Christianity is the largest religion and a dominant religion inMalawi.[1] According to the 2018 census, 77.3% of the population isChristian. Denominations includeRoman Catholics at 36% of the total population, Central AfricaPresbyterians at 14.2%,Seventh-day Adventist at 9.4%,Anglicans at 2.3%,Pentecostals at 7.6% and other denominations at 26.6%.[2][3]
Among the Protestant churches, theChurch of Central Africa, Presbyterian is one of the largest Christian groups.[4]
David Livingstone reached the lake he named Lake Nyasa, nowLake Malawi in 1859. Livingstone's famous appeal, made at a great meeting in the Senate House at Cambridge on December 4, 1857 led to the founding of theUniversities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), and the first missionary expedition of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa arrived in Malawi in 1861. Missionaries included BishopEdward Steere,William Tozer,Charles Alan Smythies,Chauncy Maples who drowned on Lake Nyasa, andW. Percival Johnson, a graduate of University College, Oxford, who was to remain in Malawi for 40 years and to translate the Bible intoChichewa language. TheDutch Reformed Church (DRC) established a base at Nkhoma then expanded to other parts of central Malawi, includingMlanda andMchinji, and into Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The history ofRoman Catholicism in Malawi begins with the entry of FrenchWhite Fathers in 1899.[5]
Malawi's first president, the PresbyterianHastings Kamuzu Banda, favored Christianity during his long rule. Under Banda many breakaway independent churches flourished, includingElliot Kenan Kamwana's breakawayJehovah's Witnesses movement.