Blantyre - City of Malawi

Blantyre is the second largest city in Malawi with an estimated population of 732,518 as of 2008.Blantyre is the capital of the country's Southern Region as well as the Blantyre District.

In Blantyre there is a small but very influential expatriate population of about 25000. These people are mainly from England, the rest of Europe, and also South Africa. The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation , the country's state broadcaster and the provider of Malawi's only television channel, has its headquarters in Blantyre. The Supreme Court is also located here.

The city also houses the College of Medicine, the Malawi Polytechnic and the Kamuzu college of nursing, constituent colleges of the University of Malawi, located along the Chipembere highway. The rather unconventional location of the city has meant that Blantyre is overlooked by Mount Soche, Ndirande mountain, Chiradzulu mountain and Michiru mountain which consolidates the Michiru Mountain Conservation Area.

Founded in 1876 through the missionary work of the Church of Scotland Blantyre's historical importance is rivaled by no other Malawian city. it has many historic and cultural heritage resources which constitute a vital part of the city and are crucial for its identity, cultural and social wellbeing and attractiveness to business and tourism. It became a British consular in 1883 and attained municipality status by 1895 making it Malawi's oldest municipality.

The city's stature as Malawi's centre of commerce and industry began through its role as a centre for colonial trade in ivory. Thus, Blantyre quickly established itself as a crossroads for trade in Southern Africa. Today the city is Malawi's main manufacturing core with shoes, cotton, metal and plastic producing factories located here.

Blantyre is named after the town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, where the explorer David Livingstone was born. Livingstone's missionary endeavours saw the establishment of the St Michael's and All Angels church. The church dates from 1891 and was famously built by a team of local workmen with no knowledge of architecture of building techniques. Urban development began in the colonial era with the arrival of missionaries, traders, and administrators and was further stimulated by the construction of the railway.

Blantyre is also home to the Malawi Stock Exchange located on Victoria avenue, the heart of the city. It opened its doors in November 1996 and operates under the Capital Market Development Act 1990 and the Companies Act 1984. Prior to the listing of the first company, the major activities that were being undertaken were the provision of a facility for secondary market trading in Government of Malawi bonds namely, Treasury Bills and Local Registered Stocks.

The climate of Blantyre is greatly influenced by its location within the tropical zone and altitude. The city experiences the Tropical Continental Climate with two distinct seasons in the year. The rainy season is from November to April, with a continuation in form of light cold showers locally known as ‘Chiperoni’ from end of May to July. The dry season is from May to October.There are particularly two spells of uncomfortable weather; the hottest season associated with high humidity soon before the onset of the first rains and the frost along rivers, mist and chilly showers and winds characteristic of the cold season in June and July.

Blantyre City has a wide range of educational facilities comprising primary school, secondary school and tertiary education as well as pre-school. These are provided by the government, City Assembly, missionary institutions and the private sector.

Tertiary education comprises technical and vocational training and higher learning institutions mostly located in the Chichiri-Ginnery Corner area , Telecommunications National and SADCC Multi- Country Training Schools, Technical School, Police Training School and Blantyre Teacher’s College. Besides, some private companies offer tailor-made training to their staff while individual entrepreneurs provide specialised training in varied fields such as management, secretarial, business, accounting, and computers.

There are 50 primary schools in the city with a total enrolment in 1999 of approximately 134,000 pupils. This is less than 40% of the required schools resulting in excessive overcrowding of classrooms, long distance travel to/from school, unacceptably high pupil/teacher ratios and high proportion of pupils who hold classes outside under tree shades. The combination of overcrowding, inadequate and poorly maintained pit latrines, and learning in the open is exacerbating health hazards and deterioration of environmental quality in public schools.