Amazing Quest: Stories from Malawi
A bush pilot, the Nyika plateau and lakeside musicians: the most complete portrait of the country available to watch free.
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Malawi, in moving pictures.
Documentaries, lessons and farm footage about the country, the old kingdom and the coffee. All films are hosted on YouTube and remain the property of their makers.
i
The country
Malawi from the air and the water.
Two full-length documentaries and one short official film. The first is the best single introduction to the country: a French-produced portrait of lake and highland life, licensed for YouTube by Free Documentary.
Lake Malawi National Park
The official World Heritage film on the lake and its extraordinary cichlid fish, which evolved faster than almost anywhere on earth.
Wilderness Roads: Malawi
Roads, water and the Phirilongwe hills — remote Malawi and the engineering that connects it.
ii
The kingdom
The Maravi Kingdom on film.
There is no glossy documentary about the Maravi Kingdom, so these three are honest about what they are: a Malawian school lesson, an academic seminar by the archaeologist who excavated the capital, and a short summary from a small history channel.
Maravi Kingdom: History Form 2, Topic 2
A Malawian curriculum lesson covering the migration from Luba–Lunda country, the Phiri and Banda clans, Kapirintiwa, the Msinja shrine and Mankhamba.
Emperor Muzura of the Maravi Empire and trade at Mankhamba
Yusuf Juwayeyi, who excavated Mankhamba, on ivory, iron and the intensification of international trade.
How the Maravi Empire Rose and Collapsed
A short summary of Muzura, the breakaway Undi and Lundu branches, the Yao raids and the Kulamba legacy.
iii
The coffee
Coffee, from the farm to the cup.
No broadcaster has made the definitive Malawian coffee documentary. What exists is better in one way: footage shot by the people doing the work — a co-operative farm walk, an estate’s own fermentation experiments, and a Malawian roastery putting coffee and jazz in the same room.
Mzuzu Coffee Farm, Malawi
Geisha, SL and Bourbon varieties at 1,000–1,100 metres, pulping, a 24-hour soak and two weeks on drying beds.
Visiting one of Malawi’s largest tea and coffee estates
A Malawian creator visits Satemwa in Thyolo: the factory, the tasting and Huntington House.
Coffee fermentation at Satemwa
The estate’s own channel on anaerobic fermentation, honey processing and pH measurement.
Afro-centric coffee, jazz and poetry in Malawi
Wala Coffee: what a Malawian roastery and café looks like to a new generation of customers.
If a film is unavailable in your country, or the maker changes their settings, the link will stop working. We will keep this page checked. Rights in every film remain with its creator.
iv
Go further
Pages, people and places.
Two useful places to continue: the Mzuzu Coffee Planters Co-operative Union, which represents the smallholders, and Satemwa, the Thyolo estate that has been experimenting with processing for years. For the history itself, the university seminar above is the most serious thing on this page.
Further reading
- Mzuzu Coffee Planters Co-operative Union
- Satemwa Tea & Coffee Estates
- Malawian Trekkers their film on the Msinja shrine has embedding disabled, so it is linked rather than shown
- UNESCO — Lake Malawi National Park
The brand
Why a dhow, and why Malawi.
The family story behind the name, from porters and river boats to a café in Marbella.