boys' secondary school, a printing establishment, and a big hospital.

LILONGWE. At an elevation of 3,445 feet, Lilongwe, capital of Malawi since 1975, is located in the heartland of Chewa country. It became the site of a boma in 1902, after the local chief, Njewa, requested its establishment. At the time, the area was called Bwaila, and the new boma was named after the nearby river, Lilongwe. In 1904, it became the district headquarters and, within two years, the first Asian traders arrived at the boma, the African Lakes Company (Mandala) having already established its presence there. The importance of Lilongwe increased in 1909 when a trunk road was constructed connecting it with Fort Manning in the west and with Fort Jameson in Northern Rhodesia. The connection with Dedza had been built four years earlier. In 1910, the area was separated into Dedza district and Lilongwe district. At that time, Lilongwe town boasted a boma, a growing population of Africans, Asians, and Europeans, a Mandala store, a post office, and a White Father's mission at nearby Likuni. Even at this early date, Lilongwe was the junction of the major northsouth and eastwest roads.

Although local tobacco had been grown in Lilongwe district, its commercial growth was encouraged only after World War I, which resulted in the Imperial Tobacco Company opening a factory there in 1930. Major European planters such as A. F. Barron and R. W. Wallace established large plantations in the area; Lilongwe also became a major area of operations for the Native Tobacco Board (NTB) and, later, for other tobacco organizations. The city has the largest tobacco auction floors in the country.

In 1964, Dr. Hastings K. Banda announced his Gwelo Plan No. 2, and it included the construction of the lakesh.o.r.e road, the establishment of the University of Malawi, and the relocation of the capital from Zomba to Lilongwe. When the British government refused to fund the new capital, the Malawi government turned to the South African government for loans. In 1968, the Capital City Development Corporation was established to carry out the building of the capital city, which was officially inaugurated in 1975. There are many commercial businesses in Blantyre that now have branches in Lilongwe. In keeping with the expansion of the city as the national capital, the new Lilongwe International Airport opened in 1983, and work on a new state house was completed in the early 1990s.

President Bakili Muluzi did not use the state house for its original purpose, leaving part of the building as the home of the National a.s.sembly. However, in the Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika era, the state house has come to be used as the residence of the president. A new National a.s.sembly building is under construction in the capital. Lilongwe is also the site of educational inst.i.tutions, such as the Kamuzu College of Nursing and the Malawi Inst.i.tute of Management (MIMS), the Bible College, and the future University of Science and Technology. Lilongwe's population had risen from 99,000 in 1977 to about 900,000 in 2009.

LIMBE. Located nearly five miles east of Blantyre, Limbe developed primarily as an important terminus of the railway into Nyasaland. Limbe also became the headquarters of the Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC), which depended heavily on rail transportation, and which, like the rail company itself, became a major employer of local labor. By 1905, Limbe had grown enough to be declared a town, governed by a mayor and a town council. Limbe also came to be a.s.sociated with Asian business, as many people from the Indian subcontinent settled there. In 1956, Limbe and Blantyre joined under one mayor and, in 1959, the Amalgamated Council was transformed into the munic.i.p.ality of Blantyre and Limbe.

It is in Limbe that the road to Zomba begins, pa.s.sing through some of the main tobacco-producing areas in the country. Limbe is also on the route to Thyolo and Mulanje districts, the princ.i.p.al tea-growing regions of Malawi. To the immediate southeast of the town is the Mzedi Catholic Mission, home to St. Patrick Secondary School, and slightly farther southwest is Nguludi Mission, one of the early Catholic missions and, since the mid-1990s, the location of the Catholic University of Malawi. Limbe boasts other educational inst.i.tutions: Soche Secondary School and Our Lady of Wisdom Secondary School, situated next to the Limbe Catholic Cathedral. Limbe is the headquarters of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), seat of the local branch of Lever Brothers (see UNILEVER SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA), the site of the Chiperone blanket factory, and home of numerous light industries. The central sorting post office is also located in Limbe, as is the s.h.i.+re Highlands Hotel, one of the oldest hospitality establishments in the country.

LIPENGA, KEN (1952 ). An author and cabinet minister in the post-1999 United Democratic Front (UDF) government, Lipenga graduated from the University of Malawi before going to the University of Leeds (MA), in the United Kingdom, and the University of New Brunswick, in Canada, where he was awarded a PhD in English literature. He taught at the University of Malawi until 1986 when he was appointed as editor-in-chief of the Blantyre Newspapers Ltd., a position he lost in December 1992 as the period of the agitation for political reform started. He worked briefly as a correspondent for Radio Netherlands International and for Reuters. In 1993, he became founding editor-in-chief of the Nation Newspapers.

Two years later, Lipenga was appointed special a.s.sistant to President Bakili Muluzi. Thereafter, he became an activist in the UDF party and, after the 1994 elections, he became Muluzi's political advisor and speech writer. In 1997, he contested successfully for National a.s.sembly as a member for a Phalombe const.i.tuency and was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs. In 1999, he was returned to the National a.s.sembly and promoted to minister of education and culture. In a cabinet reshuffle in November of the following year, he became minister of tourism and public works. He was also to serve as minister of labor and vocational training (20068), and minister of economic planning and development (20089). In the general elections of 2008, he retained his Phalombe seat but was not included in the new cabinet. In August 2010, he became minister of tourism, wildlife, and culture, and, in September the following year, he was appointed as minister of finance and development planning.

LITERATURE. In addition to the rich tradition of oral family and clan histories and accounts of the migration of groups such as the Maravi, the Chikulamayembe, Ngoni, and Kyungu, Malawi has a modern literary tradition. In the colonial period, this tradition was nurtured by missionary organizations, almost all of which had printing presses. Individual missionaries took interest in the writers and encouraged them to publish their ma.n.u.scripts. Rev. Charles Stuart encouraged Yesaya Mloyeni Chibambo to publish his Makani gha baNgoni, J. P. Brewer and Rev T. Cullen Young did the same for Samuel Josiah Ntara, as did J. L. Pretorius with Yesaya Mwasi. Among other early authors are Steven k.u.makanga, Nzeru a Kale (1932) and E. W. Chafulumira, Kazitape (1950), Kantini (1954), and Mfumu Watsopano (1962).

Since the 1960s, there has developed a strong tradition of writers in English. Despite the censors.h.i.+p in President Hastings Banda's time, the Writers Workshop at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi has contributed immensely by encouraging prospective writers to realize their ambitions. Some members of this group began to publish their literary anthologies and, in 1977, nine plays written for the National Theatre of Malawi were published. Among the writers of this group are Steve Chimombo, Christopher Kamlongera, Ken Lipenga, Blaze Machila, Jack Mapanje, Felix Mnthali Lupenga Mpande, Anthony Nazombe, James Ng'ombe, Patrick O'Malley, and Paul Zeleza, all of whom are household names in literary circles of Malawi. In its own way, the Writers Corner program featured regularly in the program lineup of the highly politicized Radio Malawi of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and in this way, it played a notable role in encouraging the ambitions of writers.

Many Malawian authors have published overseas in series such as Heinemann's African Writers Series, and a similar series from Longman. However, local publis.h.i.+ng houses, including Popular Publications in their Malawian Writers Series, have been the main publishers of Malawian literature in English. During the rule of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), writers had to be careful about the content of their stories and about the language they used. The Censors.h.i.+p Board had to approve ma.n.u.scripts before publication, and an author who ignored the requirement could be imprisoned.

Among some of the Malawian writers in English are Legson Kayira, I Will Try (1965), Looming Shadow (1967), Jingala (1969) and Civil Servant (1971); Aubrey Kachingwe, No Easy Task (1966); David Rubadiri, No Bride Price (1967); Steve Chimombo, The Wrath of Napolo (2002); and Jack Mapanje, The Beasts of Nalunga (2007). See also KAYIRA, LEGSON.

LIVINGSTONE, DR. DAVID (18131873). One of the most famous British missionaries and travelers of the 19th century, Livingstone was born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland. As a boy he led a difficult life, including working in the coal mines of Scotland, but, as he grew, his ambition was to become a missionary in China. However, after qualifying as a medical doctor in 1840, he changed his mind, joined the London Missionary Society, and left for southern Africa to work with Rev. Robert Moffat, his future father-in-law, who was then stationed in Griqualand. Besides missionary work, Livingstone traveled extensively, culminating in the 1856 journey that took him from Angola to Mozambique on the east coast of Africa.

After he published Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa in 1857, he commenced his Zambezi expedition (185863). This brought Livingstone up the s.h.i.+re River and into southern and central Malawi. With Livingstone's retinue in the 1850s were several Kololo from the upper Zambezi area who subsequently stayed in the Lower s.h.i.+re region and established themselves as chiefs there. In 1859, he made three journeys, one to Chikwawa and another to Lake Chilwa, during which he observed firsthand the ravages of the slave trade. His third trip brought him to the sh.o.r.es of Lake Malawi. In 1861, Livingstone made another lake trip visiting Nkhotakota and Bandawe. That same year he also helped the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) settle in at their ill-fated Magomero mission site. During Livingstone's visit to the Lake Malawi region in 1863, he and his party traveled along the lakesh.o.r.e and west to Kasungu. The travel pattern set by Livingstone would be followed by succeeding European travelers: from the Zambezi River, north and up the s.h.i.+re to the Murchison Cataracts, overland to Matope, and a return to the s.h.i.+re until reaching Lake Malawi. Only the rail system, which was built in the 20th century, changed this earlier pattern.

In 1866, Livingstone returned to Malawi, traveling from Tanganyika along the east coast of Lake Malawi, turning south to Lake Malombe, and then west into the Dedza Highlands. On this, as on earlier journeys, he fought tirelessly against the slave trade. He did, however, show considerable tolerance and often had friendly relations with the Swahili-Arab traders. He died at Ilala in the Chitambo area of modern Zambia in 1873, and his African servants, led by Susi and Chuma, whom he had earlier recruited in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, carried his body to Zanzibar from where it was transported to Great Britain. There, his death aroused much interest in missionary work, resulting in the establishment of the Livingstonia Mission in 1874. The African Lakes Company (ALC) was also a response to Livingstone's call for Christianity, commerce, and Western civilization in Africa. Blantyre, Malawi's largest commercial city, is named after Livingstone's birthplace. See also MISSIONS.

LIVINGSTONE, WILLIAM JERVIS. This distant relative of Dr. David Livingstone, and manager of the 169,000 acre A. L. Bruce Estates at Magomero was, on the night of 23 January 1915, beheaded by his workers, most of whom were followers of John Chilembwe. Born on the island of Lismore, in western Scotland, Livingstone was recruited in 1894 by A. L. Bruce initially to grow coffee at the estate. He failed with coffee, as did many other Europeans in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, but Livingstone showed that the area could produce cotton profitably. However, as the commission of inquiry into the Chilembwe uprising would show, William J. Livingstone was a particularly harsh manager who abused the thangata system in the extreme. He ignored the laws regulating the employment of labor. Laborers were forced to work for tax for two months and for tenancy for another two to three months; the working hours were long and the wages very poor. Livingstone would evict tenants without notice, causing much hards.h.i.+p to families, and he burned John Chilembwe's churches built on his estate.

LIVINGSTONIA MISSION. See EDUCATION; MISSIONS.

LIVULEZI. Located in a valley in northeast Ntcheu district in a region under the influence of the Maseko Ngoni, this was the first mission station (1887) of the Livingstonia Mission. At the time, the area was primarily a Chewa area, but it was already recognizing the authority of the Ngoni chief, Chikusi, and for the Scottish missionaries, a foothold in this area was an important step toward establis.h.i.+ng their presence in Maseko Ngoni country.

LIWONDE. Named after the Yao chief, Liwonde, and located at the point where the ZombaLilongwe Road crosses the s.h.i.+re River, Liwonde is a small but thriving commercial center. It is also known for its fis.h.i.+ng industry and the barrage on the s.h.i.+re. Increasingly, however, it has become famous for the Liwonde National Park, which opened in the mid-1970s, and which is known for its rare species of flora and the game that live there.

LIZULU. Located near the BlantyreLilongwe Road, halfway between Dedza and Ntcheu, this is the traditional headquarters of the Maseko Ngoni and the seat of the Gomani authority.