Mzuzu is the capital 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 ...

'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 Mzuzu University is a public university in Malawi. The university is located in Luwinga, Mzuzu, Luwinga, Mzuzu, Mzuzu City, in the northern region of Malawi. It was founded in 1997 after being transformed from a teachers training college establi ...

students) with about 1.7 million people in its metropolitan area. It is situated in the

Mzimba District Mzimba is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mzimba and the biggest town is Mzuzu, which is also the administrative headquarters of the Northern Region. The district covers an area of 10,473 km2 and has a populatio ...

. Mzuzu lies in a gap in the Viphya Mountains, and the agricultural region surrounding the city specializes in tea, rubber and coffee cultivation. The Viphya Plantation south of the city is the largest man-made forest in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, and the Lunyangwa and Kaning'ina forest preserves are east of the city. Some of the popularly known locations in the city include Chibavi, Luwinga, Area 1B, Chibanja, Katoto, Zolozolo, Masasa, Mchenga-utuba, Chimaliro, Kaning'ina and Katawa.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

According to the 2018 census, the

Tumbuka people The Tumbuka (also known as Yombe, Kamanga, Senga, Tonga and Henga) are a group of Bantu peoples, Bantu peoples found in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.Chewa, making up 13.51% of the population. Other minor ethnic groups include the Ngoni (8.09% of the population),

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 ...

(7.36%), Nkhonde (4.08%), Lambya (3.75%), Yao (3.59%), Lomwe (3.54%), Sukwa (1.07%), Sena (0.66%),

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 ...

(0.38%), and Nyanja (0.28%). Additional ethnic groups constitute 2% of the population.

Religion

The largest religious denomination in Mzuzu is Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (28.01%). The largest minority religion is

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(17.28%). Other minor religions include

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, and Apostolic (16.27% combined),

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

(6.62%),

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

(1.58%), other

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

denominations (22.21%),

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

(4.06%),

Traditional A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

(0.1%), other religions (3.59%), and no religion (0.28%) of the city.

History

Etymology

The name comes from a mispronunciation of the word 'Vizuzu' by the white settlers. Vizuzu are plants that grow along the Lunyangwa River. These plants were spotted near the present Mzuzu Government Secondary School, also known as Area 1A where the tung planters settled. The city was developed around the Commonwealth Development Corporation's Tung Oil Estate in 1947 and received city status in 1985.

Culture

The culture of the city is an amalgam of other cultures of the northern region. Tumbuka is widely spoken in Mzuzu but other languages such as Chewa,

, Swahili,

Ngonde The Nyakyusa (also called the Sokile, Ngone or Nkone) are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnolinguistic group who live in the mountains of southern Mbeya Region of Tanzania and the Northern Region of Malawi. They speak the Nyakyusa language, a member of t ...

are also spoken. Mzuzu is also home to a museum, opened in 1986, showcasing artifacts from various cultures in the northern region. Popular foods include (either made from

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, locally called , or made from

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

, locally called ),

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, locally called , and fish (a bottle-nosed mormyrid, '' Mormyrus longirostris''). Batala comes from the nearby

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 ...

waters in Nkhata Bay. Other common foods include:

bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...

, plantains, cocoa,

and

sweet potatoes The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of the ...

Health

Mzuzu City is home to the Mzuzu Central Hospital, one of four hospitals in the country. The city is also serviced by the Mapale Health Center located at the city centre next to the city's main shopping mall, Shoprite. There are also several CHAM hospitals such as St. Johns, St. John of God Mental Hospital, and Nkhorongo SDA Clinic. The city also has private clinics such as Katoto MASM MEDI Clinic and Mumbwe, Kandindindi Evergreen. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical manufacturing company Kentam Products Limited is based in Mzuzu.

Climate

Economy and infrastructure

The commercial hub of the region has coffee, timber, fruit, milk and honey production. Manufacturing includes medication, cosmetics and timber. Through

, the city has a skilled labor force. Mzuzu has arable land but is still developing its electricity industry towards a sufficient and reliable state. A 2022 case study on Mzuzu funded by the European Union outlined areas of strength and possibilities for economic growth. Small businesses provide telecommunication services, internet cafes, and multipurpose stores. National chains include Chipiku, Peoples Trading, and A.C Opticals. The city is the home base of national companie
Mzuzu Coffee
Kentam Products Limited, Mzupaso Paints Limited and Northern Life magazine. Mzuzu has two major markets, including

Taifa The taifas (from ''ṭā'ifa'', plural ''ṭawā'if'', meaning "party, band, faction") were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), referred to by Muslims as al-Andalus, that em ...

Market, which sells fruits, clothes, cellphones, shoes and other products.

Education

The city is home to

, founded in 1999. The university has five faculties namely: Tourism and Hospitality Management, Education, Health Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Information and Library Science. Mzuzu Technical College, which was founded in 1958 by the White Fathers, is located in Mzuzu. It is home to leading high schools in the north, including Marymount Secondary School, Wukani private Secondary School, Mzuzu Government Secondary School, Katoto Secondary School, Zolozolo Community Day Secondary School Viphya Schools and Mzuzu Academy. The city also has several primary schools, including Wukani, Trust Academy, Wongani private primary school (run by MIC Catholic Sisters), Beehive and Hilltop schools.

Environment

Mzuzu is situated in wooded, hilly terrain.

Miombo woodland Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) charac ...

predominates around the city. North and south of the city, the Viphya Mountains are home to montane grasslands and forests. The Viphya Plantation in the mountains south of the city is claimed to be the largest man-made forest in Africa. The weather in Mzuzu is chilly in the cold season.

Agriculture

The center agricultural region and the area surrounding the city specializes in tea, rubber, and coffee cultivation.

Tourism

and Nyika National Park, Malawi's largest park, are tourist destinations. Entertainment venues include the Mzuzu hotel and O Seasons, formerly known as Key Lounge. Other entertainment venues include Mzuzu Golf Club, Villa Kagwentha (which hosts discos on Saturday nights) and the Squirrels Park. There are also recreation centers such as Lake View Lodge and the Mzuzu Sanctuary. Mzuzu Botanic Gardens is located Zolozolo. Mountain hiking can take place at the nearby Kaning'ina mountains. Gulliver Dam, which supplies water to Mzuzu City and the surrounding areas, offers hiking as well. The 1st Poulner Scout Group (UK) maintains a Scout Campsite just outside of Mzuzu called the Kavuzi Campsite.

Transport

Mzuzu City is served by the Mzuzu Airport. In June 2015, Malawi Ministry of Public Works and Transport announced plans to develop a new airport, but a 2022 update suggested that building has not yet begun. Mzuzu is on Malawi's M1 highway, which runs the length of the country from north to south. It is the northern terminus of the M5 highway, which runs eastwards through a gap in the Viphya Mountains towards Nkhata Bay, and then south along the shore of Lake Malawi.

Sports

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

is a popular sport in Mzuzu. Two teams, Moyale Barracks FC and Mzuni represent the city in the Malawi's top-flight league. Mzuzu Stadium (maximum 15,000 capacity) is the city's sole stadium, built around 1970 by prison labor. The city has two major basketball teams, Nkhulande and the Pistons.

Notable residents

* Shepherd Bushiri, founder of the Enlightened Christian Gathering, is from Mzuzu. Bushiri is also the founder of PSB Network and the Prophetic Channel. * Tusayiwe Mkhondya is from Mzuzu. She operates a school and an operation called "You are not alone" in nearby Dunduzu.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mzuzu Populated places in Northern Region, Malawi Categories by city in Malawi Cities in Malawi