Origins · 1902 to today
History of Lilongwe
Lilongwe began as a riverside administrative post, grew into a farming market town, and was rebuilt as Malawi's purpose-designed national capital.
Beginnings
A boma on the river
Lilongwe was established as a British colonial boma — an administrative station — in the early 1900s, on a site by the Lilongwe River associated with the local leader Njewa. Its position at the junction of major routes across the fertile Central Region plateau made it a natural market for tobacco and produce, and it was recognised as a town in 1947.
The turning point
Becoming the capital, 1975
After independence in 1964, the government of Hastings Kamuzu Banda decided to shift the capital from Zomba in the south to Lilongwe in the centre. The aims were to concentrate central administration in one place and to drive development into the Central and Northern Regions. Planning drew on the numbered-Area zoning scheme still in use today, and Lilongwe formally became the capital in 1975. Government functions moved in stages, with the last offices relocating in 2005.
Since then
Rapid, continuous growth
From roughly 100,000 people in the late 1970s, Lilongwe has grown nearly tenfold. Development projects added the international airport, rail links, the Kanengo industrial zone and expanded residential Areas. The city continues to grow at about four percent a year — one of the fastest rates on the continent — which drives both its opportunities and its housing and infrastructure pressures.
In this section
Explore the history
Detailed pages on how Lilongwe came to be the city it is.