Security for many or surplus for the few? Customary tenure and social differentiation in Southern Malawi

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 175-190

  Jul Larsen, Eyolf ^a   Mvula, Peter ^a  

^a CHR MICHELSEN INSTITUTE   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLASS; LANDHOLDING; POLITICAL ECONOMY; REGIONAL SECURITY; RURAL AREA; RURAL ECONOMY; RURAL SOCIETY; SOCIAL CHANGE; TENURE SYSTEM;

AFRICA; ASIA; EAST AFRICA; EURASIA; MALAWI; SOUTHEAST ASIA; SOUTHERN REGION; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; THAILAND;

EID: 67650363713     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070802685635     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. F. von Benda-Bechmann, Legal Pluralism in Malawi, Historical Development 1858-1970 and Emerging Issues (Zomba, Kachere Series, Kachere Monographs no. 24, 2007, [1970]).
2. E. Colson, 'The Impact of the Colonial Period on the Definition of Land Rights', in V. Turner (ed.), Colonialism in Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1971), pp. 193-215
3. M. Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985)
4. M. Chanock, 'Paradigms, Policies and Properties: A Review of the Customary Law of Land Tenure', in K. Mann and R. Roberts (eds), Law in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann Educational Books, 1991), pp. 61-84.
5. S. Berry, No Condition is Permanent, the Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1993).
6. For other contributions along a similar line, see Mann and Roberts, Law in Colonial Africa.
7. S. Berry, 'Hegemony on a Shoestring, Indirect Rule and Access to Agricultural Land', Africa, 62, 3 (1992), p. 345.
8. See also Berry, No Condition is Permanent and S. Berry, 'Debating the Land Question in Africa', Comparative Studies in Society and History 44, 4 (2002), pp. 638-68.
9. P.E. Peters, 'The Limits of Negotiability: Security, Equity and Class Formation in Africa's Land System', in K. Juul and C. Lund (eds), Negotiating Property in Africa (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann, 2002), pp. 45-66
10. P.E. Peters, 'Inequality and Social Conflict Over Land in Africa', Journal of Agrarian Change, 4, 3 (July 2004), pp. 269-314.
11. P.E. Peters, 'Bewitching Land: The Role of Land Disputes in Kin to Strangers and in Class Formation in Malawi', Journal of Southern African Studies [JSAS], 28, 1 (March 2002), pp. 155-78
12. P.E. Peters and D. Kambewa, 'Whose Security? Deepening Social Conflict over "Customary" Land in the Shadow of Land Tenure Reform in Malawi', Journal of Modern African Studies, 45, 3 (September 2007), pp. 447-72.
13. The numbering of cases in the magistrates' courts is somewhat confusing. Most common is that each magistrate keeps his/her own registry and one may therefore find more than one case with the same case number in the same court. In this article, cases are referred to according to our own numbering system.
14. Republic of Malawi, The 1998 Population and Housing Census (Zomba, National Statistics Office, 1999), available at http://www.nso.malawi.net/data_on_line/demography/census_98/ analytical_report.pdf, retrieved on 3 December 2007.
15. Republic of Malawi & World Bank, Malawi; Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, Investing in our Future, (Washington, World Bank, June 2006), available at http://www.aec.msu.edu/fs2/mgt/caadp/ malawi_pva_draft_052606_final_draft.pdf, retrieved on 3 December 2007.
16. All figures in this paragraph are quoted from Anon., 'Land People and Production on the Estates of Malawi; a Guide to the Surveys of the Estate Land Utilisation Study 1995-7' (unpublished report produced as part of the Estate Land Utilisation Study, Lilongwe, 1997).
17. Ibid.
18. G.C.Z. Mhone (ed.), Malawi at the Crossroads, the Post-Colonial Political Economy (Harare, SAPES Books, 1992).
19. T. Moss and A. Subramanian, 'After the Big Push? Fiscal and Institutional Implications of Large Aid Increases' (Center for Global Development, Working Paper 71, October 2005) p. 6, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=984061, retrieved on 12 April 2008.
20. J. McCracken, 'Fishing and the Colonial Economy: The Case of Malawi', Journal of African History, 28, 3 (1987), pp. 413-29.
21. M. Hara and E. Jul-Larsen, 'The "Lords" of Malombe; an Analysis of Fishery Development and Changes in Fishing Effort on Lake Malombe, Malawi', in E. Jul-Larsen, J. Kolding, J. Raakjær Nielsen, R. Overå and P. van Zwieten (eds), Management, Co-management or No Management? Major Dilemmas in Southern African Freshwater Fisheries (Rome, FAO, Fisheries Technical Paper 426/2, 2003), pp. 179-200, available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5056e/ y5056e00.htm, retrieved on 3 December 2007.
22. It is quite common to find female village heads, and more seldom group village heads. There are no female chiefs in the two districts covered by this study, but they are reported to exist elsewhere (P. Kishindo, personal communication).
23. The act was repealed in 1996.
24. Republic of Malawi and World Bank, Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, pp. 152-53.
25. Ibid., pp. 151-65.
26. Ibid., In rural Southern Region the figures are 13, 79 and 8 per cent respectively.
27. Ibid., The figure is 45 per cent for the rural southern region.
28. Ibid., p. 155.
29. Ibid., p. 153.
30. See, for example, Channock, 'Law, Custom and Social Order'
31. Channock, 'Paradigms, Policies and Properties'
32. P.E. Peters, 'Against the Odds; Matriliny, Land and Gender in the Shire Highlands of Malawi', Critique of Anthropology, 17, 2 (1997), pp. 189-209
33. Peters, 'Bewitching Land'
34. L. White, Magomero: Portrait of an African Village (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987).
35. J.L. Comaroff and S. Roberts, Rules and Processes: The Cultural Logic of Dispute in an African Context (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1981).
36. Ibid., p. 19.
37. See Peters, 'Revisiting the Puzzle of Matriliny in South-Central Africa', pp. 125-46.
38. P. Kishindo, 'Dynamics of Land Tenure: A Village Case Study', in T. Takane (ed.), Current Issues of Rural Development in Malawi (Chiba, Institute of Development Economies, 2006), pp. 1-22.
39. J.P. Chauveau, 'How Does an Institution Evolve? Land, Politics, Intergenerational Relations and the Institution of the Tutorat amongst Autochthones and Immigrants (Gban Region, Côte d'Ivoire)', in R. Kuba and C. Lentz, Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa (Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2006).
40. Peters, 'Against the Odds'
41. Peters, 'Bewitching Land'
42. White, Magomero.
43. When urban people who rent plots near the urban centres to cultivate their own maize are being moved from one plot to another this is often an illustration of how the landholder tries to avoid such claims from emerging.
44. Peters and Kambewa, 'Whose Security?'
45. T. Takane, 'Customary Land Tenure, Inheritance Rules, and Smallholder Farmers in Malawi' Institute of Developing Economies, Japan, Discussion Paper No. 104, available at http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Dp/pdf/ 104_takane.pdf; retrieved on 3 December 2007;
46. S. Holden, R. Kaarhus and R. Lunduka, 'Land Policy Reform: The Role of Land Markets and Women's Land Rights in Malawi' (Ås. Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Noragric Report No. 36, 2006), available at http://www.umb.no/noragric/publications/reports/ NoragricRep36.pdf, retrieved on 3 December 2007.
47. The cousin was the defendant in the case while the sister was the plaintiff.
48. In their study from Zomba, Peters and Kambewa came across cases where family members had to put up money to buy land from a brother who was intent on selling it to strangers. They also emphasise the uncertainty connected with this type of transaction from the point of view of the buyer. See Peters and Kambewa, 'Whose Security?'
49. L.D. Mapemba, 'The Abandonment of Estates; A Report of the Exploratory Study of Abandoned Estates 1997' (unpublished report produced as part of the Estate Land Utilization Study, Lilongwe, 1997).
50. Republic of Malawi and World Bank, Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, p. 156.
51. Mapemba, 'The Abandonment of Estates'.
52. Many of the cases include allegations from one complainant against several defendants. The total number of defendants in the eight cases is uncertain since one of the cases is raised against a village headman and an unspecified number of villagers (M6).
53. R.J.G. Steel, J.L. Bosworth, S.J. Gosage and C. Mataya, 'The Tea Plantations of Malawi: A Report of the Tea Estates Surveys 1996 and 1997' (unpublished report produced as part of the Estate Land Utilization Study, Lilongwe, 1997).
54. In an interview, the magistrate admitted that this formulation was added because he had some sympathy for the defendants' case. Whether the lease shall be renewed or not lies outside the magistrate's mandate.
55. Steele et al., 'The Tea Plantations of Malawi'.
56. White, Magomero.
57. Steele et al., ibid.
58. Pachai, Malawi: The History of the Nation, p. 100. The figure of 1.5 million ha is not directly comparable to today's figure. It includes large areas controlled by the British South Africa Company that reverted to government in the 1930s.
59. Anon, 'Land People and Production'.
60. Government of Malawi, 'Malawi National Land Policy' (Lilongwe, Ministry of Lands, Physical Planning and Surveys, January 2002).
61. See also P. Kishindo, 'Customary Land Tenure and the New Land Policy in Malawi', Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 22, 2 (2004), pp. 213-25.
62. Peters, 'The Limits of Negotiability'.