Kasungu is a town in the

Kasungu District Kasungu is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Kasungu. The district covers an area of 7,878 km², borders Zambia and has a population of 842,953. In Kasungu District you can cross the border into Zambia and take the ...

of the Central 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 ...

. The population of Kasungu was 58,653 according to the 2018 census. Kasungu is approximately north-west of the capital of Malawi,

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

, and is east of

Kasungu National Park Kasungu National Park is a national park in Malawi. It is located west of Kasungu, about 175 km north of Lilongwe, extending along the Zambian border. Kasungu National Park, established in 1970, is the second-largest in Malawi at , with an e ...

. The main industry in Kasungu is tobacco-growing.

History

A farm close to Kasungu was the birthplace of the first

President of Malawi The president of the Republic of Malawi ( ny, Mtsogoleri wa Dziko la Malawi) is the head of state and head of government of Malawi. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Malawi and is the commander-in-chief of the Malawia ...

Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898 – 25 November 1997) was the Prime Minister of Malawi, prime minister and later President of Malawi, president of Malawi from 1964 to 1994 (from 1964 to 1966, Malawi was an independent Dominion / Commonwealth realm) ...

Geography and climate

Kasungu is in central Malawi, lying at an elevation of . It has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Cwa'') and a

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * ''T ...

that lasts from November–December to March–April. The

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

lasts from May to October. The town receives, on average, between rainfall each year.

Demographics

Language

Chichewa Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambique and Zambia. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for la ...

is the main language spoken in Kasungu.

Facilities

Transport

Kasungu is served by buses and minibuses that travel to

and

Mzuzu Mzuzu is the capital of Malawi's Northern Region and is the third largest city by population in Malawi. The city has 221,272 residents and 20,000 commuters (Mzuzu University students) with about 1.7 million people in its metropolitan area. It i ...

. In June 2008, Central East Africa Railways announced plans to extend the rail line from Lilongwe to Kasungu.

Amenities

There are guesthouses, bars, restaurants, and four petrol stations in Kasungu; according to ''

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarked ...

'', there are "no major attractions" in Kasungu.

is an hour's drive to the west, and

Kamuzu Academy Kamuzu Academy is a private boarding school in Malawi that was founded by, and named after, the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the former President of Malawi. It is described by its proponents as "The Eton College, Eton of Africa". In 1987, it was ...

is 25 minutes by road to the east.

Emergency services

Kasungu has a police station. The town is also home to a 179-bed government-funded

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

hospital. The hospital is often overcrowded, and suffers from a lack of nurses and

anti-retroviral drugs The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of multiple ...

. The hospital's 13-bed paediatric department can receive over 100 patients, leaving some patients on the floor.

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

has sent over US$6000 to train care-workers in Kasungu.

Land and economy

The land in Kasungu lacks nutrients and water, and is mostly "sand

veld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bots ...

"; the Kasungu area is suffering from depleted forests. A tribal chief stated in 2004 that over 250,000 people in Kasungu own no land. Tobacco is the only

cash crop A cash crop or profit crop is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") ...

grown in Kasungu district, and the area has been described as a "tobacco heartland" by

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

. The opening of Kasungu National Park in 1970 has increased tourism in the area. Due to their poverty, most residents of Kasungu live in houses made of hand-made mud bricks, covered by roofs of straw or

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a bu ...

. According to

AllAfrica AllAfrica is a website that aggregates news produced primarily on the African continent about all areas of African life, politics, issues and culture. It is available in both English and French and produced by AllAfrica Global Media, which has of ...

, Kasungu is a "

child labour Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

hotspot."

Politics

Kasungu is a "stronghold" of the

Malawi Congress Party The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is a politics of Malawi, political party in Malawi. It was formed as a successor party to the banned Nyasaland African Congress when the country, then known as Nyasaland, was under British rule. The MCP, under H ...

. The Member of the Malawian Parliament for Kasungu Central is Allan Kabuluzi. The MP for Kasungu North North West is Rodger Sithole, and the MP for Kasungu North West is Gerald Jere.

Foreign links

Kaluluma School in Kasungu has formed a relationship with Greenford High School,

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

, England. A church in Kasungu also formed a relationship with two churches near

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, England, in 2001. Parishioners from the two churches have travelled to Kasungu several times and have built a new church and a fish farm. In February 2008, the church group built a maize mill in Kasungu.

Notable events

Famine and disease

Over 100 people died in a famine in 2002, according to official estimates; Kasungu was the worst affected area in Malawi. In 2005 a famine occurred in Malawi, affecting 4.2 million Malawians. The efforts to distribute food to the needy were concentrated in Kasungu. During 2004 and 2005, there was an outbreak of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

, with eight people recorded to have suffered the disease.

June 2003 riots

In June 2003, Kasungu

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s rioted with police, after five Malawians, suspected of being

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

operatives, were arrested and taken into United States custody. One demonstrator was treated for "serious gunshot wounds".

Chess championships

In January 2008, the African Junior Chess Championships were held at

near Kasungu. The academy, which ''The Nyasa Times'' describes as "highly regarded" and "

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

in the bush", was founded by the first President of Malawi,

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Central Region, Malawi