City Lights Emblaze Village Fishing Grounds: The Re-Imaginings of Waterscape by Lake Malawi Fishers*

Abstract

This article describes the remaking of fishing practices by the Lakeside Tonga fishers of Malawi, in relation to the local and regional redistribution of power since the colonial era. It first reviews the centrality of the regional waterscape in shaping interventions that eventually turned Lake Malawi's western shore into a reserve for long-distance migrant labour. Previous reports have tended to treat the resultant ‘returned labour migrants’ as advocates of the commercialisation of fishery. Bringing new types of gear, they are said to have introduced technical and organisational innovations, most notably urban labour relations, into the local fishery. The outcomes have been represented as an irreversible destruction of the indigenous modes of fishing. Such teleological representations disregard any continuity in tenure regimes on the lake, and have been used to justify various reforms, including ‘co-management’ with the government and international development agencies in the postcolonial era. The article challenges the view that indigenous fishing practices in Malawi have been destroyed by returning male migrants interested only in commercialisation, by revealing the agency of Malawian fishers in remaking fishery practices and institutions. The Lakeside Tonga fishers do indeed form fishing units that resemble urban labour relations. However, I argue that their practice is not a disruptive break but an artful recombination of previously known techniques and organisations, which they represent and realise through urban-related terms. This transformation was not a passive, irreversible dislocation or dismemberment of fishing and its economy from the village context. Instead, it is an active progress in which fishers appropriate and project models onto the lake, creating a multi-layered waterscape on which they manoeuvre distances relative to different loci of power.

Notes

¹ S. Agnew, ‘Environment and History: the Malawian Setting’, in B. Pachai (ed.), The Early History of Malawi (London, Longman, 1972), pp. 28–48.

^*This article was supported in part by the Toyota Foundation Research Project ‘Methodological Research of Resident Participatory Conservation of Ecosystems, Based on the Daily Life Culture as for Lake Resource Utilisation around Lake Malawi’ (Rep. Yukiko Kada), the 21st Century COE Programme, ‘Aiming for COE of Integrated Area Studies’, and the JSPS Global COE Programme, ‘In Search of Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa’. I am grateful for the valuable comments of readers for the Journal of Southern African Studies. The paper benefited from discussions with Joost Fontein, Richard Werbner, John McCracken, Wim van Binsbergen, my supervisors Itaru Ohta, Makoto Kakeya, and colleagues at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University. I am particularly indebted to Rebecca Marsland for her support and encouragement during the revision process. My deepest thanks go to the people of ‘Village-A’, whom without Mr Manase Chiumia I would never have met.

² This is not to say that the impact was symmetrical in scale.

³ The most recent being the Mtwara Development Corridor, which happens to be the reactivation of the westward trade route.

⁴ P. Curtin, ‘Medical Knowledge and Urban Planning in Colonial Tropical Africa’, in S. Feierman and J. Janzen (eds), The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford, University of California Press, 1992), pp. 235–55. O. Goerg, ‘From Hill Station (Freetown) to Downtown Conakry (First Ward): Comparing French and British Approaches to Segregation in Colonial Cities at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 32 (1998), pp. 1–21.

⁵ P.A. Cole-King, ‘Transport and Communication in Malawi’, in Pachai (ed.), The Early History of Malawi, pp. 70–90; L. Vail, ‘The Making of an Imperial Slum: Nyasaland and its Railways, 1895–1935’, Journal of African History, 16 (1975), pp. 89–112.

⁶ Cole-King, ‘Transport and Communication in Malawi’.

⁷ Vail, ‘The Making of an Imperial Slum’.

⁸ J. McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1875–1940: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977).

⁹ McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi.

¹⁰ J. Van Velsen, ‘Labour Migration as a Positive Factor in the Continuity of Tonga Tribal Society’, in A. Southall (ed.), Social Change in Modern Africa (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 230–41; J. McCracken, ‘Fishing and the Colonial Economy: The Case of Malawi’, Journal of African History, 28 (1987), pp. 413–29; W.C. Chirwa, ‘“Theba is Power”: Rural Labour, Migrancy, and Fishing in Malawi, 1890–1985’ (Doctoral Dissertation, Queen University, Kingston, Ontario, 1992); M. Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985). 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 (1983), pp. 172–92.

¹¹ Chanock, Law, Custom and Social Order, p. 15.

¹³ Van Velsen, ‘Labour Migration as a Positive Factor’, pp. 230–36.

¹² Van Velsen, ‘Labour Migration as a Positive Factor’, p. 230.

¹⁴ Van Velsen, ‘Labour Migration as a Positive Factor’, p. 236.

¹⁵ J. Davison, Gender, Lineage, and Ethnicity in Southern Africa (Oxford, CO, Westview, 1997).

¹⁶ M.L. 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. 171–87.

¹⁷ See S. Nakayama (forthcoming) for an analysis of gender relations and issues of lake tenure.

¹⁸ J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt, (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1999); L. White, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1990).

¹⁹ W.C. Chirwa, ‘Technical Improvement, Social and Economic Relations in the Fishing Industry: the Case of the Chizi Area, Nkhata Bay District’ (Honours Thesis, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1984).

²⁰ The names of the informants cited in this article are all pseudonyms and have no bearing on their real names. I have chosen to indicate most by their childhood name and chiwongo (father's name), and left out the prefix ‘Nya-’ in its feminine form.

²¹ Mkwawu is a Tonga term for any type of large seine net including the chilimila.

²² Chirwa, ‘Technical Improvement’; L. Kapeleta, ‘The Coming of the Tonga and the Commercialization of Fishing in Monkey Bay Area: A Case Study’ (unpublished paper, Department of Sociology, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1980).

²³ Kapeleta, ‘The Coming of the Tonga’.

²⁴ J. Van Velsen, ‘The Missionary Factor among the Lakeside Tonga of Nyasaland’, The Rhodes-Livingston Journal, 26 (1960), pp. 1–22.

²⁵ Currently known as Nkhata Bay.

²⁶ C.A. Cardew, ‘Nyasaland in the Nineties’ The Nyasaland Journal, 8, 1 (1955), pp. 57–63.

²⁷ Mwenda attributes the problems to tax increase and ‘the cruel behaviour of the Yao policemen’. F. Mwenda ‘Changes in the Society and Economy of Tongaland in the Late Nineteenth Century’ (unpublished paper, Department of History, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1983).

²⁸ Mwenda, ibid.attributes the problems to tax increase and ‘the cruel behaviour of the Yao policemen’. F. Mwenda ‘Changes in the Society and Economy of Tongaland in the Late Nineteenth Century’ (unpublished paper, Department of History, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1983); Cardew, ‘Nyasaland in the Nineties’; J. Van Velsen, ‘The Establishment of the Administration in Tongaland’ (Salisbury, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1962), pp. 177–95.

²⁹ To be precise, the original village at Nkhata split into three villages and relocated to nearby sites. Village-A is one of them. The relocation is generally narrated to have been a peaceful process.

³⁰ The present Nkhata Bay District.

³¹ Van Velsen notes that at Nkhata and Chintheche, the appointments of Principal Headmen may have been based on their proximity to the District Headquarters and their personnel. Van Velsen, ‘The Establishment of the Administration in Tongaland.’

³² Such claims have been made by the families that have not benefited from the appointment.

³³ The implication is that the ‘Yao’ agents had done otherwise.

³⁴ McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi.

³⁵ J. Van Velsen, McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi

³⁶ McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi.

³⁷ Chirwa, ‘Technical Improvement’.

³⁸ Placing certain practices firmly in the past is a typical way of obscuring information about ongoing, politically sensitive issues related to the subject.

³⁹ M.C. Hoole, ‘Notes on Fishing and Allied Industries as Practised amongst the Tonga of the West Nyasa District’, The Nyasaland Journal, 8, 1 (1955), pp. 25–38; McCracken, ‘Fishing and the Colonial Economy’; G. Haraldsdottir, ‘Cooperation and Conflicting Interests: An Ethnography of Fishing and Fish Trading on the Shores of Lake Malawi’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Iowa, 2002).

⁴⁰ Similar net names appear in the literature: ‘chilimila’, ‘chirimila’ and ‘chilimira’. Judging from the description and context they are merely variations in spelling: consonants [l] and [r] are not distinguished in the Lakeside Tonga language and letters ‘l’ and ‘r’ are often used interchangeably in writing. Here I use the spelling ‘chilimila’.

⁴¹ The chilimila is often described as a seine-net since it catches mainly by enclosing fish instead of trapping them in the mesh. However, it is unique in structure and operation compared with any conventional net in that it first circles the target shoal like a purse seine or shore seine, then sinks and scoops it up like a lift net (see below). This dynamic three-dimensional action is controlled by the balance of floats and weights, the hydrodynamics of the current and the drawing speed. Furthermore, its mesh-size varies within a single net to function also as a gill net corresponding to fish of different size. For a fully detailed description, see: P.B.N. Jackson, T.D. Iles, D. Harding and G. Fryer, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa: 1954–55 (Zomba, Government Printer, 1963); G. Fryer, ‘Local Knowledge of the Fishes of the Ancient Lakes of Africa, and an Example of Comprehensive Understanding’, in H. Kawanabe, G.W. Coulter, A.C. Roosevelt (eds), Ancient Lakes: Their Cultural and Biological Diversity (Ghent, Kenobi Productions, 1999), pp. 263–70.

⁴² This combination of gear is now called kauni fishery at other parts of the lake, and is often represented as a destructive foreign fishing technique introduced by the Tonga.

⁴³ A recent analysis by Francis Maguza-Tembo revealed that the method itself is not necessarily destructive, even at the very fishing grounds where it has attracted the most criticism. Such evidence suggests that the labelling of certain fishing methods and techniques as destructive may well be politically motivated. See F. Maguza-Tembo, ‘Population Parameters and Exploitation Rate of Engraulycipris sardella and Rhamphochromis Species in Southern Lake Malawi: Case of Light Attraction Fishery’ (United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme, Final Project, 2004).

⁴⁴ Cichlids are a large group of fresh water fish species similar in appearance to perch. Lake Malawi has the highest number of cichlid species in the world with estimates ranging from several hundred to over a thousand, most of which are endemic to the lake.

⁴⁵ Mtaka is a fish category in the Tonga ethno-ichthyology that corresponds to haplochromine cichlids of the Copadichromis and Mchenga genera. Typically about the size of a palm, many are found shoaling in mid-water near the shore. Its Chewa language counterpart utaka is adopted for scientific use.

⁴⁶ Jackson, Iles, Harding and Fryer, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa.

⁴⁷ M.C. Hoole, ‘Notes on Fishing and Allied Industries as Practiced Amongst the Tonga of the West Nyasa District’, The Nyasaland Journal, 8, 1 (1955), pp. 25–38; Chirwa, ‘Technical Improvement’.

⁴⁸ Jackson, Iles, Harding and Fryer, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa.

⁴⁹ Jackson, Iles, Harding and Fryer, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa, pp. 146–50.

⁵⁰ Chirwa, ‘Technical Improvement’; Hoole, ‘Notes on Fishing’; Jackson, Iles, Harding and Fryer, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa.

⁵¹ S. Nakayama, ‘Fishing with “Outsiders”: Villager-Migrant Relations on Northern Lake Malawi’, Proceedings of Kyoto Symposium: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries and Re-visioning Area Studies, Kyoto, ASAFAS/CSEAS, 2006), pp 385–95.

⁵² As with the method kauni.

⁵³ For instance, James Longwe's invention of his manejala status (see below).

⁵⁴ An informal and self-organised type of labour migration that the Lakeside Tonga often engaged in, as opposed to migrant work via government recruiters.

⁵⁵ Van Velsen, ‘Politics of Kinship’, p. 313.

⁵⁶ Van Velsen, ‘Labor Migration’, p. 241.

⁵⁷ Van Velsen, ‘Labor Migration’, p. 241

⁵⁸ Van Velsen did, however, acknowledge that labour migration was considered ‘the only way to escape from a difficult situation’ at home. Van Velsen, ‘Politics of Kinship’, p. 67.

⁵⁹ H.L. Moore and M. Vaughan, Cutting Down Trees: Gender, Nutrition and Agricultural Change in the Northern Province of Zambia, 1890–1990 (London, James Currey, 1994).

⁶⁰ Van Velsen, ‘Politics of Kinship’.

⁶¹ G.Z. Kanyere, W. Namoto and O.C. Mponda, ‘Analysis of Catch and Effort Data for the Fisheries of Nkhata Bay, Lake Malawi, 1976–1999’, Fisheries Bulletin, 48 (2001), pp. 1–15.

⁶² Note the performative use of the ethnic label ‘Tonga’. The ‘southerners’, on seeing ‘northerners’ will identify them with the stereotype: ‘if on land, a Tumbuka; if on water, a Tonga’. Much of the migrant fishers originate from the northern end of Tongaland, closer to the Overtoun Institute, where many would identify themselves as Tumbuka, Msiska, etc. However, they would accept being labelled Tonga when fishing on the southern end for sake of simplicity. For the colonial and postcolonial creations of ethnicities and their conflation with regionalism in the northern Nyasaland/Malawi context, see: L. Vail and L. White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi’, in L. Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (London, James Curry, 1989), pp. 151–92; J. McCracken, ‘The Ambiguities of Nationalism: Flax Musopole and the Northern Factor in Malawian Politics, c. 1956–1966’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28, 1 (2002), pp. 64–87; D. Kaspin, ‘The Politics of Ethnicity in Malawi's Democratic Transition’. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 33, 4 (1995), pp. 595–620.

⁶³ Chirwa, ‘Theba is Power’; Van Velsen, ‘Politics of Kinship’.