Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001

From: Abigail Stamm

Subject: Malawian Place Names

18 November 2001

The origins of Malawian place names:

1. Balaka: Balaka was a Swahili Arab trader who was prominent in what is now the Balaka area. He lived at what is now the Salima Turnoff just north of Balaka. Because of the "l-r" inversion in Chichewa, his name may have been "Baraka", which in Kiswahili means "prosperity." Balaka's former name was Ngwangwa, which means "crow" because there are so many crows there.

2. Zomba: People would go to Zomba, they said "kugula nsomba" (Chichewa, to buy fish). When they spoke very quickly, they said what sounds like "kusomba." Over time, the area came to be known as "somba" or "zomba." I am told that "somba" is Chiyao for "fish."

3. Mangochi: When the white people came to the Mangochi area, they asked the Yao who were there about mangoes. The Yao answered, "Mango ndi chi?" (Chiyao, what is a mango?) Said very quickly, the phrase sounds like "mango chi." Perhaps the white people thought the response was the area's name. Until about independence, 1963-4, the whites called the area Fort Johnston.

4. Monkey Bay: The area is located on a peninsula on the southern end of Lake Malawi. It is full of monkeys. According to my headmistress who used to live there, the monkeys are very troublesome. They break into houses and stores to steal food. At times, the health centre becomes too crowded and patients must sleep outside. Those who require drips are laid beneath trees with the drips hanging from the branches. At night, the monkeys come and steal them too.

5. Machinga: During the battles between the Ngoni and the Yao, the two sides built a barrier between their territories along what is now the Liwonde-Ntaja road to prevent invasion. The barriers were called "machinga," from the verb "kuchinga," meaning "to make a barrier." To this day, Jonathan, a health volunteer in Ntaja, tells me that the two sides of the road are controlled by two different Traditional Authorities, who do not get along at all.

6. Domasi: The Ngoni traveled north of Zomba. As they went, they had difficulty finding good water. At last they came to a river where one of the Ngoni declared, "Ndi womadzi!" (Chingoni?, it is real water.) The term became the place name, but was shortened to the easier to pronounce "domasi."

7. Malawi: In Chichewa, "malawi" means "flames." It refers to the way the sun glows through the haze like a great fire over Lake Malawi at dawn. It may also be related to the name "maravi," a former tribe of Malawi that no longer exists.

8. Katsekaminga: The literal translation from Chichewa is, "the little one has crossed the thorns." Perhaps there were thorns in the area.

I will save Ulongwe for another day, as I have heard three different and contradictory stories about its origin.