The state, conservation and sustainability in a peasant economy in Malawi, 1860--1964

• Main Author: Mulwafu, Wapulumuka Oliver
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2000
• Subjects: African history; Environmental science; Political science
• ISBN: 9780599576438; 059957643X

This dissertation explores the impact of state intervention into the peasant economy in the Shire Highlands districts of Zomba, Chiradzulu and Thyolo in Malawi. By focusing on the problem of soil erosion and on the efforts to control it, the study demonstrates that different social and power relations competed and negotiated for control of scarce resources in the region. In the immediate pre-colonial period, Africans used various local conservation practices in order to sustain their production systems and to cope with the changing environmental conditions. The arrival of different African immigrant groups and European settlers in the last half of the 19th century significantly transformed these productions systems and the use of natural resources. Environmental degradation did not take place on peasant production only but it also occurred on the mainly European-owned private estates. However, through the uneven intervention and enforcement of its conservation campaigns, the colonial state racialized the environmental problem and pursued a policy of benign neglect of the degradation taking place on private estates. The imposition of betterment schemes on African Trust Land precipitated peasant resistance throughout the country. Conservation measures were in themselves too difficult to undertake; they demanded much of the peasants' time and labor, and they also constituted an interference with their autonomy. Furthermore, the implementation of conservation measures had a profound impact on gender relations as well. By giving title deeds to men and not the women who were the traditional land holders, and by changing the inheritance rules in a predominantly matrilineal society, conservation policies and practices contributed to the disempowerment of women. These attempts to redefine the land tenure system also precipitated peasant resistance in some parts of the region. This study suggests that the needs and interests of peasants must be central to discussions about environmental conservation and sustainability. Unless, and until, policy makers begin to appreciate that landlessness, overcrowding and poverty are integrally related to environmental degradation, it will be difficult to achieve a sustainable use of resources in a peasant economy. These peasants' needs must necessarily be included in the post-colonial state's policy formulation plans and practices.