MSCE History key terms

An object, document, recording or account created at the time an event happened or by someone directly involved in it. Examples include letters, photographs, treaties, oral testimony and artefacts. Historians use them as the closest evidence to the past itself.

A work produced after the event by someone who did not witness it, such as a textbook, journal article or later history. Secondary sources interpret and summarise primary evidence, and their reliability depends on the author's research and sources.

Knowledge about the past passed by word of mouth from generation to generation, including songs, genealogies, praise poems and stories. It is vital for African history but must be checked against other evidence because it changes over time.

The study of past human life through material remains such as pottery, tools, buildings and burial sites. Excavation and dating of finds give evidence about societies that left no written records, including early farming and iron-working communities.

A slant or distortion in a source caused by the author's interests, beliefs or position. Historians identify bias by asking who made a source, for whom, and why, then compare it with other evidence.

Long-distance exchange across the Sahara linking North Africa with West Africa. Camel caravans carried salt, horses and manufactured goods south, and gold, slaves and ivory north. The trade supported the growth of empires such as Ghana and Mali.

An early West African state centred on the Sahel, flourishing roughly between the 8th and 11th centuries. It grew wealthy from controlling trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, and its capital was Kumbi Saleh.

A West African empire that rose after Ghana, reaching its height in the 13th and 14th centuries under rulers such as Sundiata Keita and Mansa Musa. It controlled gold and salt trade routes and promoted Islam and learning at Timbuktu.

Trading towns along the East African coast, such as Kilwa, Mombasa and Zanzibar, which grew rich from Indian Ocean commerce. They blended African and Arab cultures, used Islam and the Swahili language, and traded gold, ivory and slaves.

The slow spread of Bantu-speaking peoples from west-central Africa across much of eastern, central and southern Africa over thousands of years. They brought farming, iron-working and new languages, shaping societies including those in Malawi.

A society without a centralised king or bureaucracy, where order is maintained through kinship, clan elders, councils and shared customs. Many pre-colonial African communities were organised in this way, and they were not necessarily simple or disorganised.

A pre-colonial confederacy of Chewa-speaking peoples in the area of present-day Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. It was linked by the Phiri clan and headed by the Kalonga, and it prospered from ivory and iron trade.

The title of the paramount ruler of the Maravi confederacy, based in the area near Lake Malawi. The Kalonga claimed ritual and political authority over subordinate chiefs such as Lundu and Undi, and controlled long-distance trade.

The clan group from which Maravi rulers such as the Kalonga claimed descent. Phiri traditions of origin and marriage alliances helped bind together the Maravi confederacy and legitimise chiefly authority.

A people of the region around the southern end of Lake Malawi and northern Mozambique, known as long-distance traders and early converts to Islam. Yao caravans traded ivory and slaves for cloth and firearms, linking Malawi to the Swahili coast.

A militarised people who migrated north from South Africa in the early 19th century and settled in parts of Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. Their raiding and tribute systems reshaped politics and society in the region.

Long-distance commerce in elephant tusks and enslaved people that connected the Malawi region to the Indian Ocean coast in the 18th and 19th centuries. It enriched chiefs and traders but caused violence, displacement and population loss.

A meeting of European powers in 1884–85 that set rules for the partition of Africa. It agreed on free trade and effective occupation, and it accelerated the scramble for colonies, including the British claim to Nyasaland.

The British-ruled territory covering present-day Malawi, proclaimed in 1891 as the British Central Africa Protectorate and renamed Nyasaland in 1907. It was governed by a governor and a small European settler community.

A colonial tax imposed on each dwelling or household, payable in cash. It forced Africans into wage labour or cash-crop production to earn money, and it was a major cause of resentment and resistance.

A system in colonial Nyasaland in which African tenants on European estates paid rent through labour, often in addition to a cash rent. It tied workers to estates and was widely resented as a form of forced labour.

A British explorer and colonial administrator who established British control in the Nyasaland area in the late 1880s and 1890s, making treaties with local chiefs. He became the first commissioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate.

An armed revolt in January 1915 led by the Reverend John Chilembwe against British colonial rule in Nyasaland. It was sparked by harsh treatment of African workers and grievances over land, and it was quickly crushed.

A Nyasaland pastor educated in the United States who founded the Providence Industrial Mission. He organised the 1915 uprising against colonial exploitation and became a symbol of African resistance and nationalism in Malawi.

Early African political and welfare organisations in colonial Nyasaland, formed by educated elites from the 1910s onwards. They petitioned the government on land, labour and education, and prepared the ground for later nationalist parties.

A nationalist movement founded in 1944 that campaigned against colonial rule and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It was banned in 1959 and later reorganised as the Malawi Congress Party.

A union of Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia created by Britain in 1953. It was dominated by white settlers in Southern Rhodesia and was strongly opposed by African nationalists, leading to its dissolution in 1963.

The nationalist party formed in 1959 after the banning of the Nyasaland African Congress. Led by Hastings Kamuzu Banda, it won elections in 1961 and led Malawi to independence in 1964.

A Malawian nationalist leader who returned from abroad in 1958 to lead the independence struggle. He became prime minister in 1964 and later president, ruling as a dictator until 1994.

Talks in London in 1960–61 where British and Nyasaland leaders agreed on a new constitution and the path to self-government. The MCP won the resulting elections, and Nyasaland moved towards independence in 1964.

A conflict soon after independence when several ministers challenged Banda's authoritarian style and policies. Banda dismissed or forced out the critics, and the episode marked the shift towards one-party rule.

A political system in which only one party is legally allowed to hold power. Malawi became a one-party state under the MCP in 1966, with Banda as life president, until the 1993 referendum.

A national vote in which Malawians chose to end one-party rule and adopt multiparty democracy. It led to the 1994 elections in which Bakili Muluzi defeated Banda.

A Malawian politician who led the United Democratic Front and became president after the 1994 elections, ending decades of MCP rule. His government faced corruption allegations and economic problems.

An economic reform package required by the World Bank and IMF in return for loans, involving privatisation, spending cuts and trade liberalisation. Malawi adopted such programmes in the 1980s and 1990s with mixed social results.

The rapid European conquest and partition of Africa in the late 19th century. Rival powers claimed territory through treaties, military force and the Berlin Conference, and nearly the whole continent was colonised by 1914.

Geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945, fought through alliances, aid and proxy wars. It shaped decolonisation, as new African states were courted by both sides and sometimes forced to choose.

A group of states founded in 1961 that refused to align firmly with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the Cold War. African members used it to assert independence and demand a fairer world order.

An organisation founded in 1963 by independent African states to promote unity, support liberation movements and defend sovereignty. It was replaced by the African Union in 2002.