Link to a sample of popular Malawian music --and an opportunity to download at 99cents each. These are mixed samples in English and more indigenous language(s).

Malawi Music Sampler     |     More global music from Calabash Music

I received a board game from Kholiwe, and am learning how to play the national pastime of Malawi. The game falls into a family of games known as Mancala - of which I have other sets. Originally --maybe-- and still called Bao (Swahili for "board" or "plank"e;) in other countries, the Yao in Malawi are credited for changing its name to Bawo. This Malawian Bawo game is famous as the most complex of all mancala games, sometimes called the "king of mancala games." The oldest still surviving Bawo (Bao) board was made in 1896 in Malawi and is kept today in the British Museum in London.

Malawians, nor indeed those I have met from Senegal, are not restricted to playing solely on the carved boards ... they will use local small stones/rocks and dig little holes in the sand and squat to play almost anywhere.

Some sources say that in Malawi the game is named after the baobab tree that grows along the shore of Lake Malawi because the game board is carved from the wood of the trademark baobab tree. However, Kholiwe specifically calls the game BAWO. This is we find that there may be regional-cultural-dialectic differences among Milawians' naming as there are in these United States. Before inundated with national advertising, I, being from the deep south, noticed that "yankees" did not know what a skillet is. My Michigander co-workers would say, "Oh, you mean a frying pan! Malawi is comprised of many tribal variations. ...and we thought we had the corner on humanities "melting pot.&fquot;

Children's craft sites all over the web give instructions for using egg cartons to make portable BAWO boards. I'll provide these links and share more on BAWO when I have a little more time!
~maribeth

These games share the feature that they are played on boards consisting of rows of hollows or cups, into which seeds or similar objects are sown.

Learn more about the Mancala game-genre online at Mancala Games

A picture of Bawo being played in Malawi on this Games Page from the Abwenzi African Studies site. ??? [tbd]

CHICHEWA PHRASES.
  Chichewa pronunciation guide.
		\a\ as a in father 
		\e\ as e in bed 
		\i\ as i in hit 
		\o\ as o in go 
		\u\ as u in put 

 

Moni - Standard Greeting
Muli Bwanji - How are you     (also Nyanja language)
Ndili Bweno - I am well
Tikulandirani - Welcome
Chimbudzi chili kuti - Where is the toilet

Pepani - sorry 
Tionana - see you later! 

Amuna - Men, Mwamuna or Mamuna - Man 
Akasi - Women Azimayi - Woman 
Msungwana or Nsikana - girl
M'nyamata - boy 

Kodi Mupita Liti - When are you going 
Kodi Mukupita Kuti - where are you going 
Kodi Mukufuna Mupite Liti - When do you want to go 
Ndifuni Kupita Ku Lilongwe - I want to go to Lilongwe 
Ndlama Dzingati - How much does it cost 
Tsalani Bwino - Stay well