Chakwera impressed with Livingston museum: Calls for investments to attract tourists

Having been impressed with David Livingstone Museum, President Lazarus Chakwera says it is high time Malawi started utilizing opportunities that museum — as a tourist attraction sector — can play to improve the economic development of the country.

The President visited the impressive museum on Wednesday in the city of Blantyre in Scotland that preserves and dedicates the life and work of the Scottish explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone.

President Dr Lazarus Chakwera visits Dr David Livingstone Birth Place Centre in Blantyre Scotland -pic by Lisa Kadango

Blantyre City was also named in memory of David Livingstone, who was born in the Scottish city before his voyage to Africa that led him to stumble upon the beautiful Lake Malawi.

He named it Lake Nyasa after the locals he met and asked its name but they just responded that it was ‘nyasa’ — meaning “thats a lake” (in Yao language) when he was reportedly to have pointed at it inquisitively.

The impressive Museum contains a deserve range of material exploring the life, work and legacy of David Livingstone and Chakwera said he was impressed with how the museum is being managed to generate income as it preserves Livingstone’s legacy.

“This is very impressive and as a country we really need to emulate this and start preserving history of noted people who made great contribution to the development of Malawi,” he said as he was toured around various displays.

The museum chronicles various artefacts that were brought back to Britain together with the Scottish explorer’s body for burial, which is preserved in Westminster Abbey.

Chakwera said museums — apart from preserving the local culture — are also a great pillar to tourism which in turn leads to economic development of a country.

His administration has plans to preserve the legacy of one, Yatuta Chisiza, a former Internal Affairs Minister during founding president, Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda’s early leadership in the 1960s.

In July last year, Minister of Tourism Michael Usi visited the proposed site for the museum in Zomba, where he is quoted to have said: “This will be a huge attraction for Malawi and tourists, you will be amazed.”

Meanwhile, Scotland-Malawi Partnership’s chief executive officer, David Hope-Jones said he was honoured that President Chakwera took time to visit the historical institution.

He said this was very symbolic and strengthens the good relationship between Malawi and Scotland.

Two weeks ago, the Scotland-Malawi Partnership and its sister network in Malawi, Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP), announced the publication of a 400+ page, peer reviewed literature on governance in Malawi.

The publication, ‘Beyond Impunity: New Directions for Governance in Malawi’, is a new major collaboration as a part of their ‘Years of Governance Strengthening’ campaign.

It will be accompanied by an eight-part webinars series exploring governance strengthening.

It was edited by Kenneth R. Ross, Asiyati Lorraine Chiweza and Wapulumuka O. Mulwafu and will be commercially available in Malawi later this year, supported by the SMP.

A statement from SMP says the publication was written by 25 leading academics in Malawi and “is arguably the most comprehensive, insightful and up to date publication on this topic to date”.

The statement further says between October 2021 and May 2022, the SMP and MaSP are co-hosting eight high-profile digital webinars exploring governance strengthening in Malawi — to be chaired by Associate Prof. Asiyati Lorraine Chiweza.

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