MUSEUMS: PRESERVING NATIONAL HERITAGE

So rich, diverse and significant is the history of Malawi that government purposefully keeps artefacts of culture and traditions in its museums. Items in a museum tell the same story in a different visually appealing way to the benefit of all the senses. Visit the Chichiri museum in Blantyre to satisfy your curiosity for the history of the nation. The museum is across from the Independence arc along Masauko Chipembere highway. The highway connects Limbe and Blantyre towns for your convenience. Explore the city and it’s natural and man-made wonders! Some of the artefacts found at Chichiri museum include simple tools used probably during the stone to iron age, hand-made textiles, pre-modern age houses, an archaic bus for transport, an archaic tractor that paved the city’s roads.

If you’re a fan of art, here at the Chichiri museum you’ll find a souvenir shop. And if you’re very lucky you may even meet sculptors doing their artwork right in the museum yard. Don’t leave the museum without a look at the meteorite: A stone that fell down from space is stored in the museum. Not all of us will ever travel to space but we can’t miss a rare opportunity to see natural objects from space!

Apart from Chichiri museum in Blantyre, there are also a number of museums across the country. For example, at the Livingstonia mission, Khondowe in Rumphi district, there is a micro museum which was once visited by the late Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the first head of state of Zambia. This museum displays artefacts related to missionary work and the traditions and cultures the missionaries came into contact with. The most interesting thing about the history of Malawi is the fact that, in some places, artifacts are still in their natural places. For example, in Dedza, Central Malawi, the dwarf-early-Malawians popularly known as Akafula had left works of art at Chongoni hills. Unesco declared Chongoni as a protected area. When you’re in Lilongwe make effort to visit Chongoni. On your trip back from Chongoni, you can make a stop by the pottery shop for some souvenir or simply to appreciate how pottery is made.