 |
   |
Pictures: (top) Kamuzu Academy - The Eton of Africa. Built by the Late President Dr H. Kamuzu Banda (1896 - 1997). Shown is part of the Ornamental lake, the Administrative, and the Auditorium. (centre) The Reserve Bank of Malawi in the capital city, Lilongwe. (bottom) Club Mak on the lustrous shores of the lake. |
13th - 15th Century - Further migrations of Bantu-speaking people to the area. The new settlers who are able to work with iron, dominate the earlier inhabitants who are still considered to be "stone-age".
1480 - Bantu tribes unite several smaller political states to form the Maravi Confederacy which at its height, encompasses large parts of present-day Zambia and Mozambique plus the modern state of Malawi.
17th Century - The first Europeans in Malawi are Portuguese explorers arriving from the east coast of modern-day Mozambique.
1790 - 1860 - Slave trade increases dramatically.
1850 - Scottish missionary David Livingstone's exploration of the region paves the way for the arrival of other missionaries and European adventurers and traders.
1878 - The Livingstonia Central African Mission Company from Scotland begins work to develop a river route into Central Africa to facilitate trading.
1891 - Britain establishes the Nyasaland and District Protectorate.
1893 - Name is changed to the British Central African Protectorate. White European settlers are offered land for coffee plantations at very low prices. Tax incentives force Africans to work on these plantations for several months a year, often in difficult conditions.
1907 - British Central African Protectorate becomes Nyasaland.
1915 - Reverend John Chilembwe leads a revolt against British rule attacking and killing the white managers of a particularly brutal estate and displaying the head of one outside his church. His protests over the treatment of African plantation workers and the conscription of soldiers into the British Army quickly collapses and he is shot dead by African police a few days later.
1944 - Nationalists establish the Nyasaland African Congress.
1953, 23 October - Despite strong opposition from the Nyasaland African Congress and many white liberal activists, Britain combines Nyasaland with the Federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively).
Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda
1958 - Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, "the black messiah", denounces the Federation and returns from the US and the UK, where he has been studying, to assume the leadership of the Nyasaland African Congress.
1959 - Violent clashes between the Congress supporters and the colonial authorities result in the banning of the organisation. Many leaders, including Banda, are arrested and a state of emergency is declared.
The Malawi Congress Party is founded as a successor to the Nyasaland African Congress.
1960 - Banda is released from Gwelo prison and attends talks in London with the British government on constitutional reform.
1961 - Britain holds elections to a new Legislative Assembly. Banda's Malawi Congress Party wins 94% of the vote.
1963 - Territory is granted self-government as Nyasaland and Banda is appointed prime minister.
1966, 6 July - Banda becomes president of the Republic of Malawi. The new constitution establishes a one-party state. All opposition movements are suppressed and their leaders are detained. Many foreign governments and non-governmental organisations express concern at the lack of human rights in the country.
1971 - Banda is voted president-for-life.
1975 - Lilongwe replaces Blantyre as capital.
1978 - First elections since independence. All potential candidates must belong to the Malawi Congress Party and be approved by Banda. He excludes many of them by submitting them to an English test.
1980s - Several ministers and politicians are killed or charged with treason. Banda reshuffles his ministers regularly preventing the emergence of a political rival.
1992 - Catholic bishops publicly condemn Banda, sparking a series of demonstrations throughout the county. Many donor countries cut off aid until the government improves its human rights record.
1993 - President Banda becomes seriously ill.
Voters in a referendum reject the one-party state, paving the way for members of parties other than the Malawi Congress Party to hold office.
Muluzi elected
1994 - Presidential and municipal elections. Bakili Muluzi, leader of the United Democratic Front, is elected president. He immediately frees political prisoners, lifts the unofficial night curfew and re-establishes freedom of speech. Banda announces his retirement from politics.
1997 - Banda dies in hospital in South Africa where he is being treated for pneumonia.
1999 - President Muluzi is re-elected for a second and final five-year term.
2000 - The World Bank announces it is to cancel one-half of Malawi's foreign debt.
2002 - Famine as prolonged drought causes crops to fail across Southern Africa. It is predicted that the famine will go on well into 2004. The government is accused of worsening the crisis through mismanagement and corruption including selling off the national grain reserves just before the drought struck.
Muluzi seeks constitutional changes removing the limit on the number of terms he can serve as president but is defeated in parliament.
2002, September - Railway line which runs from central Malawi to the Mozambican port of Nacala reopens after almost 20 years, giving land-locked Malawi access to the Indian Ocean coast. It fell into disrepair during almost two decades of civil war in Mozambique.
2003, March - Muluzi announces that he will not seek a further term in office.
2003, August - Parliamentary speaker expels eight MPs who switched sides to form their own party, the Genuine Alliance for Democracy.
