Discover Malawi's Heritage

A dinosaur skeleton, a fortified tree, some tattooed rocks, rusting Glasgow-built ships, century old churches and mosques, fabulous mountains and lakes, eagles and otters, iron-age forts, slave forts or colonial forts. Discover all these and more with Discover Malawi – Heritage. This App will improve the exposure of Malawi as a safe and friendly tourist destination, and greatly expand your preconceptions of African history and tourism experience.

Malawi has a long and rich history which stretches far beyond the Livingstone story and the colonial period. Malawi truly is an undiscovered gem, where you can walk in the footsteps of historical figures like Dr Livingstone and John Chilembwe the independence leader. Physical signage is patchy, so for the adventurous traveller Discover Malawi – Heritage will be an invaluable pocket tool with the reassurance of GPS to check locations.

This App will support the development of cultural heritage tourism in Malawi by providing an interactive map, summaries and images of key sites. The list of sites has been provided by the Government of Malawi’s Department of Antiquities and will be refreshed with the help of users of the App.

Discover Malawi – Heritage effectively signposts and interprets significant sites and will enrich the visitor experience for cultural tourists. The App provides interpretation, navigation GPS, itinerary planning and builds a community of contributing “gazetteers” through submission of photo updates.

Users can build their own itinerary or follow one of the suggested routes such as the Livingstone Trail or the Slave Trail. The Glasgow-based African Lakes Company was the world’s first commercial company established in 1888 for a social purpose, namely to eradicate slavery by displacing it with legitimate trade, and this App will signpost users to some of the most significant sites. The missionary and colonial history is fairly well known, so we hope this App will extend the range of visitors to include those interested in industrial heritage, the history of slavery and the struggle to end the trade, and introduce some to the prehistoric sites which are less well known.

The conservation of many of these sites will be enhanced through the activity of users of this App. Images of sites will be updated periodically using images posted by visitors, and in some few cases there are no images held on record so yours could be the first on the sister web-site.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and encouragement of the Department of Antiquities, the Society of Malawi, the Scottish Government and the many individuals who have visited and the many local communities who care for the sites which are part of their cultural and physical landscape.