Chiefs and everyday governance: Parallel state organisations in Malawi

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 313-331

  Øyvind, Eggen ^a,b  

^a NORWEGIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS NUPI   (Norway)

^b NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BUREAUCRACY; CIVIL RIGHTS; COLONIALISM; FUTURE PROSPECT; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK; POLITICAL POWER; STATE BUILDING; URBAN POLITICS;

MALAWI;

EID: 79959519588     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2011.579436     Document Type: Article

References (71)

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2. 'Chiefs' in this article refers to all levels of the hierarchy, including local levels, for example, headmen/women, often termed differently in official as well as local languages.
3. F. Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1922).
4. Lord Hailey, Native Administration in the British African Territories, Vol. 4 (London, HM Stationery Office, 1951).
5. M Mamdani, Citizen and Subject, pp. 289-90.
6. Ibid., p. 21.
7. F. Lugard, Dual Mandate, p. 207.
8. M Mamdani, Citizen and Subject, Chapter 7.
9. Or its equivalents, like District Officer or Cercle Commander.
10. Hailey, Native Administration, pp. 58-60.
11. Lugard, The Dual Mandate, in particular Chapter X.
12. These include observations during several work assignments since 2003 involving close interaction with municipal and district assemblies and a substantial number of chiefs and village groups in about half of the districts in Malawi.
13. F. Bayart, The State in Africa (London, Longman, 1993).
14. H. Duff, Nyasaland under the Foreign Office (London, George Bell and Sons, 2001), Chapter X.
15. J. Mitchell, 'The Political Organizationofthe YaoofSouthern Nyasaland', African Studies, 8, 3 (1949), pp. 141-59.
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17. Hailey, Native Administration, Vol. 2, p. 25.
18. J. Mitchell, The Yao Village (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1956), p. 47.
19. Hailey, Native Administration, Volume 2, pp. 26-7.
20. T. Woods, 'Capitaos and Chiefs: Oral Tradition and Colonial Society in Malawi', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 23, 2 (1990), pp. 259-68.
21. Hailey, Native Administration, Volume 2, pp. 27-67.
22. Ibid., Volume 2, p. 27.
23. Mitchell, The Yao Village, pp. 48-9.
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26. K. Fields, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1985) demonstrates the limited power of the colonial government vis-a-vis local leaders in the context of religious revivals as vehicles of political opposition.
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35. J. Kaunda, 'State Centralization and the Decline of Local Government in Malawi', International Review of Administrative Sciences, 65 (1999), pp. 579-95.
36. Malawi Government, Chiefs Act, 1967.
37. I employ the titles most commonly used, rather than the terms used by the Act.
38. P. Short, Banda (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974), p. 272.
39. Kaunda, 'State Centralization'.
40. Chiweza, 'Participation: Reality or Rhetoric?'.
41. D. Kaspin, 'The Politics of Ethnicity in Malawi's Democratic Transition', Journal of Modern African Studies, 33, 4 (1995), pp. 595-620.
42. Reported by informants to my fieldwork old enough to remember, supported by anecdotes still flourishing.
43. S. Cross and M. Kutengule, 'Decentralisation and Rural Livelihoods in Malawi', in F. Allis and H. Freeman (eds), Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction Policies (London, Routledge, 2005).
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45. Chiweza, 'Ambivalent Role of Chiefs'.
46. E. Kanyongolo, Malawi Justice Sector and Rule of Law: A Review by AfriMAP and Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Johannesburg, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, 2006).
47. Chiweza, 'Ambivalent Role of Chiefs'; this is supported by my observations during fieldwork.
48. Female chiefs are common. According to the National Statistics Office (Zomba), Welfare Monitoring Survey 2008, 12 per cent of households are located in villages that have female chiefs.
49. Ibid.
50. G. Anders, 'Like Chameleons: Civil Servants and Corruption in Malawi', in G. Blundo and P. Le Meur (eds), The Governance of Daily Life in Africa. Ethnographic Explorations of Public and Collective Services (Leiden, Brill, 2009), pp. 119-41.
51. Lord Hailey, Native Administration, 2, p. 61.
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53. Duff, 'Nyasaland under Foreign Office', p. 193.
54. During the period between 1994 and 2010, only one local election has been held. This took place in 2000, with little local relevance. Another local election is planned for 2011, although there is some uncertainty about its implementation.
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56. T. Mkandawire, Targeting and Universalism in Poverty Reduction (Programme Paper no. 23, Social Policy and Development, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2005).
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58. Englebert, 'Patterns and Theories'.
59. This is, for example, implicit already in Lord Hailey's Native Administration from 1951.
60. R. Chirambo, 'Democracy as a Limiting Factor for Politicised Cultural Populism in Malawi', Africa Spectrum, 44, 2 (2009), pp. 77-94.
61. H. Englund, Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2006).
62. A. Swidler and S. Watkins, '"Teach a Man to Fish": The Sustainability Doctrine and Its Social Consequences', World Development, 37, 7 (July 2009), pp. 1,182-96.
63. My knowledge of the case builds on the reports of the parents of some of those children. The accused woman was living in a nearby village.
64. The Witchcraft Act of 1911 does not recognise witchcraft as 'real', so the formal courts are not seen as suitable forums for such cases.
65. The survey was carried out by group interviews with representatives of the borehole committees (in most cases with the chief present) for all boreholes - in total six - found along a more or less randomly selected stretch of a rural road near Zomba. In all cases the boreholes had been defunct for periods, sometimes over months, during recent years. Other cases brought up by informants indicate a similar diversity in strategies elsewhere. Note
66. 'How Costly is Traditional Justice?', Malawi News, 17-23 October 2009.
67. National Statistics Office, Population and Housing Census (Zomba, 2008).
68. L. Vail and L. White, 'Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi', in L. Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1989), p. 169.
69. E. Alpers, 'Trade, State and Society among the Yao in the Nineteenth Century', Journal of African History, 10, 3 (1969), pp. 405-20.
70. 'Mutharika Elevates Chikowi to Paramount Chief', Nyasa Times, 15 February 2009. See www.nyasatimes.com
71. M. Foucault, 'Governmentality', in G. Burchell, G. Colin and P. Miller, The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991).