Malawi, or the Republic of Malawi ( Malaŵi in Chewa or Nyassaland until 1964), is a country located in southern Africa, between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania. It is a landlocked country bathed in Lake Malawi, or Lake Nyassa, the third largest lake in Africa which takes up around a fifth of the country's surface area and into which eight main rivers and hundreds of streams flow.

The Malawian kwacha has been the currency of Malawi since 1971, or seven years after the country's independence from Great Britain. The kwacha repaced the pound at a rate of 2 kwacha=1 pound. The kwacha is divided into 100 tambala. The word kwacha is devised from the Nyanja and Nemba words meaning "dawn". Tambala means rooster in Nyanja.