Good afternoon. Where do you draw the border between Mozambique and Malawi? That is a question of more than philosophical interest for the farmers and traders who regularly cross the border for life and work. Long before colonial officials drew a series of straight lines to mark the border between the two countries in the nineteenth century, the peoples around what is now called in English Lake Malawi shared common ethnic identities and languages. Those identities and languages were sliced down the middle when the frontier was drawn, but they continue to cross the border. Both the old colonial name for Malawi, Nyasaland, and the current name of Mozambique’s neighbouring Niassa province come from the word “Nyasa”, which means “lake people” in one of the Bantu languages spoken in the area.
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Even today, there are many Malawians and Mozambicans who have extensive family ties on both sides of the border. There are also strong economic incentives for crossing it. Malawi’s population density is several times higher than Mozambique’s, and there is a shortage of farmland. Niassa, by contrast, is sparsely populated. The result is that many Malawians farm land in Niassa, and some, it seems, have chosen to live there. Trade also takes people across the border: for example, petrol is much cheaper in Malawi than in Mozambique, despite fuel prices being regulated in the latter. Mozambicans, whose rural hospitals are generally in disrepair, also cross the border to use hospitals in Malawi. Malawian money is used in Niassa.
