The Southern Region of

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

is an area of Malawi. It covers an area of 31,753 km². Its capital city is

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

. In 2018, its population was 7,750,629.

Geography

Domestically, the Southern Region borders the Central Region and

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is ...

to the north. Internationally, it borders the country of

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

to the east, west, and south. Of the 28

districts 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 ...

in Malawi, 13 are located within the Southern Region: Balaka,

Chikwawa Chikwawa is a town with a population of 6,114 according to the 2018 census located in the Southern Region of Malawi on the west bank of the Shire River. It is the administrative capital of the Chikwawa District. Chikwawa lies almost south of B ...

, Chiradzulu, Machinga,

Mangochi Mangochi is a township in the Southern Region, Malawi, Southern Region of Malawi. Located near the southern end of Lake Malawi, in History of Malawi, colonial times it used to be called Fort Johnston. As of 2018, it has a population of 53,498. ...

Mulanje Mulanje, formerly called Mlanje, is a town in the Southern Region, Malawi, Southern Region of Malawi, close to the border with Mozambique, to the east. It is near the Mulanje Massif. History A mission was established here and it was at first on ...

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 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...

, Neno,

Nsanje Nsanje (formerly Port Herald) is the main city in Nsanje District within the Southern Region of Malawi. The intense urbanization in the fertile Shire River valley has formed an extensive urbanized zone that runs from the city of Bangula, furth ...

, Phalombe, Thyolo, and Zomba. The region is home to several parks:

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 ...

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

, and

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 ...

(the last of these on 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 also home to the

Zomba Plateau The Zomba Plateau, also called the Zomba Massif, is a mountain of the Shire Highlands in southern Malawi. Its total area is about , with a highest point of . The plateau is roughly pear-shaped. The southern portion is known as Zomba Mountain, ...

as well as

Mount Mulanje The Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje, is a large inselberg in southern Malawi. Sapitwa Peak, the highest point on the massif at 3,002 m, is the highest point in Malawi. It lies 65 km east of Blantyre, rising sharply from the s ...

(the highest point in the country). During July, the region sometimes experiences a damp fog, locally known as ''chiperoni.''

Demographics

The Southern Region is home to about half of all Malawians. Of these, about 90% of them live in rural areas. As of 2003, the Southern Region has a slightly higher rate of poverty (68.1%) than the Central Region (62.8%) and the Northern Region (62.5%). This is due to migration into the region, as well as the region's relatively small cropland are per capita.

Ethnic groups

At the time of the

2018 Census of Malawi Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number) * One of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short story ''God's Dice'' * ''Eighteen'' (film), a 2 ...

, the distribution of the population of the Southern Region by

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

was as follows: * 39.3% Lomwe * 24.9% Yao * 8.3% Ngoni * 8.2% Sena * 6.8%

Mang'anja The Mang'anja are a Bantu people of Southern Malawi, particularly around Chikwawa in the Shire River valley of southern Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by ...

* 6.6%

Chewa Chewa may refer to: *the Chewa people *the Chewa language Chewa ( ; also known as Nyanja ) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for lang ...

* 3.8%

Nyanja Chewa ( ; also known as Nyanja ) is a Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for languages, so the language is often called or Chinyanja. In Malawi, the name wa ...

* 0.9% Tumbuka * 0.4%

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

* 0.1% Nkhonde * 0.0% Lambya * 0.0% Sukwa * 0.7% Others

Society

Economy

Cattle are quite important to the Southern Region as well as to Malawi as a whole. As of 1969, they made up about one third of the country's national slaughter, and the region had a population of about 78,998 cows.

Healthcare and disease

Kwashiorkor Kwashiorkor ( , is also ) is a form of severe protein malnutrition characterized by edema and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates. It is thought to be caused by sufficient calorie intake, but with insufficient protein consumption (or lac ...

exists in the Southern Region at a prevalence of about 1.8% as of 1995. It is most common among babies aged between 1 and 1.5 years old, and often co-occurs with

dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...

Lymphatic filariasis Lymphatic filariasis is a human disease caused by parasitic worms known as filarial worms. Usually acquired in childhood, it is a leading cause of permanent disability worldwide, impacting over a hundred million people and manifesting itself in ...

and antigenaemia are also quite common, especially in the east. Violence against nurses is quite common in the region, with about 70% of nurses reporting

workplace violence Workplace violence, violence in the workplace, or occupational violence refers to violence, usually in the form of physical abuse or threat, that creates a risk to the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. The National Institut ...

as of 2016. Most abuse occurs in the form of

verbal abuse Verbal abuse (also known as verbal aggression, verbal attack, verbal violence, verbal assault, psychic aggression, or psychic violence) is a type of Psychological abuse, psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of Oral language, oral or w ...

and threatening behavior, with

physical assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result i ...

and

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

being less common. Patients make up the largest segment of perpetrators.

References

External links

Visit Malawi page
{{Authority control Regions of Malawi