Northern Region (Malawi)

Map of the Northern Region of Malawi

The Northern Region of Malawi , with an area of ​​26,931 km² and just under 1.7 million inhabitants, is the smallest of the three administrative divisions that are located between the state on the highest level and the respective districts on the level below. Each region is represented by a regional administrator . The administrative capital of the Northern Region is the city of Mzuzu with a population of 128,432 .

geography

The Northern Region is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania and Lake Malawi to the north and east . The adjoining administrative division to the south is the Central Region , followed by the Southern Region .

Districts

The Northern Region has been divided into six districts, listed from north to south

• Chitipa with 179,072 inhabitants,
• Karonga with 272,789 inhabitants,
• Rumphi with 169,112 inhabitants,
• Mzimba with 724,873 inhabitants,
• Nkhata Bay with 213,779 inhabitants and the smallest district
• Likoma with 10,445 inhabitants exist.

Likoma only includes the two small islands Likoma and Chizumulu in Lake Malawi, which are located as an enclave in the national territory of Mozambique . The districts are run by a District Development Committee (DDC) chaired by a District Commissioner . Political decision-making takes place in a decentralized manner in these districts and in the two larger cities of Mzuzu and Karonga in the so-called town or city ​​assemblies , but not at the regional level.

population

The 1,698,502 inhabitants of the Northern Region counted in the Census of 2008 represented only 13% of the total population of Malawi. With an average of 63 inhabitants per km², the northern region has by far the lowest population density in the country. 48.5% are male and 51.1% are female, but only 47% of the population is 18 years of age or older. The high number of children in the total population is due on the one hand to the high population increase of 37.7% in the years from 1998 to 2008 and on the other hand to the high death rate from HIV / AIDS in the adult population. Only 36.9% of women and 42.6% of men currently have sufficient knowledge about HIV prevention .

59.8% of children up to 17 years of age live with both parents. 17.6% do not live with their biological parents and 11.2% are (AIDS) orphans who have lost one or both parents.

In addition to the official languages ​​English and Chichewa throughout the country, the Bantu language Chitumbuka also exists as a lingua franca in the north of the country . The language is mainly spoken by 750,000 to 1,000,000 people who are ethnically from the Tumbuka people .

economy

The people in the Northern Region make a living mainly from agriculture and tobacco growing. There is no industry here. Only in the north, 52 km west of Karonga, was a uranium mine , the Kayelekera uranium mine, officially opened on April 17, 2009 . In the estimated 11 years of operation, 1500 tons of uranium oxide (measured as uranium (V, VI) oxide U ₃ O ₈ ) are to be extracted per year. Other estimates assume only seven years. It is estimated that annual export revenues could reach US $ 120 million, making uranium about 15% of total exports. Uranium would then be the second most important export product after tobacco. NGOs such as B. the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi have already pointed out the problems and dangers of uranium mining.

Tobacco export is still the currency earner of the Malawian economy. The cultivation areas for tobacco in the Northern Region are mostly west of the city of Mzuzu to the border with Zambia. Coffee and tea , on the other hand, are mainly grown in the highlands . The first coffee plants came to Malawi as early as 1878, but African smallholders did not participate in coffee production until the 1920s . However, coffee growing became more popular in the 1950s when the Malawian government distributed seedlings to smallholders in the Misuku Hills in the Chitipa district . This led, as an example, to the formation of the Misuku Coffee Growers Cooperative Society in 1957 , which the Farmer et al. a. supported the marketing of the green coffee . Similar examples followed, so that today coffee is mostly grown by small farmers in the districts of Chitipa, Rumphi, Mzimba and Nkhata-Bay and a coffee roastery in Mzuzu now produces high-quality coffee for the international market.

There is modest tourism on the shores of Lake Malawi and on the two islands in the Likoma district. The Nyika National Park and the Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve are other tourist attractions.

On the one hand, agriculture represents the main source of income for the rural population and, at the same time, also serves for self-sufficiency. Agricultural products are not exported. There are five agroecological regions in Malawi, two of which are in the Northern Region, the Northern Highlands and the Lake Malawi Lakefront region. In these regions, u. a. Cassava (manioc) grown. In the north of the country, cassava is grown by households between 50% and 90%, depending on the district, and is considered a staple food there . It is known from the districts of Nkhata Bay and Karonga that this rate is even over 90%. The cassava root is also known as "cash food", with which you can easily and quickly earn some money on the markets.

See also

• Central region
• Southern Region

swell

• Population and Housing Census 2008 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, September 2008
• Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, February 2007
• Environment and Development in Malawi - National Environmental Action Plan - (accessed December 2, 2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Population and Housing Census 2008 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, September 2008
2. ↑ ^{a b} NEAP - Environment and Development in Malawi - Department of Environmental Affairs - (accessed December 2, 2009)
3. ↑ Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, February 2007
4. ↑ Information about the country: Malawi ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) - (accessed on December 1, 2009) 
5. ↑ The Tumbuka of Malawi and Zambia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention - (accessed December 1, 2009)  
6. ^ Thomas R. Yager, The Mineral Industry of Malawi in: Minerals Yearbook 2008, US Department of the Interior, Washington DC, November 2009
7. ↑ Kayelekera uranium mine opened in Malawi  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - German Trade & Invest - (accessed December 2, 2009)  
8. ↑ CHRR Concerns on Kayelekera Uranium Mining ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, Lilongwe, Malawi - (accessed December 3, 2009) 
9. ↑ Malawi Tea Initiative - Fair Coffee and Tea BlogSpot - (accessed December 2, 2009)
10. ↑ Reforming the Smallholder Coffee Sector in Malawi: A Case Study of Smallholder Commercialization , Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC), Brighton, UK October of 2007.
11. ↑ Setting up of a fine Coffees Certification Program , Independent Fine Coffees Consultants (IFCC), Nairobi, Kenya, July 2005.
12. ↑ North Malawi ( Memento of the original dated November 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Malawi Tourism Guide - (accessed December 3, 2009) 
13. ↑ Patrick Kambewaa, Misheck Nyembe, Structure and Dynamics of Malawi Cassava Markets , Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA, February 2008

Web links

• Official Website of The Government of Malawi - Homepage - (accessed December 2, 2009)
• UNDP supported government program - National Research Council of Malawi - (accessed December 2, 2009)
• United Nations Developement Program Malawi - UNDP Malawi - (accessed December 2, 2009)

Coordinates: 11 ° 55 ′  S , 33 ° 36 ′  E