page_title: Blantyre
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Blantyre / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Mandala House, Blantyre's oldest building.
context_page_description: Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants as of 2018. It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is the capital of the country's Southern Region as well as the Blantyre District.
context_section_description: Blantyre was founded in 1876 through the missionary work of the Church of Scotland. It was named after Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, birthplace of the explorer David Livingstone. 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 to its identity, cultural and social well-being 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. By the time of World War I, Blantyre was diverse with Africans from neighbouring districts as well as South Asian traders.
  The city's status 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 including "shoe manufacturing, corn (maize) milling, brewing, soft drink production, baking, printing, and tobacco manufacturing".
  From 1876 to 1905, urban development in Blantyre was confined to three distinct areas within 2 km of each other: Blantyre Mission at HHI, Mandala (European commercial venture), and the government zone and commercial centre triangle marked by Haile Selassie Road, Glyn Jones Road and Hannover Street. In Limbe development started in 1906 following the establishment of the Shire Highlands Railways Company headquarters and repair and servicing facilities and Imperial Tobacco Group (ITG) packaging and tobacco grading factory nearby. As a result of the establishment of these large operations, easy accessibility and flat topography, Limbe experienced a development boom of Indian wholesale and retail shops. By 1910 Limbe town surpassed Blantyre town. Low- and medium-density housing for the European and Asian staff was in Mpingwe, ITG and Mudi in Limbe and in Mount Pleasant, Sunnyside, Namiwawa, Kabula and Mandala in Blantyre. The Indian shops included accommodation at the rear or on the top floor. High-density housing for the African workforce was far away except the Chiwembe compound in Limbe.
  The development history of Blantyre was principally dictated by piecemeal un-co-ordinated development as a result of individual and interest group decisions relating to evangelism, commerce, farming, industry and administration.
  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 and All Angels church. The church dates from 1891 and was famously built by a team of local workmen with no knowledge of European architecture or building techniques. Urban development was further stimulated by the construction of the railway. In 1956 it was merged with its sister city, Limbe (7 miles (11 km) to the East, founded in 1909), to form one city. Here, it became the "headquarter of Malawi (then Nyasaland) Railways."
  Blantyre City has a total of eight gazetted National Monuments, mostly buildings of historic importance. The City Assembly has nominated two sites for designation as National Monuments and another 23 sites for investigation with regard to their eligibility for designation as national and local monuments.
caption: Mandala House, Blantyre's oldest building
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