Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Food Security in Northern Malawi: Gender, Kinship Relations and Entitlements in Historical Context

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03057070500035679

1465-3893

Rachel Bezner Kerr,

Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations

Abstract This article examines household food security in the Ekwendeni region of northern Malawi using the concept of entitlements, set within a broader world historical framework. The bargaining approach to household gender relations is critiqued through an examination of the data. Historical relations created a gendered experience of food security in northern Malawi. Qualitative research carried out in the Ekwendeni region indicates that women have fewer entitlements within the household, at least in part due to the modified patrilineal system of the Tumbuka-speaking people with Ngoni heritage in the region. They have a higher workload in terms of household reproduction as well as agricultural and market activities. Women are responsible for caring for sick relatives within and beyond the household, which affects household food security. Wives are less likely to receive support for kin in the form of seeds, cash, land or food, in comparison to husbands, who in turn do not always give these resources to the household. Women do not have much decision-making power over major production issues. There is evidence for high levels of spousal abuse, as well as excessive use of alcohol by husbands, which also affects household food security. Wives' unequal position is thus due to a lack of entitlements, such as land, access to employment, support from kin and the state. Some differences between this area of northern Malawi and other studies from central and southern Malawi are due to the different entitlements, particularly control over land and income, which speaks to the enduring implications of different lineage systems in the region. Food security is thus affected by women's unequal access to entitlements in northern Malawi, set within a world historical framework, which is essential for understanding the broader causes of food insecurity. Notes * This article was first presented to the Canadian Sociological and Anthropological Studies Association in May 2002. The fieldwork on which this article is based was made possible with the financial assistance of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Environmental Capacity Enhancement Program at the University of Guelph, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the International Development Research Centre. I would like to thank Esther Lupafya for her invaluable assistance in designing and carrying out interviews. The logistical support of the Development Department of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia is gratefully acknowledged. The support of Marko Chirwa, Richard Sulu, Mark and Pamela Young, Rachel Bidwell and Brisco Nyagulu was invaluable. I would also like to thank Rajeev Patel, Max Pfeffer, Hannah Wittman and the reviewers of the Journal of Southern African Studies for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. 1 E. Kennedy, ‘Hope and Reality: Food Security and Nutrition Security for the Twenty-first Century’, in A. E. El Obeid, S. R. Johnson, H. H. Jensen, and L. C. Smith (eds), Food Security: New Solutions for the Twenty-first Century (Iowa, Iowa State University Press, 1999), p. 264. 2 P. Peters, Failed Magic or Social Context? Market Liberalization and the Rural Poor in Malawi, Development Discussion Paper 562 (Cambridge MA, Harvard Institute for International Development, 1996), p. 8. 3 National Statistics Office (NSO), Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (Lilongwe, NSO, 2001), p. 137. 4 S. Devereux, ‘The Malawi Famine of 2002: Causes, Consequences, Policy Lessons’ (unpublished presentation, Lilongwe, 2003). Available on-line at http://www.odi.org.uk/Food-Security-Forum/docs/devereux/. 5 D. Cammock, O. Chula, S. Khaila and D. Ng'ong'ola, ‘Malawi Food Security Issues Paper’ (unpublished paper, Lilongwe, 2003). Available on-line at http://www.odi.org.uk/Food-Security-Forum/docs/MalawiCIP.pdf. 6 S. Devereux, Household Food Security in Malawi: IDS Discussion Paper 262 (Sussex, International Development Studies, 1997), p. 5. 7 A. Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay in Entitlement and Deprivation (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981). 8 A. Sen, ‘Food, Economics and Entitlements’, in J. Dreze and A. Sen (eds), The Political Economy of Hunger, Volume I: Entitlement and Well-being (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 34–52. 9 M. Vaughan, The Story of an African Famine: Gender and Famine in Twentieth Century Malawi (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987). 10 G. S. Becker, A Treatise on the Family (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1981). 11 There are numerous critiques of this approach, including R. R. Wilk, ‘Decision-making and Resource Flows Within the Household: Beyond the Black Box’, in R. R. Wilk (ed.), The Household Economy: Reconsidering the Domestic Mode of Production (Boulder, Westview Press, 1989), pp. 23–54. 12 L. Haddad, J. Hoddinott and H. Alderman (eds), Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries: Methods, Models and Policy (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994). 13 B. Agarwal, ‘Relations: Within and Beyond the Household’, Feminist Economics, 3, 1 (1997), pp. 1–51. 14 J. McCracken, ‘Religion and Politics in Northern Ngoniland, 1881–1904’, in B. Pachai (ed.), The Early History of Malawi (Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 215– 236; 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, 1991), pp. 151–192. 15 H. L. Vail, ‘Suggestions Towards a Reinterpreted Tumbuka History’, in Pachai (ed.), The Early History of Malawi, pp. 148–167. 16 Vail and White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi’, p. 163; J. McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1875–1940: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 124. 17 The Free Church of Scotland emphasised the importance of education and encouraged a Western patrilineal model of marriage in the region through the Livingstonia mission. (McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Northern Malawi). 18 This section on the ethnic history of the region draws on Vail and White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi’, pp. 152–153. 19 Vaughan, The Story of an African Famine, pp. 52–60; E. C. Mandala, Work and Control in a Peasant Economy: A History of the Lower Tchiri Valley in Malawi 1859–1960 (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), pp. 50–60. 20 L. Vail, ‘The Political Economy of East-Central Africa’, in D. Birmingham and P. M. Martin (eds), History of Central Africa, Volume 2 (London, Longman, 1983), p. 204. 21 Vaughan, The Story of an African Famine, p. 138. 22 Mandala, Work and Control in a Peasant Economy, p. 111. 23 J. G. Kydd and R. E. Christiansen, ‘Structural Change in Malawi Since Independence: Consequences of a Development Strategy Based On Large-Scale Agriculture’, World Development, 10, 5 (1982), p. 358. 24 J. McCracken, ‘Planters, Peasants and the Colonial State: the Impact of the Native Tobacco Board in the Central Province of Malawi’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 9, 2 (1982), pp. 186. 25 M. Whiteside, ‘Ganyu Labour in Malawi and its Implications for Livelihood Security Interventions: an Analysis of Recent Literature and Implications for Poverty Alleviation’, Agricultural Research and Extension Network Paper, 99 (2000), p. 1. 26 Vail, ‘The Political Economy of East-Central Africa’, p. 223. 27 P. Peters, ‘Against the Odds: Matriliny, Land and Gender in the Shire Highlands of Malawi’, Critique of Anthropology, 17, 2 (1997), p. 198. 28 Vail and White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi’, p. 158. 29 W. O. Mulwafu, ‘Soil Erosion and State Intervention in Estate Production in the Shire Highlands Economy of Colonial Malawi, 1891–1964’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28, 1 (2002), p. 25. 30 M. Smale, ‘“Maize is Life”: Malawi's Delayed Green Revolution’, World Development, 23, 5 (1995), p. 822. 31 J. Harrigan, ‘Malawi’, in P. Mosley, J. Harrigan and J. Toye (eds), Aid and Power: the World Bank and Policy-Based Lending, Volume 2, Case Studies (London, Routledge, 1991), pp. 201–269. 32 Kydd and Christiansen, ‘Structural Change in Malawi Since Independence’, pp. 360–366; Peters, Failed Magic, p. 20. 33 ADMARC purchased only smallholder crops at a low price and sold them at a higher price to international buyers. The estate owners could deal directly with international buyers. Kydd and Christiansen, ‘Structural Change in Malawi Since Independence’, pp. 366–368. 34 L. Msukwa, Food Policy and Production: Towards Increased Household Food Security (unpublished paper, Zomba, 1994). It should be noted that the low percentage of estate land in the 1970s was due to the breaking-up of colonial estates, which took place under government direction in the last decades of colonial rule. 35 J. G. Kydd, ‘Maize Research in Malawi: Lessons from Failure’, Journal of International Development, 1, 1 (1989), pp. 112–144. 36 Peters, Failed Magic, p. 4. 37 E. Cromwell, P. Kambewa, R. Mwanza and R. Chirwa, ‘Impact Assessment Using Participatory Approaches: “Starter Pack” and Sustainable Agriculture in Malawi’, Agricultural Research and Extension Network Paper 112 (2001), pp. 1–12. 38 Kydd, ‘Maize Research in Malawi’, p. 112. 39 J. Harrigan, ‘U-Turns and Full Circles: Two Decades of Agricultural Reform in Malawi 1981–2000’, World Development, 31, 5 (2003), pp. 847–863. 40 P. Peters, Agricultural Commercialization, Rural Economy and Household Livelihoods, 1990–1997. (Cambridge, MA, Harvard Institute for International Development, 1999), p. 14. 41 Harrigan, ‘U-Turns and Full Circles’, pp. 847–863. 42 Harrigan, ‘U-Turns and Full Circles’, p. 858. Peters, Developments in the Liberalization of Marketing Maize and Burley: Implications for Food Security (Cambridge, MA, Harvard Institute for International Development, 1995). 43 Smallholder farmers were granted permission to grow the more lucrative burley tobacco in 1994. J. K. van Donge, ‘Disordering the Market: the Liberalisation of Burley Tobacco in Malawi in the 1990s’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28, 2 (2002), p. 90. 44 Harrigan, ‘U-Turns and Full Circles’, pp. 852–855. 45 S. Devereux, Household Food Security in Malawi. (Sussex, IDS, 1997); M. Whiteside, ‘Ganyu Labour in Malawi and its Implications for Livelihood Security Interventions – an Analysis of Recent Literature and Implications for Poverty Alleviation’, Agricultural Research and Extension Network Paper, 99 (2000), p. 10. 46 D. Hirschmann and M. Vaughan. Women Farmers of Malawi: Food Production in the Zomba District (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985). 47 Ministry of Agriculture, National Sample Survey of Agriculture (Lilongwe, Government of Malawi, 1993), p. 68. 48 T. Benson, Malawi: an Atlas of Social Statistics (Zomba and Washington, DC, National Statistical Office and International Food Policy Research Institute, 2002), p. 14. 49 Benson, Malawi: an Atlas of Social Statistics, p. 11. 50 Smale, ‘Maize is life’, p. 822. 51 Kydd and Christiansen, ‘Structural Change in Malawi Since Independence’, p. 368. 52 Smale and Phiri, ‘Institutional Change and Discontinuities’, p. 5. 53 UNICEF and Government of Malawi, The Situation of Children and Women in Malawi (Lilongwe, UNICEF, 1987). 54 Peters, Failed Magic, p. 17. 55 Peters, Failed Magic, p. 1. 56 Vaughan, The Story of an African Famine. 57 Beer brewing was banned in 1949 by the colonial government in an attempt to maintain maize supplies at the height of the famine, thereby eliminating a critical income source for many women and a type of payment for work parties in the fields during planting season (Vaughan, Story of an African Famine, pp. 38–39). 58 K. M. Phiri, ‘Some Changes in the Matrilineal Family System Among the Chewa of Malawi Since the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of African History, 24 (1983), p. 257. 59 A more flexible definition of matrilineal and patrilineal systems in Malawi and elsewhere is discussed in P. Peters, ‘Revisiting the Puzzle Of Matriliny in South-Central Africa’, Critique of Anthropology, 17, 2 (1997), pp. 125–146; C. Brantley, ‘Through Ngoni Eyes: Margaret Read's Interpretations from Nyasaland’, Critique of Anthropology 17, 2 (1997), pp. 147–169 and M. E. Lovett, ‘From Sisters to Wives and ‘Slaves’, Redefining Matriliny and the Lives of Lakeside Tonga Women, 1885–1955’, Critique of Anthropology, 17, 2 (1997), pp. 171–187. 60 P. Peters and M. Guillermo Herrera, Cash Cropping, Food Security and Nutrition: the Effects of Agricultural Commercialization Among Smallholders in Malawi, (Cambridge, MA, Harvard Institute for International Development, 1989). 61 Streambed gardens, or gardens located near to a water source. (Hirschmann and Vaughan, Women Farmers). 62 A. Spring, Agricultural Development and Gender Issues in Malawi (Landam, Maryland University Press, 1985). 63 Hirschmann and Vaughan, Women Farmers of Malawi. 64 Spring, Agricultural Development and Gender Issues in Malawi. 65 Peters and Herrera, Cash Cropping, Food Security and Nutrition. 66 This research is part of an ongoing collaborative research programme with the Primary Health Care department of Ekwendeni Hospital. The majority of the research reported in this article was conducted in 1997, as part of a MSc degree (see R. Bezner Kerr, ‘Food Security, Intra-Household Dynamics and Manure Use on Resource-Poor Farms in Northern Malawi’ [MSc thesis, University of Guelph, 1998]). Additional fieldwork was conducted in 2000, 2001 and 2002, which focused on agricultural practices, child nutrition and food security. 67 M. Q. Patton, Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (Newbury Park, Sage Publications, 1990), p. 182. 68 The households were selected by a community nurse with many years of experience in the region. The term ‘household’ in northern Malawi is somewhat fluid. Based on community discussions conducted in 2001 about what is a household, the agreed local definition included: (1) man and woman; (2) man, woman and child; (3) woman and children (including polygamous households, in which each wife and her children are a separate household) and (4) man and children. Thus, an unmarried childless person is not a separate household, but grandparents and children would be either type 2, 3 or 4 (for example, grandparents and child, grandmother and child, etc.). 69 S. Kvale, InterViews: an Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing (London, Sage Publishers, 1996). 70 This study attempts to take a feminist methodological approach, an epistemological approach that recognises imbalances of power, values different types of knowledge and places oneself in the analytical process. S. Harding, ‘Is There a Feminist Method?’, in S. Harding (ed.), Feminism and Methodology (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1987); J. Stacey, ‘Can There be a Feminist Ethnography?’, in S. Gluck, and D. Patai (eds), Women's Words: the Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York, Routledge, 1991); L Stanley and S. Wise, ‘Method, Methodology and Epistemology in Feminist Research Processes’, in L. Stanley (ed.), Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology (London, Routledge, 1990). 71 Ministry of Agriculture, National Sample Survey of Agriculture 1992/93, p. ix. 72 NSO, Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, p. 75. 73 This is based on fieldnotes from research conducted in 2000. I did not investigate the enforcement of the prohibition, or who does the enforcement, but other studies indicate that forest management varies considerably throughout Malawi. See, for example, M. Fisher, G. Shively, and S. Buccola, ‘Activity Choice, Labor Allocation and Forest Use in Malawi’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, (2004), in submission for publication. 74 Agarwal, ‘Relations Within and Beyond the Household’, p. 35. 75 R. Bezner Kerr, ‘Informal Labor and Social Relations in Northern Malawi: the Theoretical Challenges and Implications of Ganyu Labor’, accepted for publication in Rural Sociology. 76 M. M. Mtika, ‘The AIDS Epidemic in Malawi and its Threat to Household Food Security’, Human Organization, 60, 2 (2001), p. 178. 77 Peters and Herrera, Cash Cropping, Food Security and Nutrition, p. 36. 78 J. Davison, ‘Tenacious Women: Clinging to Banja Household Production in the Face of Changing Gender Relations in Malawi’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 19, 3 (1993), pp. 413–414. 79 If a woman remarries in this area, she may leave her children from previous marriages with her mother, because her new husband refuses to care for these children. This example illustrates a mixture of patrilineal and matrilineal practices in this region of Malawi, as will be discussed further below. 80 All people and places mentioned in the study are pseudonyms, to protect identities. 81 I did not investigate whether men frequently ironed throughout the year, or if ironing was only for special occasions. 82 Mtika, The AIDs Epidemic in Malawi; Spring, Agricultural Development and Gender Issues. 83 These are paraphrases from the interviews, which were conducted in Chitumbuka. 84 People did not respond as easily to this section of the interview. Most participants simply stated ‘husband’, ‘wife’ or ‘both’ without elaboration. We were unable to get a clear picture of the decision-making dynamics within households, and it was not clear if the ‘ideal’ answer was given rather than the reality. Decision-making is a complex phenomenon that cannot always be understood in an interview context, and this shortcoming is acknowledged. 85 P. Peters, ‘The Links Between Production and Consumption and the Achievement of Food Security Among Smallholder Farmers in Zomba South’, in L. Msukwa (ed.), Report of the Workshop on Household Food Security and Nutrition (Zomba, University of Malawi, 1988). 86 In no cases were wives reported to drink. 87 Davison, ‘Tenacious Women’, p. 420. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRachel Bezner Kerr * This article was first presented to the Canadian Sociological and Anthropological Studies Association in May 2002. The fieldwork on which this article is based was made possible with the financial assistance of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Environmental Capacity Enhancement Program at the University of Guelph, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the International Development Research Centre. I would like to thank Esther Lupafya for her invaluable assistance in designing and carrying out interviews. The logistical support of the Development Department of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia is gratefully acknowledged. The support of Marko Chirwa, Richard Sulu, Mark and Pamela Young, Rachel Bidwell and Brisco Nyagulu was invaluable. I would also like to thank Rajeev Patel, Max Pfeffer, Hannah Wittman and the reviewers of the Journal of Southern African Studies for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.