Liwonde, or Livonde, is a town located in

Machinga District Machinga is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Machinga. The district covers an area of 3,771 km.² and has a population of 369,614. Demographics At the time of the 2018 Census of Malawi, the distribution of the ...

, 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 ...

Geography

Located in

in the Southern Region of Malawi, Liwonde is located in 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 ...

valley. Its main landmark is the road that connects Zomba to Lilongwe, making the town an important crossroads between Balaka, Machinga, Mangochi and Zomba. Another important Liwonde landmark is the

Liwonde National Park Liwonde National Park, also known as Liwonde Wildlife Reserve, is a national park in southern Malawi, near the Mozambique border. The park was established in 1973, and has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since ...

nature conservation area. The town thus serves as a dormitory, support center and access base for tourists and researchers traveling to Liwonde National Park. Trips to the interior of the park depart from Liwonde by sailing along the Shire River (year-round) or by car on the access roads.

Demographics

The main ethnic groups in the town are the Chewas and the Yaos, with minorities of the Ngoni and Lomwe peoples. There is an important group of expatriates left over from the Mozambican civil war, as well as Asian immigrants.

Climate

In the region of the town of Liwonde, the

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(Aw) prevails, with a hot thermal sensation throughout the day.

Vegetation

The savannah that surrounds the town is characterized by the small amount of trees, especially the many

bushes A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

. Among the large trees, the

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...

stands out.

Economy

Liwonde's economy is basically agricultural, centered on the production of corn flour,

tomatoes The tomato is the edible Berry (botany), berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to th ...

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

, cabbage,

bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

, pumpkins, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes,

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

, rice and beans. There is also an important breeding of

goats The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...

for meat consumption, as well as poultry breeding for egg consumption. As a regional hub for neighboring towns, Liwonde is home to retail shopping centers such as PTC, McConnell's and Euro Superette, which supply the town with food, sundries and beverages.

Infrastructure

In 2002, the town had a residential supply of water and electricity, but it was not available to the majority of the population. There was also landline and mobile telephony, with signal failures. Liwonde also had a hospital. The town has a railway station on the

Nacala railway Nacala railway, also known as Northern Corridor railway and Nacala Corridor railway, is a railway line that operates in northern Mozambique on a lineGarcia, Ana.; Kato, Karina.Politicas Públicas e Interesses Privadas: uma análise a partir do Cor ...

, under concession of

Central East African Railways Central East African Railways is a consortium formed in 1999, led by the Railroad Development Corporation, which won the right to operate the Malawi Railways network. The company was sold in September 2008 to INSITEC, an investment group based in ...

. The town of Liwonde has one of the most important railway stations on the Nacala railway, linking

Mwanza Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,182,000 in 2021, it is Tanzania's second largest cit ...

and

Nkaya Nkaya, also known as Nacaia, is a town in Malawi, located in the district of Balaka and in the Southern Region of the country. Its economy is predominantly agricultural, but it has an important logistics sector, as it serves as the junction point ...

(west) to

Nayuchi Nayuchi is a town located in Machinga District in Malawi. Serving as a border post for road and rail control between Malawi and Mozambique.Port of Nacala The Port of Nacala, also called the Nacala port complex, is a Mozambican port located in the cities of Nacala and Nacala-a-Velha. Is the deepest port in Southern Africa. The natural deep harbour serves landlocked Malawi with a railway. The inf ...

(east).Nacala Corridor
Japan International Cooperation Agency. 2015.

References

{{coord, 15, 04, S, 35, 14, E, display=title Populated places in Southern Region, Malawi