Minibuses in Malawi

Common forms of transportation in Malawi are minibuses. The van that our group rented, driven by Luzu, was about the size of what I would call a cargo van, but our van had about four rows of usable seats. The last row was taken up by our luggage, so lets say the van could fit 10 to 12 passengers and luggage comfortably. If memory serves, minibuses are larger, perhaps a little the small buses (about one-half the size of school buses) often used in America for senior citizens and disabled persons transportation programs, Churches, Children’s programs and the like.

While we were reasonably comfortable in our van, even with our luggage and an extra two passengers, every minibus I saw was literally packed full of people with children riding on the laps of their caretakers, other passengers holding bags in their laps, etc. In addition to being crowded with passengers, minibus drivers always traveled at a high rate of speed. Luzu always let them go past him and was quite good at dodging minibuses when they pulled over to disgorge passengers.

I asked Luzu about the minibuses when I was riding shotgun on day. There seem to be fixed minibus routes both within cities such as Lilongwe and between towns and cities, e.g. Lilongwe to Zomba or Lilongwe to Selma. He went on to explain that the drivers rent the vehicle for the day from the owner for a fixed rate. The more trips that the driver can complete, the more money they can take home. I recall that the daily rental fee is not “cheap” giving the drivers even more motivation to make more trips. And they compete with other minibuses on the same route. So if a driver can get to the destination first, they can beat out their competition.

I received an email from Stephanie a few days after I returned to America. She reported on a trip she took to go scuba diving in Lake Malawi where she traveled part of the way by minibus. I can no longer find her email, having deleted it by accident. I do remember that her account of this portion of her trip was in line with the crowded minibuses that I observed. I recall that she enjoyed this crowded ride, in part because she was sitting next to an adult with a baby on their lap. She spent part of the ride allowing the baby to hold onto her finger.