Livingstonia, Malawi

Livingstonia or Kondowe is a town located in the Northern Region district of Rumphi in Malawi. It is 270 miles north of the capital, Lilongwe. The town of Mzuzu can be reached on tarred road in about 2-3 hours.

Livingstonia was founded in 1894 by missionaries from the Free Church of Scotland. The missionaries had first established a mission in 1875 at Cape Maclear, which they named Livingstonia after David Livingstone, whose death in 1873 had rekindled British support for missions in Eastern Africa. This location proved extremely malarial and the mission moved north to Bandawe. This site also proved unhealthy and the Livingstonia Mission moved once again to the higher grounds between Lake Malawi and Nyika Plateau. This new site proved highly successful because Livingstonia is located in the mountains and therefore not prone to mosquitoes carrying malaria. The mission station gradually developed into a small town.

The leading missionary for 52 years was Dr Robert Laws. He established in Livingstonia the best school in his time for the whole region, and Livingstonia graduates became influential in several neighbouring countries, right down to South Africa. Dr Laws wanted Livingstonia to develop into a University, but his successors did not pursue the dream. In 2003 the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian (CCAP) renewed the vision and started Livingstonia University.

The houses in Livingstonia are characteristic in that they are mostly constructed with red bricks.

Demographics

Transportation

Paul Theroux described traveling on the public bus to Lilongwe in To The Ends Of The Earth and Dark Star Safari.

Hospital

David Gordon Memorial Hospital had its foundation stone laid in 1910 and was opened in 1911. It currently serves a catchment area with a population of approximately 60,000. ^[2]

References

Further reading

• Lonely Planet, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia (1st Ed.). 1997. Lonely Planet Publications, Hawthorne, Australia.
• For the history of Livingstonia Mission and Synod see: John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1975-1940. The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province, 2nd ed., Blantyre: CLAIM, 2000, 376 pp.