![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Seeking to foreground the role of local agency in development practice, anthropologists laud chieftaincy for its ability to reshape development projects and narratives. However, studies commonly focus on the higher ranks of hierarchical chieftaincies or present chieftaincy as a homogenous and unified institution. This has led to an overstatement of sub-chiefs’ ability to influence development projects and discourses. This article explores the relationship between Malawian villagers and three NGOs, Mbwezi, Nkuvira and GreenEarth. The former two had permanent offices in a small Malawian community, their wealth and the westernization-as-development they promised, prevented village headmen (the lowest strata of Malawian chief) from credulously linking development to traditional rule. The latter’s work in a village distant from its office was utilized by a headman to enhance his legitimacy. This article explores the interplay between village headmen’s agency, chiefly hierarchies and international development signifiers. It argues that headmen’s involvement in a development activity neither inherently confers legitimacy to a project nor represents a local co-creation of development.
Acknowledgements
I wholeheartedly thank JEAS’s reviewers and editors for their readings of and suggestions on this manuscript. The research was performed while on an Australian Postgraduate Award at the University of Melbourne.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 All NGOs, chiefs and villages are pseudonyms.
2 For details on Malawi’s economy, Mussa, “A Dangerous Divide.”
3 See Freidus, “Unanticipated Outcomes.”
4 James, “The Return of the Broker.”
5 van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal and van Dijk, “Introduction” and “Our Traditions are Modern.”
6 Olivier de Sardan, Anthropology and Development.
7 Ray and van Rouvery van Nieuwaal, “The New Relevance.”
8 See Duffield et al., Sudan.
9 James, “The Return of the Broker.”
10 Ibid., 333.
11 Chinsinga, “Tradition and Modernity.”
12 van Donge and Pherani, “Law and Order.”
13 Swilder, “The Return of the Sacred.”
14 Schou, “Demand-Driven Poverty Programs.”
15 Ray and van Rouvery van Nieuwaal, “The New Relevance.”
16 Moore, “Cultural Politics.”
17 Nyamnjoh, “Our Traditions are Modern”; Leonardi, “Points of Order.”
18 Moore, “Cultural Politics.”
19 De Vries, “Don’t Compromise.”
20 Bulloch, In Pursuit of Progress.
21 Ibid.
22 Msukwa and Taylor, “Why Can’t Development.”
23 Swidler and Watkins, “Teach a Man To Fish.”
24 Ribohn, “Human Rights.”
25 Cammack, “Malawi’s Political Settlement.”
26 Arndt et al., “The Economy-Wide Risks.”
27 Kishindo, “Community Development in Malawi.”
28 Morfit, “AIDS is Money.”
29 Swidler and Watkins, “Teach a Man.”
30 Msukwa and Taylor, “Why Can’t Development.”
31 Tambulasi, “Decentralisation as a Breeding Ground.”
32 Chiweza, “The Ambivalent Role of Chiefs.”
33 Schou, “Demand-Driven Poverty Programs.”
34 Swidler, “The Return of the Sacred.”
35 Msukwa and Taylor, “Why Can Development.”
36 Ranger, “The Invention of Tradition.”
37 Ranger, “The Invention of Tradition Revisited.”
38 Spear, “Neo-Traditionalism and the Limits of Invention.”
39 See Leonardi et al., “The Politics of Customary Law” for a modern manifestation of these factors.
40 Kaler, “Many Spinsters.”
41 Chanock, “Ambiguities.”
42 Leonardi and Santschi, Dividing Communities.
43 Kayuni and Tambulasi, “Ubuntu and corporate social responsibility.”
44 Buur and Kyed, “Contested Sources of Authority.”
45 Baker, “Tax Collection in Malawi.”
46 Green, “Indirect Rule.”
47 Baker, “Tax Collection in Malawi.”
48 Ibid.
49 Eggen, “Chiefs and Everyday Governance.”
50 Chanock, “Ambiguities.”
51 Woods, “Capitaos and Chiefs.”
52 Chiweza, “The Ambivalent Role.”
53 Green, “Indirect Rule.”
54 Chiweza, “The Ambivalent Role.”
55 Kaspin, “Chewa Visions and Revisions of Power.”
56 Chinsinga, “District Assemblies.”
57 Chinsinga, “Tradition and Modernity.”
58 Ibid.
59 Eggen, “Chiefs and Everyday Governance.”
60 Nyamnjoh, “Our Traditions are Modern.”
61 See Kleist, “Modern Chiefs”; Lentz, “The Chief, the Mine Captain.”
62 Kleist, “Modern Chiefs.”
63 Ibid., 636.
64 Ribohn, “Human Rights.”
65 Swidler, “The Return of the Sacred.”
66 Lentz, “The Chief, the Mine Captain.”
67 Buur and Kyed, “Contested Sources of Authority.”
68 Englund, “Inequality.”
69 Arndt implies this is common complaint.
70 van Donge and Pherani, “Law and Order.”
71 Ibid.
72 Dionne, “Seeing Like a Village.”
73 Ribohn, “Human Rights.”
74 13/9/2012 Interview with Bweteka, Pungwe village.
75 Food-for-work paid a Vsawan up to 1,500MK a day, while a fertilizer coupon could be resold for 15,000MK.
76 Payments for attending training.
77 Ribohn, “Human Rights and the Multiparty System.”
78 1/1/2013 interview with Vsawa’s Traditional Authority, Mphiri village.
79 Female Headmen are not unheard of in Malawi – Peters 1997.
80 Ibid.
81 See Kuper, “Gluckman’s Village Headman”; Duffield et al., Sudan.
82 See also Swilder and Watkins, “Teach a Man.”
83 Lentz, “The Chief, the Mine Captain,” 59.
84 12/1/2013 Interview with Gunzan (pseudonym) in Pungwe village.
85 Who were financially responsible for many villagers.
86 13/11/2012 Interview with Jerimani in Revori village.
87 22/12/2012, Griffin (pseudonym), Revori village.
88 Ibid.
89 Similar to Eggen and Duffield et al.
90 26/11/2012 Interview with Nachoka, Jumpi village.
91 19/12/2012 Ibid.
92 Classically Olivier de Sardan, Anthropology and Development.
93 Bulloch, In Pursuit of Progress.
94 Criticisms made by Nyamnjoh & van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal & van Dijk.
95 Kleist, “Modern Chiefs.”
96 James, “The Return of the Broker.”
97 Classically Kuper, “Gluckman’s Village Headman.”
98 Morfit, “AIDS is Money.”
99 Swilder and Watkins, “Teach a Man.”
100 Mosse, “The Anthropology of International Development.”
101 De Vries, “Don’t Compromise.”