Chikwawa is a town with a population of 6,114 according to the 2018 census located in the Southern Region of

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

on the west bank of the

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

. It is the administrative capital of the

Chikwawa District Chikwawa is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chikwawa. The district covers an area of 4,755 km² and has a population of 356,682. The district lies in a malaria endemic area in Africa and has recently been the ta ...

. Chikwawa lies almost south of

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

, the commercial capital of Malawi. Chikwawa, then known as Chibisa's village, was the first town in Malawi to be seen by European explorers, when visited in March 1859 by

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...

second Zambesi expedition The Second Zambezi expedition, from 1858 to 1864, was launched by the Royal Geographical Society of Britain to explore Southeast Africa for mineral deposits and other natural resources. The expedition led to the establishment of the Central Afr ...

. Their way upstream was blocked by the Kapachira Falls, and they returned in August for land exploration which reached Lake Malawi on 18 September. The surrounding region was ravaged by Portuguese slave traders in the nineteenth century. The

Majete Wildlife Reserve Majete Wildlife Reserve is a nature reserve in southwestern Malawi, established as a protected area in 1955. The reserve's animal populations were decimated during the late 1970s and 1980s due to poaching and other human activities. Majete has been ...

, the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve and

Lengwe National Park Lengwe National Park is a national park in Malawi located near the town of Chikwawa and about 40 miles southwest of Blantyre. Lengwe's topography is unusual for Malawi and consists of open deciduous forests and dense thickets. It is the home of th ...

lie in the vicinity of Chikwawa. Large numbers of hippopotamus and crocodiles inhabit the Shire River area.

References

Populated places in Southern Region, Malawi {{Malawi-geo-stub