Popular in Arts and Humanities

Arts and Humanities

Freedom’s Dominion

Vanderbilt University Jefferson Cowie

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Amputations and Convalescence

University of Western Australia Emily Brink

Art

Drawing on the past: Palladio, his precursors and knowledge of ancient architecture

University of Birmingham David Hemsoll

Art

Language, Sound, and Image in Wallace Berman’s Aleph, 1956–1966

University of San Diego Chelsea Behle Fralick

Malawian Migration to Zimbabwe, 1900–1965: Tracing Machona

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - History - Middle Eastern and African History

View more figures from University of Leicester

View the page of Zoe Groves

Read the Study

Next in Arts and Humanities

Election Integrity in a One-Party Dictatorship

David Brandenberger | University of Richmond

The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Tawny Paul | University of California Los Angeles

Zoe Groves highlights the importance of Malawian migration in southern Africa and raises questions about the legacies of colonial-era migration and the history of African diasporas within the continent.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 25, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Comments are closed.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video video outlines a project focused on the migration experiences of ordinary people from Malawi, emphasizing the significance of migration in shaping the nation's history and its often overlooked role in African labor migrations. The author aims to produce a book that highlights how Malawian migrants have influenced cultures and societies beyond their country's borders, particularly during the colonial and post-colonial periods.

The research incorporates both colonial archival studies and oral history interviews with returned migrants, capturing their personal stories and the broader socio-economic dynamics at play. The author notes that most historical accounts of migration highlight movements to South Africa, whereas migrations to Zimbabwe have been more common among Malawians.

The discussion spans multiple aspects, including the historical context of Malawi as a British colony, the nature of labor migration, and the challenges and opportunities faced by Malawian migrants. It also addresses how migrants maintained connections to their home communities, the pressures this created, and the economic contributions they made through remittances.

Women’s migration is also highlighted, detailing how many women sought better opportunities away from rural constraints. This video video emphasizes the need to understand the historical continuities in migration patterns in Africa and the resulting socio-political impacts, as well as the evolving challenges faced by diasporic communities, particularly in relation to citizenship rights in post-colonial contexts.

Overall, the author calls for a nuanced understanding of migration as a longstanding feature of Malawian life and its broader implications across the region.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Sure! However, I need the video you would like me to summarize. Could you please provide it?

Export as PDF
It seems that the video you're referencing is missing. Could you please provide the title or key excerpts from the video so that I can help you find the key quotes?

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.285 --> 00:02.205
I wanted to write a book about

00:03.925 --> 00:06.645
ordinary people's experiences of migration.

00:07.545 --> 00:12.085
And Malawi is a country that has very much been shaped

00:12.385 --> 00:16.005
by its history of migration, but it's often overlooked

00:16.385 --> 00:17.925
and, has been

00:18.725 --> 00:23.565
somewhat neglected in the historical scholarship on labor

00:23.655 --> 00:26.005
migrations in southern Africa.

00:26.625 --> 00:29.565
And so I wanted to produce a book

00:29.565 --> 00:32.805
that focused on these experiences of migration

00:32.875 --> 00:35.245
that really kind of, emphasized

00:35.345 --> 00:37.325
and showed the extent

00:37.325 --> 00:42.005
to which people from Malawi have had an influence far beyond

00:42.585 --> 00:46.525
the, the, the relatively small country of Malawi itself,

00:46.665 --> 00:49.725
but also the way in which migration has really shaped the

00:49.725 --> 00:53.365
culture and politics of the Malawian nation, both,

00:53.385 --> 00:57.565
as a British colony, but also in, in the post-colonial era.

00:58.405 --> 01:02.685
I was also very keen to produce a history of migration

01:03.025 --> 01:06.965
that's focused on migration within the African continent.

01:07.225 --> 01:09.565
Um, that that tends to have been a,

01:09.725 --> 01:11.805
a real focus on migration.

01:12.505 --> 01:14.565
Um, outside of Africa, we tend

01:14.565 --> 01:17.525
to know much more about African diasporas,

01:17.545 --> 01:18.845
and African migrations,

01:18.985 --> 01:22.005
people leaving the African continent when actually,

01:22.325 --> 01:25.125
historically there's always been far more migration within

01:25.185 --> 01:26.405
the continent itself.

01:26.905 --> 01:28.245
And, and yet we know,

01:28.345 --> 01:30.245
we know much less about those histories.

01:30.465 --> 01:34.485
The book is based on colonial archival research

01:34.625 --> 01:38.805
or research in, in colonial archives, in Malawi,

01:38.905 --> 01:41.365
in Zimbabwe, and in the uk.

01:42.315 --> 01:44.775
And within those archives, I was,

01:44.775 --> 01:47.135
looking at colonial records related

01:47.235 --> 01:50.575
to labor migration from labor departments,

01:51.135 --> 01:55.935
district commissioner files, also, the,

01:55.995 --> 01:59.855
the writings of colonial era anthropologists,

01:59.955 --> 02:02.295
who were very concerned with the effects

02:02.435 --> 02:06.135
of labor migration on rural dynamics, the way

02:06.135 --> 02:09.375
that villages were changing and people's lives,

02:09.955 --> 02:11.055
and cultures

02:11.235 --> 02:13.655
and practices were changing as a consequence

02:13.675 --> 02:17.335
of the new experiences that they were having, outside

02:17.335 --> 02:19.855
of their homes, or home communities.

02:20.475 --> 02:24.175
Um, but alongside those, colonial archives,

02:24.215 --> 02:28.055
I was also really keen to, to,

02:28.075 --> 02:30.175
to do some oral history research

02:30.565 --> 02:33.135
with former migrants themselves,

02:33.395 --> 02:37.415
and to, to really sort of bring those life history accounts,

02:37.425 --> 02:38.655
their own memories

02:38.675 --> 02:43.415
and stories of, of migration into this, process of,

02:43.515 --> 02:46.815
of knowledge production, on, you know, producing this,

02:46.815 --> 02:50.015
this new history of, of Malawi and migration.

02:50.515 --> 02:55.215
So I conducted around 50, oral history interviews with

02:55.855 --> 02:58.895
returned migrants in different parts of Malawi,

02:59.025 --> 03:02.565
So in different regions, in the north, south

03:02.565 --> 03:04.685
and central regions,

03:04.785 --> 03:08.165
but also with people who originated from Malawi,

03:08.225 --> 03:11.245
but have, established new lives and,

03:11.265 --> 03:12.885
and settled on a more permanent basis.

03:13.545 --> 03:17.765
Uh, in, in Hari, in, in Zimbabwe, the Ana,

03:17.985 --> 03:21.765
the Ana is a term which is literally translates

03:21.945 --> 03:23.085
as the lost ones.

03:23.395 --> 03:25.805
It's a UA or ger term.

03:25.905 --> 03:28.845
So that's the, the main, the primary language spoken,

03:29.385 --> 03:30.485
not just in Malawi,

03:30.485 --> 03:33.245
but also in other parts of, of the region where people

03:33.305 --> 03:36.685
of c chia, and ger ethnicity reside.

03:37.465 --> 03:39.765
Um, but it's a term that's used more broadly

03:40.105 --> 03:43.565
to describe migrants who, people who left Malawi

03:43.705 --> 03:45.965
and who, failed to return,

03:46.065 --> 03:48.645
or those who who never came home,

03:48.785 --> 03:52.245
or it's used to describe people who somehow lost contact,

03:52.665 --> 03:54.885
with the, with the home communities.

03:55.865 --> 04:00.605
So it's a term that gives us a sense of the, the scale

04:00.705 --> 04:03.445
of which people were leaving Malawi.

04:03.585 --> 04:05.125
Um, so many people were leaving

04:05.225 --> 04:08.285
and seen to be becoming lost to, to these communities,

04:08.285 --> 04:13.205
which created pressures on those who were left behind.

04:13.705 --> 04:18.205
Um, but it also tells us something about the,

04:18.605 --> 04:20.005
pressure on migrants to,

04:20.105 --> 04:22.925
to maintain connections, with home.

04:23.425 --> 04:25.165
To say a bit more about the,

04:25.465 --> 04:28.765
the historical context then within which these migrations

04:28.765 --> 04:29.765
were taking place.

04:31.025 --> 04:32.205
Malawi was a,

04:32.325 --> 04:36.605
a British colony was established in the 1890s known

04:36.605 --> 04:37.645
as Niland.

04:38.145 --> 04:41.445
Um, and it's, as I mentioned,

04:41.645 --> 04:43.365
a relatively small country,

04:43.705 --> 04:46.445
but it, it's always had quite a dense population,

04:46.455 --> 04:48.565
quite a large population for its size.

04:49.785 --> 04:53.725
And, for that reason, perhaps, one of the sort

04:53.725 --> 04:57.445
of main exports from Malawi has, has been migration,

04:57.515 --> 05:00.525
been people, the people were migrating

05:01.025 --> 05:03.885
to many different parts of the Southern African region.

05:04.035 --> 05:07.205
They were pulled there looking for better paid jobs,

05:07.785 --> 05:09.285
new opportunities.

05:10.185 --> 05:13.165
Uh, it wasn't always necessarily economic reasons

05:13.345 --> 05:14.605
behind the migrations.

05:14.635 --> 05:17.925
There's a wide range of different reasons why people looked

05:18.145 --> 05:21.875
to, to leave Malawi, looking

05:21.875 --> 05:25.435
for better opportunities, different experiences,

05:26.655 --> 05:31.235
and, and my book focuses in particular migrations

05:31.415 --> 05:32.435
to Zimbabwe.

05:32.695 --> 05:35.435
Now, Zimbabwe was a different type of colony.

05:35.655 --> 05:37.835
It was what we generally refer to

05:38.095 --> 05:42.715
as a settler colony governed by white, settlers,

05:42.975 --> 05:44.635
not all of whom were from Britain,

05:44.775 --> 05:46.595
but other parts of Southern Africa

05:46.655 --> 05:47.995
and other European countries.

05:48.775 --> 05:52.195
Um, and so people from Malawi,

05:52.195 --> 05:54.915
African migrants from Malawi had quite a different

05:54.965 --> 05:59.205
experience of life in colonial Zimbabwe

05:59.205 --> 06:02.445
because of its settler, colony status.

06:03.385 --> 06:07.165
In other words, they experienced, different forms

06:07.265 --> 06:10.445
of racial discrimination, in, in ways

06:10.445 --> 06:12.765
that perhaps they might not have been confronted

06:12.765 --> 06:15.045
with in their, in their home communities.

06:16.065 --> 06:18.525
Um, despite that, large numbers

06:18.625 --> 06:22.005
of people from Malawi migrated to Zimbabwe

06:22.105 --> 06:24.885
and actually settled them on a, on a permanent basis.

06:25.315 --> 06:29.085
Most literature, most historical writing on,

06:29.135 --> 06:31.325
labor migrations in, in Southern Africa,

06:31.385 --> 06:33.405
and particularly Malawi migration,

06:33.585 --> 06:36.005
has focused on movements to South Africa.

06:36.745 --> 06:38.765
Um, South Africa really dominates

06:38.765 --> 06:41.125
that regional scholarship in part

06:41.125 --> 06:45.725
because, it was also a major, migrant attracting,

06:45.945 --> 06:47.525
or migrant destination.

06:48.145 --> 06:50.445
Um, but also because of the size of the,

06:50.505 --> 06:52.125
the economy in South Africa

06:52.355 --> 06:54.925
with the mining industry really kind of dominating.

06:55.785 --> 07:00.205
Um, but what's, it dominates the scholarship

07:00.205 --> 07:04.325
to the point where we, we know much less about other kinds

07:04.325 --> 07:06.645
of migrations that were actually more common.

07:06.945 --> 07:10.685
So it was more common for somebody from Malawi to, to go to

07:11.205 --> 07:13.085
Zimbabwe than it was to South Africa.

07:13.665 --> 07:17.445
Uh, yet we know much less about those, those stories, partly

07:17.445 --> 07:21.925
because there were so many people from Malawi in Harare,

07:21.925 --> 07:24.845
the colonial, capital known as Salisbury.

07:25.105 --> 07:28.405
Um, up until the, at the time

07:30.185 --> 07:33.885
the city was really dominated by migrants

07:34.305 --> 07:37.165
who spoke a different language to Africans

07:37.435 --> 07:38.725
outside of Salisbury.

07:38.865 --> 07:43.485
So the, the main language of the city was cja,

07:43.925 --> 07:47.605
a form of chia, the main language in Malawi,

07:47.745 --> 07:51.605
as opposed to Ana, the, the main language spoken in,

07:51.715 --> 07:55.565
that part of, of Zimbabwe migrants also brought

07:55.565 --> 07:58.805
with them particular cultural practices,

07:59.285 --> 08:03.845
religious groups, new churches, mosques,

08:03.915 --> 08:06.685
that they, established in the city sometimes

08:06.985 --> 08:08.765
for the first time,

08:09.105 --> 08:12.485
and that weren't exclusively set up for Malawians.

08:12.905 --> 08:16.605
Um, so people, these different,

08:17.245 --> 08:18.925
RA also became a space

08:19.455 --> 08:23.005
where migrants from different communities, different parts

08:23.065 --> 08:25.165
of the region were meeting together and,

08:25.265 --> 08:27.805
and mixing with people from different ethnic groups,

08:28.115 --> 08:30.805
different territorial origins,

08:31.025 --> 08:34.845
and exchanging different ideas, cultural, social,

08:35.035 --> 08:36.725
political, ideas.

08:37.105 --> 08:39.725
And this is also a time of enormous change

08:39.785 --> 08:40.805
and transformation.

08:41.465 --> 08:45.925
Um, so during the 1940s, fifties, sixties,

08:46.425 --> 08:49.765
the, the city of Salisbury today that we know

08:49.765 --> 08:54.125
as Hara really expands, the population grows,

08:54.565 --> 08:57.045
enormously, and you start

08:57.045 --> 09:00.725
to see a lot more people moving into the city, that,

09:00.755 --> 09:03.445
that creates all kinds of, new kind

09:03.445 --> 09:05.645
of new dynamics within the city as well.

09:06.185 --> 09:09.645
Um, you see people, people are experiencing new,

09:10.265 --> 09:12.205
new kinds of leisure activities.

09:12.225 --> 09:14.885
People are entering a, a sort of busy city

09:15.025 --> 09:16.405
for the first time in their lives.

09:16.785 --> 09:21.005
Um, and this was quite a, a, an exciting,

09:21.715 --> 09:22.925
time for, for people.

09:23.545 --> 09:26.405
Um, not to mention the, the kind of changes

09:26.475 --> 09:29.005
that were taking place in terms of the growth

09:29.005 --> 09:33.405
of nationalist politics, new trade union movements,

09:33.455 --> 09:36.205
labor movements, that were really important

09:36.265 --> 09:38.685
to migrant workers as well as to,

09:38.785 --> 09:41.365
to workers from within those countries themselves.

09:41.675 --> 09:46.165
Some people, who migrated will have been able to

09:47.145 --> 09:50.605
secure much better paid jobs than they had,

09:51.005 --> 09:53.765
would've had access to back in Malawi.

09:54.265 --> 09:58.325
Um, there's, there's often a kind of misconception that,

09:58.395 --> 10:01.365
that there were few job opportunities at home,

10:01.425 --> 10:03.885
and that's, that's the reason why people migrate,

10:03.945 --> 10:06.085
but it's, it's not necessarily the case in,

10:06.425 --> 10:10.245
in colonial Malawi, there were plantations in the south

10:10.245 --> 10:12.845
of the country, where there were,

10:13.445 --> 10:14.725
actually labor shortages.

10:14.985 --> 10:17.485
Uh, and, and this is one of the sort of anxieties

10:17.485 --> 10:20.045
that the colonial state has in trying to contain

10:20.185 --> 10:21.445
and prevent migration.

10:22.065 --> 10:23.325
Um, but,

10:23.345 --> 10:26.005
but people are still, still able to, to move outside

10:26.005 --> 10:28.845
of the colony to, to look for better paid opportunities

10:29.745 --> 10:34.085
so people, would be able to access, particularly those

10:34.145 --> 10:36.525
who had already had, access

10:36.625 --> 10:38.365
to a certain degree of education.

10:39.065 --> 10:43.445
Um, there were a number of, due to the,

10:43.545 --> 10:45.325
the sort of quite early history

10:45.325 --> 10:50.165
of Christian missionary contact in Malawi, Malawi,

10:50.165 --> 10:52.965
migrants were known for their advanced education.

10:53.385 --> 10:54.965
And so again, this allowed them

10:54.965 --> 10:57.645
to secure better paid job opportunities

10:57.995 --> 10:59.285
outside of the, the country.

10:59.945 --> 11:02.645
Um, it might have been something just along the lines

11:02.645 --> 11:06.005
of factory work, or they might have been able to use the,

11:06.105 --> 11:08.725
the, the kind of education to get workers,

11:08.925 --> 11:10.285
a clock in, in an office.

11:10.705 --> 11:14.365
Um, some people would've ended up working as teachers,

11:14.595 --> 11:18.045
many people just working in domestic service as well.

11:18.185 --> 11:21.645
Uh, but through that, those jobs, they were often able

11:21.645 --> 11:25.005
to save up money that they would be sending back home,

11:25.385 --> 11:26.405
via remittances.

11:27.065 --> 11:30.805
And those, wages could really transform,

11:30.855 --> 11:33.885
their families and wider communities back home.

11:34.305 --> 11:37.245
Um, they would be able to perhaps send, afford

11:37.245 --> 11:39.765
to send their children to school to pay school fees.

11:40.035 --> 11:44.685
They would, be able to purchase things such as bicycles,

11:44.865 --> 11:46.845
sewing machines, things

11:46.845 --> 11:51.045
that would really change people's, livelihoods on return

11:51.145 --> 11:53.085
to those rural communities,

11:53.625 --> 11:54.725
and allow 'em to sort

11:54.725 --> 11:56.725
of transform their, their class status.

11:57.065 --> 11:59.445
So, so migrants were often aspirational

11:59.825 --> 12:03.365
and not necessarily the, the poorest members in, in,

12:03.385 --> 12:04.405
in their communities.

12:04.635 --> 12:06.405
Some people did return,

12:06.815 --> 12:11.125
after many decades, perhaps, or, or

12:11.125 --> 12:15.365
after a few years away, or after retirement.

12:15.705 --> 12:20.405
And some people found certain challenges in reintegrating

12:20.715 --> 12:23.205
into their communities on return,

12:23.345 --> 12:26.325
and so would move to, a new location,

12:26.325 --> 12:28.125
perhaps a more urban location.

12:28.275 --> 12:32.645
Once they returned to Malawi, other people wanted to return,

12:32.865 --> 12:37.285
and perhaps the, the, the opportunity never came about.

12:37.545 --> 12:40.325
And they, they later, sort of many people

12:40.325 --> 12:43.445
that I interviewed talked about their kind of regrets

12:43.505 --> 12:45.725
and wishing that they had gone home earlier.

12:46.305 --> 12:49.805
Um, because it, it become increasingly hard to return,

12:50.005 --> 12:52.085
particularly as, particularly

12:52.425 --> 12:55.645
as the economy in Zimbabwe started to decline, and,

12:55.785 --> 12:57.405
and people felt the pressure

12:57.405 --> 13:00.125
that they could only return if they had something

13:00.125 --> 13:01.445
to be taking back with them.

13:01.585 --> 13:04.445
So they wanted to, to be a successful migrant.

13:05.195 --> 13:08.125
Importantly, it wasn't just men who migrated.

13:08.755 --> 13:12.605
Many women from Malawi also left home in search

13:12.605 --> 13:15.365
of better opportunities, sometimes

13:15.505 --> 13:19.925
to escape the constraints of rural life, and,

13:20.065 --> 13:23.485
and patriarchal control in in the villages perhaps.

13:24.225 --> 13:29.165
Um, and cities in particular were seen as a place of,

13:29.585 --> 13:32.565
new opportunities and freedom,

13:33.005 --> 13:34.805
although they were also constrained.

13:34.985 --> 13:38.525
And it was often, more challenging due to the greater,

13:39.025 --> 13:42.045
controls around women's mobility.

13:43.385 --> 13:47.285
Um, during, during the, the colonial era in particular.

13:47.545 --> 13:50.085
So some women migrated as wives,

13:50.225 --> 13:52.925
and it was possible to, to mi, to migrate

13:52.995 --> 13:56.325
with their husbands, if, if their marriage was,

13:56.385 --> 13:58.565
was formally recognized,

13:58.705 --> 14:02.245
but other women would migrate in larger, in groups with,

14:02.315 --> 14:03.565
with other single women.

14:04.185 --> 14:07.645
Um, and in the 1940s and fifties, we see this happening.

14:07.945 --> 14:09.325
Um, we see more

14:09.325 --> 14:12.205
and more women migrating, as single women

14:12.465 --> 14:16.165
as there are more formal employment opportunities opening up

14:16.165 --> 14:17.325
for, for women in the city.

14:17.755 --> 14:20.525
Some women also went in search of their husbands

14:20.625 --> 14:24.765
who had left, many years ago and failed to return.

14:25.145 --> 14:26.725
Um, and so they went in search

14:26.725 --> 14:29.085
of their husbands not necessarily looking

14:29.145 --> 14:31.085
to save the marriage perhaps, but,

14:31.185 --> 14:34.165
but perhaps for, for the economic support that,

14:34.165 --> 14:36.165
that they had, missed out on.

14:36.515 --> 14:40.965
It's really important that we historicize the migrations

14:41.075 --> 14:44.045
that we see in Africa today

14:44.065 --> 14:45.245
and in different parts of,

14:45.265 --> 14:48.045
of the continent in central and southern Africa.

14:48.725 --> 14:50.485
A migration continues to be

14:50.765 --> 14:52.645
A major feature of people's lives,

14:52.905 --> 14:54.805
but this isn't a new phenomenon.

14:55.305 --> 14:56.605
Um, at the same time,

14:57.025 --> 14:59.565
the reasons why people migrate has changed.

14:59.905 --> 15:01.445
Um, the, the constraints

15:01.625 --> 15:04.965
and the challenges that people face through migration,

15:05.035 --> 15:06.885
have, have changed in some cases,

15:07.465 --> 15:10.085
but there are also important continuities.

15:10.625 --> 15:13.885
Um, so with the case of, the example of,

15:13.885 --> 15:17.445
of Malawians in Zimbabwe, we know that,

15:17.455 --> 15:18.485
there have been people

15:18.485 --> 15:22.485
of Malawian origin living in this country for,

15:22.625 --> 15:24.245
for at least the past 100 years.

15:24.825 --> 15:29.485
And that these people not only worked in, in the,

15:29.585 --> 15:32.685
the sort of the cities and the mining towns and,

15:32.785 --> 15:34.765
and on commercial farms in Zimbabwe,

15:35.185 --> 15:38.565
but that they also really kind of contributed to,

15:39.085 --> 15:42.565
building and developing, developing the cities to,

15:43.105 --> 15:46.685
and also to shaping the, the politics and the culture

15:46.785 --> 15:48.565
and the societies in which they settled.

15:49.105 --> 15:50.845
What's also really important

15:50.985 --> 15:54.525
to mention when thinking about the legacies

15:54.625 --> 15:56.645
of colonial era labor migration

15:57.665 --> 16:00.725
is the way in which many migrants in,

16:00.785 --> 16:02.845
or people of, foreign origin

16:02.905 --> 16:06.885
and descent, not just in Zimbabwe, but in South Africa or,

16:06.885 --> 16:09.765
and in other countries across the, the continent, and in

16:09.825 --> 16:13.805
and indeed beyond, have often found themselves struggling

16:13.825 --> 16:17.045
to gain full access to citizenship rights,

16:17.705 --> 16:20.245
in the post-colonial era as, as sort

16:20.245 --> 16:23.765
of far more exclusive narrow ideas around nationalism

16:23.905 --> 16:27.525
and who has the right to belong to, to the nation as,

16:27.625 --> 16:29.805
as these kinds of dynamics have emerged.

16:30.105 --> 16:32.525
So I think it's really important to see that these aren't,

16:32.535 --> 16:36.085
these diaspora communities are, are not new.

16:36.115 --> 16:39.165
They're ones that have very strong roots in many

16:39.165 --> 16:40.285
of these, these places.

16:40.705 --> 16:41.725
Um, and they're,

16:41.865 --> 16:45.365
and they're often people who don't have, an entitlement

16:45.365 --> 16:47.045
to citizenship anywhere else.

16:47.865 --> 16:51.565
Um, so we've also seen examples of people facing kind

16:51.565 --> 16:55.725
of statelessness if their, rights

16:55.725 --> 16:57.685
to citizenship are not fully recognized,

16:57.745 --> 16:58.805
in, in Zimbabwe.

16:59.545 --> 17:01.405
Um, so really important to kind

17:01.405 --> 17:04.525
of historicize these post-colonial migrations in

17:04.525 --> 17:06.725
that context of xenophobia

17:06.985 --> 17:09.525
and the, the politics of belonging.

Unveiling Malawian Migration Experiences and Influences

00:00:00 - I wanted to write a book about ordinary people's experiences of migration. And Malawi is a country that has very much been shaped by its history of migration, but it's often overlooked and, has been somewhat neglected in the historical scholarship on labor migrations in southern Africa. And so I wanted to produce a book that focused on these experiences of migration
00:00:35 - and showed the extent to which people from Malawi have had an influence far beyond the, the, the relatively small country of Malawi itself, but also the way in which migration has really shaped the culture and politics of the Malawian nation, both, as a British colony, but also in, in the post-colonial era. I was also very keen to produce a history of migration
00:01:07 - that that tends to have been a, a real focus on migration. outside of Africa, we tend to know much more about African diasporas, and African migrations, people leaving the African continent when actually, historically there's always been far more migration within the continent itself. And, and yet we know, we know much less about those histories. The book is based on colonial archival research
00:01:38 - in Zimbabwe, and in the uk. And within those archives, I was, looking at colonial records related to labor migration from labor departments, district commissioner files, also, the, the writings of colonial era anthropologists, who were very concerned with the effects of labor migration on rural dynamics, the way
00:02:09 - and cultures and practices were changing as a consequence of the new experiences that they were having, outside of their homes, or home communities. but alongside those, colonial archives, I was also really keen to, to, to do some oral history research with former migrants themselves, and to, to really sort of bring those life history accounts,
00:02:38 - and stories of, of migration into this, process of, of knowledge production, on, you know, producing this, this new history of, of Malawi and migration. So I conducted around 50, oral history interviews with returned migrants in different parts of Malawi, So in different regions, in the north, south and central regions, but also with people who originated from Malawi,

Migration: The Lost Ones of Malawi

00:03:11 - and settled on a more permanent basis. in, in Hari, in, in Zimbabwe, the Ana, the Ana is a term which is literally translates as the lost ones. It's a UA or ger term. So that's the, the main, the primary language spoken, not just in Malawi, but also in other parts of, of the region where people of c chia, and ger ethnicity reside. but it's a term that's used more broadly
00:03:43 - and who, failed to return, or those who who never came home, or it's used to describe people who somehow lost contact, with the, with the home communities. So it's a term that gives us a sense of the, the scale of which people were leaving Malawi. so many people were leaving and seen to be becoming lost to, to these communities, which created pressures on those who were left behind.
00:04:18 - pressure on migrants to, to maintain connections, with home. To say a bit more about the, the historical context then within which these migrations were taking place. Malawi was a, a British colony was established in the 1890s known as Niland. and it's, as I mentioned, a relatively small country, but it, it's always had quite a dense population,
00:04:49 - And, for that reason, perhaps, one of the sort of main exports from Malawi has, has been migration, been people, the people were migrating to many different parts of the Southern African region. They were pulled there looking for better paid jobs, new opportunities. it wasn't always necessarily economic reasons behind the migrations. There's a wide range of different reasons why people looked
00:05:21 - for better opportunities, different experiences, and, and my book focuses in particular migrations to Zimbabwe. Now, Zimbabwe was a different type of colony. It was what we generally refer to as a settler colony governed by white, settlers, not all of whom were from Britain, but other parts of Southern Africa and other European countries.
00:05:52 - African migrants from Malawi had quite a different experience of life in colonial Zimbabwe because of its settler, colony status. In other words, they experienced, different forms of racial discrimination, in, in ways that perhaps they might not have been confronted with in their, in their home communities. despite that, large numbers of people from Malawi migrated to Zimbabwe

Migration Patterns: Malawi to Zimbabwe

00:06:25 - Most literature, most historical writing on, labor migrations in, in Southern Africa, and particularly Malawi migration, has focused on movements to South Africa. South Africa really dominates that regional scholarship in part because, it was also a major, migrant attracting, or migrant destination. but also because of the size of the, the economy in South Africa
00:06:55 - but what's, it dominates the scholarship to the point where we, we know much less about other kinds of migrations that were actually more common. So it was more common for somebody from Malawi to, to go to Zimbabwe than it was to South Africa. yet we know much less about those, those stories, partly because there were so many people from Malawi in Harare, the colonial, capital known as Salisbury.
00:07:30 - the city was really dominated by migrants who spoke a different language to Africans outside of Salisbury. So the, the main language of the city was cja, a form of chia, the main language in Malawi, as opposed to Ana, the, the main language spoken in, that part of, of Zimbabwe migrants also brought
00:07:59 - religious groups, new churches, mosques, that they, established in the city sometimes for the first time, and that weren't exclusively set up for Malawians. so people, these different, RA also became a space where migrants from different communities, different parts of the region were meeting together and, and mixing with people from different ethnic groups,
00:08:31 - and exchanging different ideas, cultural, social, political, ideas. And this is also a time of enormous change and transformation. so during the 1940s, fifties, sixties, the, the city of Salisbury today that we know as Hara really expands, the population grows, enormously, and you start to see a lot more people moving into the city, that,
00:09:03 - of new dynamics within the city as well. you see people, people are experiencing new, new kinds of leisure activities. People are entering a, a sort of busy city for the first time in their lives. and this was quite a, a, an exciting, time for, for people. not to mention the, the kind of changes that were taking place in terms of the growth of nationalist politics, new trade union movements,

Migration and Economic Opportunities in Malawi

00:09:36 - to migrant workers as well as to, to workers from within those countries themselves. Some people, who migrated will have been able to secure much better paid jobs than they had, would've had access to back in Malawi. there's, there's often a kind of misconception that, that there were few job opportunities at home, and that's, that's the reason why people migrate,
00:10:06 - in colonial Malawi, there were plantations in the south of the country, where there were, actually labor shortages. and, and this is one of the sort of anxieties that the colonial state has in trying to contain and prevent migration. but, but people are still, still able to, to move outside of the colony to, to look for better paid opportunities so people, would be able to access, particularly those
00:10:36 - to a certain degree of education. there were a number of, due to the, the sort of quite early history of Christian missionary contact in Malawi, Malawi, migrants were known for their advanced education. And so again, this allowed them to secure better paid job opportunities outside of the, the country. it might have been something just along the lines of factory work, or they might have been able to use the,
00:11:08 - a clock in, in an office. some people would've ended up working as teachers, many people just working in domestic service as well. but through that, those jobs, they were often able to save up money that they would be sending back home, via remittances. And those, wages could really transform, their families and wider communities back home. they would be able to perhaps send, afford
00:11:40 - They would, be able to purchase things such as bicycles, sewing machines, things that would really change people's, livelihoods on return to those rural communities, and allow 'em to sort of transform their, their class status. So, so migrants were often aspirational and not necessarily the, the poorest members in, in, in their communities. Some people did return, after many decades, perhaps, or, or
00:12:15 - And some people found certain challenges in reintegrating into their communities on return, and so would move to, a new location, perhaps a more urban location. Once they returned to Malawi, other people wanted to return, and perhaps the, the, the opportunity never came about. And they, they later, sort of many people that I interviewed talked about their kind of regrets

Struggles and Opportunities in Migration

00:12:46 - because it, it become increasingly hard to return, particularly as, particularly as the economy in Zimbabwe started to decline, and, and people felt the pressure that they could only return if they had something to be taking back with them. So they wanted to, to be a successful migrant. Importantly, it wasn't just men who migrated. Many women from Malawi also left home in search of better opportunities, sometimes
00:13:20 - and patriarchal control in in the villages perhaps. and cities in particular were seen as a place of, new opportunities and freedom, although they were also constrained. And it was often, more challenging due to the greater, controls around women's mobility. during, during the, the colonial era in particular.
00:13:50 - and it was possible to, to mi, to migrate with their husbands, if, if their marriage was, was formally recognized, but other women would migrate in larger, in groups with, with other single women. and in the 1940s and fifties, we see this happening. we see more and more women migrating, as single women as there are more formal employment opportunities opening up for, for women in the city.
00:14:20 - who had left, many years ago and failed to return. and so they went in search of their husbands not necessarily looking to save the marriage perhaps, but, but perhaps for, for the economic support that, that they had, missed out on. It's really important that we historicize the migrations that we see in Africa today and in different parts of, of the continent in central and southern Africa.
00:14:50 - A major feature of people's lives, but this isn't a new phenomenon. at the same time, the reasons why people migrate has changed. the, the constraints and the challenges that people face through migration, have, have changed in some cases, but there are also important continuities. so with the case of, the example of, of Malawians in Zimbabwe, we know that, there have been people of Malawian origin living in this country for,
00:15:24 - And that these people not only worked in, in the, the sort of the cities and the mining towns and, and on commercial farms in Zimbabwe, but that they also really kind of contributed to, building and developing, developing the cities to, and also to shaping the, the politics and the culture and the societies in which they settled. What's also really important to mention when thinking about the legacies

Struggles for Citizenship in Post-Colonial Contexts

00:15:57 - is the way in which many migrants in, or people of, foreign origin and descent, not just in Zimbabwe, but in South Africa or, and in other countries across the, the continent, and in and indeed beyond, have often found themselves struggling to gain full access to citizenship rights, in the post-colonial era as, as sort of far more exclusive narrow ideas around nationalism and who has the right to belong to, to the nation as,
00:16:30 - So I think it's really important to see that these aren't, these diaspora communities are, are not new. They're ones that have very strong roots in many of these, these places. and they're, and they're often people who don't have, an entitlement to citizenship anywhere else. so we've also seen examples of people facing kind of statelessness if their, rights to citizenship are not fully recognized,
00:17:06 - so really important to kind of historicize these post-colonial migrations in that context of xenophobia and the, the politics of belonging.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis