Blantyre is a city in the southern part of Malawi. It is the commercial capital and largest city in Malawi, with a population of 658,037 in 2006. As opposed to the capital city, Lilongwe, Blantyre is very noisy and not too
safe, although security has been tightened as of late. Being the economic powerhouse of the
country, Blantyre has more
job opportunities than in Lilongwe and most businesses are headquartered in Blantyre. Some of the notable companies are Carlsberg, Limbe
Leaf, Unilever, Illovo, Colgate-Palmolive and many more.
The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), the
country's state broadcaster and the provider of Malawi's only
local television channel, has it's headquarters in Blantyre. The most watched
sport in the country and in Blantyre is football (
soccer), and the country's largest stadium, the Kamuzu Stadium (50,000 capacity) is in Blantyre.
Blantyre is home to the two most famous and successful football teams in Malawi, Big Bullets and MTL Wanderers. Big Bullets have won the title a record 11 times, while their arch rival MTL Wanderers have won it 5 times.
Blantyre, after the 'street clean-up' was done, was once again a clean city. The clean-up was a
government led program to get rid of all street vendors and street crawlers for a safer and cleaner environment. Now the city streets are not so crowded with vendors on the side of the road, and major road developments have taken place to solidify Blantyre as the economic powerhouse. As a result of the many
re-developments, many
outside companies are settling in Blantyre seeing major potential in the city.
For the tourists, Blantyre is the center of tourism. The city has it's own attractions, such as the museum and the 4 mini mountains surrounding the city. But the main reason for being the center of tourism is it's closeness to the country's leading tourists spots, such as the Mulanje mountain which is a
45 minute drive from Blantyre, then theres the Zomba plateau which is also a
45 minute drive from Blantyre, and finally the Lake, which is a further 2-3 hours drive.
Ey yo man i wana go to Zomba next week.
-ok then, where u gonna chill till then
i dunno man, i want a place where i can have
fun on weekends and
just smell the
sweet smell of motor fumes.
-haha Blantyre's for you man, big city life.
