Mandala House:
Site of the Library and Archive
 | | Mandala House, present day |
Since March 2005, the Library and Archive has been housed on the first floor of the historic building, Mandala House, Mandala, Blantyre.
Mandala House was built of grass, mud and bricks in 1882, and is the oldest building standing in Malawi.
The Mandala company was founded in 1878 by the two Moir brothers from Scotland, John & Frederick who were the first managers of the company. Mandala was the trading name of the African Lakes Company. The head office was in Glasgow, Scotland and the main African office was in Blantyre, Malawi.
 | Mandala House, Circa 1885
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Mandala stores were established all over the country. They traded in a variety of items including coffee, clothing, hardware and ammunition. Goods were distributed across the country on foot by porters known as Tenga Tenga, who were mostly Angoni tribesmen.
The Moir brothers used the top floor of the house as living quarters and the ground floor was used for offices. Additional buildings were used as stores but also served as defences against the raiding Yao and Angoni tribes. During these raids, local villagers took shelter inside the walls of Mandala House. The house was also well-known for its hospitality to all passing travellers.
 | | Moir Brothers (Founders of African Lakes Corporation) |
The African Lakes Corporation developed many interests, but these were all sold off over recent years. The motor business was eventually sold to the French company CFAO in 1992 and they are the present owners of Mandala House. They generously offered the top floor of the building to the Society of Malawi to house the Library and Archive because they deemed it fitting to house an historic collection of books, journals and original documents in one of the major monuments of Malawi.
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