'S SEARCH FOR FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Part I: Resource Endowment and Developmental Contraints

by J. Gus Liebenow

19821No. 30 Africa [JGL-2-'821

It is difficult to be optimistic about the prospects of Africa pro- viding sufficient food to feed its growing population. The Sahelian drought of the 1970s, which left a quarter of a million dead in its wake, captured the sympathies of the entire world, as has the current problem of feeding the several million East African refugees who are the victims of civil war and international conflict. Less dramatic, but in the long run more significant, is the steady toll undernourishment and an unbalanced diet take in the form of high infant mortality rates, loss of economic productivity, and susceptibility to the many tropical and temperate zone diseases that afflict the residents of the continent. In the aftermath of exuberance about African independence, gnawing doubts exist on the part of economists and others about the ability of African states to achieve their ambitious development goals without massive infusions of external aid. The proverbial Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, of course, are not strangers to the African continent. What makes the current era differ- ent is not merely the magnitude of the problem and the wider world's greater awareness of the African condition. It is the realization on the part of Africans themselves that they need no longer accept poverty, starvation, and disease in a fatalistic fashion. While others may doubt the "inevitability of progress," many Africans remain convinced that a better way of life is both possible and imminent. Despite this optimism, there are no simple diagnoses of African ills, nor easy routes to their cure. Many of the political, social, eco- nomic, and environmental problems of Africa relate directly or in- directly to the problems of food. High prices for staples, the mis- handling of famine relief, and basic food shortages have been the root causes of great political instability in Ethiopia, Niger, Uganda, and Liberia-to name just a few recent cases. With population growth rates in excess of 3 percent per annum, with urbanization proceeding at twice the global average, and with a staggering increase in popula- tion density relative to arable land, the leaders of many African states find themselves coping with mounting crises that almost defy solution. Few of the African states possess the mineral resources either for significant industrialization or even for the creation of export economies which would permit them to purchase abroad the food, clothing, and shelter required by their people. In basing development plans on an expansion of both domestic and export agriculture, more- over, one begins with the hard facts that 44 percent of Africa's land surface is subject to recurrent drought, 11 percent is in danger of desertification, and vast portions of the remaining arable land have become the lair of the mosquitoes, flies, and other organisms respon- sible for a range of diseases that affect human life and productivity. Population pressure, moreover, means that even neurs and administrators to train Africans to the land which has a reasonable guarantee of perform critical developmental roles. Manifesta- adequate rainfall is being overworked and tions of neocolonialism, involving not only the threatened with erosion and loss of fertility. former colonial powers but also socialist as well As Uma Lele of the World Bank has pointed as other capitalist states outside Africa, have out, the rate of growth of African food produc- further complicated the dependency of Africa tion has lagged behind that of other world upon external forces. The members of OPEC, regions-less than 2 percent per annum during moreover, while generally sympathetic to the the period 1960-1975, compared with 3 percent plight of developing states in Africa, have never- for Asia and over 3.5 percent for Latin America theless contributed to a dramatic rise in cost not for the same period.' During the latter part of only for petroleum products but also fertilizers, the 1970s, food production actually declined by capital equipment, and indeed everything else 1.4 percent in most African states, forcing them that has to be imported. Thus, whether by acci- to import basic food staples. The 2 million ton dent or design, the gap between the standard of food deficit for Africa registered for 1975 is pro- living of people in the developed states and those jected to increase to 24 million by 1990. Officials in Africa appears to continue to widen rather of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) than diminish. predict that by the year 2000, Africa will have to It is not enough to blame external forces. After import 39 percent of its cereal requirements almost a quarter of a century of independence, unless drastic steps are taken to alter techniques some of the burden of responsibility must be of production, carry out rigorous population shared by African leaders as well as by the control programs, and reverse the flow of rural to African masses. Of necessity, the balance sheet urban migration. on continuing underdevelopment must include Exactly how African states would pay for the fratricidal conflict; widespread official corrup- imported food is another difficult problem, tion; misplaced priorities in economic develop- given the rising level of expectations. For these ment; reluctance to alter traditional agricultural expectations must be measured against the and herding practices; massive imports of con- escalating costs of oil, fertilizer, capital equip- sumer goods; and uneven regional development. ment, and other ingredients of agricultural The record must also include the propensity to modernization-compounded by the decreasing pursue politically popular rather than intellec- global prices for the agricultural and other com- tually brave courses on urban growth, family modities Africa exports. Indeed the situation is planning, income distribution, and skill-orienta- so bleak that Mr. Eduardo Saouma, Director- tion education. general of the FAO, analyzed the world food crisis in 1981 to be the worst since the start of the We have reached a point where it should be Sahelian drought of 1973 and predicted that by apparent to most observers that political rhetoric the year 2000 the long-range implications of the and good intentions are not sufficient to resolve crisis would be that four-fifths of the inhabitants Africa's food problems. The crisis is com- of sub-Saharan Africa would be living in absolute pounded in the 1980s as is faced with food rationing; must engage in poverty. 2 massive importations of food; Tanzania lacks In addition to natural forces, human factors adequate grain storage facilities even when the also play a substantial role in the African food harvests are reasonable; and the problems of crisis. It remains politically popular to attribute malnutrition are evident not only in true disaster most of the failures in agricultural and other areas, such as Uganda and Somalia, but even in forms of economic development to the heritage of states of more general abundance, such as South the colonial era, to the exploitative policies of the Africa. Indeed, of the 28 states the Director developed capitalist states, and even to the General of FA0 suggested face severe food prob- economists in the International Monetary Fund lems in 1981, Africa accounts for 22. It is for this (IMF) and World Bank. Unquestionably, some of reason that attention is directed in this paper to the problems of African food production are the one of the few states in sub-Saharan Africa which consequence, inter alia, of the alienation of the appears to have a more favorable record in its best land to European settlers; the over- efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in food pro- emphasis upon the export sector to the neglect of duction. Indeed, some analysts have even boldly domestic food production and local processing referred to this exception as the "Malawi industries; and the failure of colonial entrepre- ." The Malawi Case By way of contrast, Uma Lele singles out Malawi The surprising aspect of the Malawi accom- and two other sub-saharan African states (Ivory plishment in food production is that the United Coast and Kenya) as exceptions to her generali- Nations in 1980 counted it among the 36 zation that the high and worsening rural-urban members of the "Fourth World," that is, those income disparities are the consequence of the lowest income countries at or below the sub- fact that "agricultural sectors have been stagnant sistence level of survival. Of the 46 countries in or slow growing even relative to the poorly per- sub-saharan Africa, Malawi ranked tenth from forming industry and service sectors."6 Some the bottom in terms of GNP. This Central African evidence of the success of Malawi's agricultural country has neither the resources for industrial program-including its facilities for storing and development nor the hopes for the prosperity. preserving maize and other foodstuffs-was which could come from the export of minerals dramatically revealed in 1980 when Malawi's needed by the developed world. Thus, as Julian ability to withstand the full impact of the East Burgess, a writer for African Business, states: African drought stood in sharp contrast to the The success story of the Malawi economy is the performance in most of the neighboring coun- success story of farming. It enabled Malawi to tries.7 grow at an average in real terms of 6.7 percent per annum in the 1970s. This must be some sort The presence in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, of of record for non-oil producers in Africa, if not an increasing number of overseas investors, the world as a whole.3 donor agency representatives, and United Nations officials attests to the broad interest in The preponderance of agriculture in the the Malawian achievement. Interest stems not Malawian economy is revealed in the 1977 only from the agricultural base of Malawian census: it shows over 83 percent of the adults in a modernization; it arises as well from a fas- population of 5.6 million to be engaged in agri- cination with the ability of President H. Kamuzu culture and related occupations (hunting, Banda to "swim against the socialist tide" forestry, or fishing). Agriculture also accounts for in African ideological terms. Banda, more- over 94 percent of export earnings. Favorable over, boldly elected to establish both economic growth rates in both export and domestic agricul- and diplomatic ties with as a cal- ture contributed substantially to the rise in the culated strategy for growth and self-sufficiency. GNP between 1970 and 1976; going from 300 to Finally, Banda is one of the few African leaders 700 at market prices.4 Even an otherwise critical who has been able to slow the pace of rural to analyst of the Malawian political system was urban migration, which elsewhere in the conti- obliged recently to note, relative to the Malawian nent has produced massive urban unemployment economy, that and the removal of laborers from the rural sector, Sizable foreign exchange earnings from com- where they could have contributed to food and modity exports have made Malawi an exception other agricultural production.8 to the Third World rule of massive government Constraints on Malawian Development indebtedness.. .. Western nations [are] attracted The accomplishments of postindependence by... a relative lack of cowuption in the imple- agricultural planning in Malawi are all the more mentation of aid schemes.. . . The nation is self- remarkable when one considers the various geo- suflcient in food production and exports rice graphic, historical, cultural, and other con- and maize to Zimbabwe and Zambia. straints on development. Indeed, efforts to isolate That anonymous critic also commented that, unifactoral causes for the success of Malawi's agricultural programs invariably suffer on more despite the inflation generated by rising oil costs, detailed analysis. Given the prominence of "Malawi has far to go before it reaches the stage drought in explaining the failures of agriculture of acute economic crisis faced by its neighbors." in the Sahel in the 1970s' for example, and in Further words of praise for Malawi's agricul- Tanzania and other East African countries tural program have come from Uma Lele of the recently, Malawi's more favorable water resource World Bank. In a tough-minded critique of base is cited as a factor in its success. It is true African agricultural development, she argued that the country generally has enjoyed close to 52 that, despite the rhetoric, "most African coun- inches of rainfall annually in recent years, and tries are not giving priority to the development of furthermore, that one-sixth of the country's peasant agriculture. There is not even much domain consists of one of Africa's largest fresh- understanding of what is required to develop it." water lakes. On closer analysis, however, one realizes that 98 percent of Malawi's rainfall planned to establish Lilongwe as the capital of occurs within a 7-month period (October to independent Malawi. Its location at the approxi- April), leaving almost drought-like conditions for mate center of the country has dramatically the rest of the year. Figures on the national shifted development in a northward direction. average, moreover, conceal extremes ranging from a high of 95 inches per year at Nkhata Bay The arbitrary demarcation of colonial bound- on the lake to a low of 27 in Kasungu district. aries also left Malawi with one of the highest Some of the heaviest rain occurs in the high densities of population in Africa. With its mountain areas where relatively little crop cul- population of 5.6 million located on 94,276 tivation occurs. While it is recognized that his- square kilometers of land, Malawi has a crude torically the shores of Lake Malawi served as a density of 59 persons per square kilometer. This refuge during times of severe drought in Eastern gross figure, of course, understates the case since and Central Africa, its contemporary relevance is it masks the fact that much of Malawi's land is limited. The fact is most Malawians live in the not arable. Nor does it take into account that the higher upland plateau and at too great a distance regional densities range up to 148 persons per for the water to be carried or piped from the lake square kilometer in the central region and 214 in at an economic cost.9 Consequently, water for the southern region. In two of the districts in the agricultural purposes poses roughly the same south-Chiradzulu and Thyolo-the densities constraints ip Malawi as it does in neighboring are 566 and 462 persons per square kilometer, countries. respectively. The situation has been aggravated dramatically within the period since the 1966 and The arbitrary fashion in which colonial bound- 1977 censuses. Experiencing an annual growth aries were drawn in the nineteenth century rate of 2.7 percent per annum between 1966 and division of Africa also poses constraints. Like 1977, the national population density figure rose several of its neighbors, Malawi is a landlocked from 53 to 59 persons per square kilometer in country, with its closest accesses to the sea being that brief period. 10 the ports of Beira and Necala in Mozambique, which lie at distances of 322 and Given the absence of resources needed for in- 564 kilometers respectively from the Malawian dustrial growth (oil, coal, or iron), or even ex- borders. Given the rising cost of petroleum portable mineral resources beyond limestone and required for land transport, as well as the costs of other building stones, Malawi's development is constructing and maintaining roads and rail closely tied to agriculture.11 Hence, the availa- links, this is a considerable developmental dis- bility of arable land relative to a growing rural advantage. Malawi's elongated shape, moreover, sector becomes critical. The centrality of agricul- has complicated the task of administrative and ture and related activities in terms of employ- political control as well as the achievement of ment is demonstrated in Table 1. balanced regional development. The country is The role agriculture plays in export earnings only 198 kilometers wide at its broadest point but today is revealed by the fact that 89 percent of the 920 kilometers from north to south. exports, in terms of value, are agricultural. The Economic and political constraints also estate crops of tobacco, sugar, and tea now out- emerge from what some observers have called rank by far the groundnuts, rice, and other Malawi's "pear-shaped" development. That is, export products of the smallholder sector. the historic expansion of European missionary, The Colonial Legacy trading, and administrative interests from The bias of the colonial administration during Southern Africa in most of the colonial era pro- most of the British era (c. 1890-1964) was clearly duced a concentration of economic activity in favor of the one percent of the population around the commercial capital of Blantyre and which was European in origin and was engaged the administrative capital at Zomba. The central in estate cultivation in the south. Labor policy, region was relatively neglected. Other than plant research, and development of transport mission education at Livingstonia, the north-or infrastructure clearly had a European tilt. The "dead North," as colonial administrators called coercive nature of taxation as well as the direct it-was viewed as a source of mine labor, but involvement of government in recruitment facili- little else. It was to correct this regional imbal- tated the flow of cheap labor to the European ance that Banda-while serving a prison sen- estates. One of the worst manifestations was the tence for his opposition to colonial authority- legal sanctioning of the thangata system, under Table 1 Occupations by Industry Total lndustry numbers Males Females

National-all industries 2,288,351 1,231,812 1,056,539 Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing 1,932,122 936,099 996,023 Mining and Quarrying 2,174 2,140 34 Manufacturing 82,291 67,723 14,668 Electricity -gas 8 water 4,213 4,003 210 Construction 47,452 44,983 2,467 Wholesale, retail, restaurant & hotel 62,608 50,150 12,458 Transport, storage and communications 23,400 22,776 624 Financing, insurance real estate & business 4,494 3,824 670 Community, social and personal services 82,523 67,170 15,353 lndustry not stated 46,974 21,942 14,032

National - rural, all industries 2,133,576 1,108,884 1,023,692 National-urban, all industries 154,775 122.928 31,847

Source: Malawi Census, 1977. which resident Malawians supplied virtually free European estates was common. As was true of labor to the estate owners in return for the other British territories, moreover, each new "privilege" of cultivating what had once been effort to improve productivity, control plant their ancestral lands. Not only were the tobacco, diseases, or cope with soil erosion on African tea, and other crops produced on the European plots was accompanied by a fine or threat of im- estates of little relevance to the food and other prisonment for those who failed to comply. The needs of Malawians, but Malawians were legally orders often flew in the face of common sense, barred from cultivating coffee, flue-cured such as those requiring the uprooting of healthy tobacco, and other crops which might put them crops to prevent the spread of a plant disease, or in competition with Europeans. the British bias against slash and burn cultiva- tion. Moreover, the orders were often issued The majority of African cultivators during the without the benefit of demonstration plots or colonial period remained predominantly in the even rational explanations. Hence, agricultural subsistence sector. Involvement in the cash innovation tended to be distrusted, and the economy was partial (that is, crops were grown policies led to a negative bias toward farming on for tax and other purposes while farmers the part of many younger ~a1awians.l~The pro- continued to produce subsistence food crops) or pensity toward compulsion as a necessary intermittent (that is, young adult males tempo- ingredient in carrying out the British colonial rarily left subsistence farming and involved "mission" is epitomized by the comments of the themselves for limited periods in wage employ- Director of Agriculture of Nyasaland in 1956: ment in a European economic either in Malawi or abroad). 12 One cannot expect an agrarian revolution to take place from scratch in a few years, but one A further characteristic of colonial agriculture may reasonably be excused mild impatience policies and practices was the reliance upon force when, with a little hard work and timely attention as a key instrument in achieving innovation. to a few elementary agricultural practices, yields Compulsory recruitment of labor for work on of most crops could be raised by 50 percent, straight away. The disappointment would be mirrored the distressed state of the British easier to bear if time were not so pressing, but as economy or the whimsy and demands upon the each year passes and pressure on the land goes time and attention of understaffed colonial up, the dzflculty of pulling out of the slough of administrators. During the depression the export subsistence cultivation increases. of maize and maize flour in 1931 was 311,452 pounds (at a value of £558). The next year maize In an efSort to gain on time a measure of com- exports dropped to 5,400 pounds (at a value of pulsion has been used for many years in soil con- only X9). Although maize picked up slightly in sewation. The policy is vindicated by results. the ensuing years, it was not until World War I1 Three quarters of a million acres of arable land that demand skyrocketed, reaching a high of have been protected from serious erosion during 7,805,917 pounds in 1942. the past eight years. Posterity will appreciate that result which could not have been achieved by any At the end of the war, demand once more other means. Neither should the achievement be dropped. The attention of the department turned measured in statistical terms alone for many have to other crops, the drought of 1949 caught the grown to appreciate the wisdom of what they protectorate with almost no maize reserves, and a were made to do and others have acquired a good severe famine gripped the area. In response, the habit although not always understanding the fill government in 1950 initiated a policy of pur- signzficance of it. 14 chasing every ear of maize presented for sale. This led to a record export crop of 28,500 short Colonial efforts at innovation were also often tons, the bulk of which was shipped to Southern capricious in nature. My micro-study of the Rhodesia. Almost in glee, the Director of Newala district of Tanganyika documented the Agriculture proclaimed in 1950 that "maize is way that innovation in natural resource manage- now the principal cash crop of the Protector- ment reflected more the whims and prejudices of ate."l6 By 1953 maize exports had climbed to the British commissioner of the day rather than 40,000 tons. Caprice reasserted itself in 1958 as the broad interests of local cultivators. Seldom the government elected to curtail maize pur- did the administrators take into account African chases, arguing that the 1950 policy had brought "conventional wisdom" regarding the promise too much marginal land under cultivation and and limitations of their physical environment re- had threatened Nyasaland with becoming a garding cultivation. As each new commissioner monoculture. Export of maize, moreover, had was posted to the district, the African cultivators depleted local reserves and made the protectorate had only to wait patiently to discover the latest vulnerable to a repeat of the 1949 famine. version of the "white man's madness," and then Marketing facilities were intentionally withdrawn adjust accordingly, forgetting all the innovations from areas of low yield, and prices were pegged of the preceding commissioners. At the macro- so low that growers refused to sell their maize at level in Nyasaland, the half century of colonial two-thirds of a penny per pound. Limiting pro- experience with the growing of maize as a cash duction of maize continued to be British policy export crop illustrates this tendency toward until independence came in 1964, and it was caprice.15 indeed a factor in generating support for nation- Recognizing the potential of maize as a crop alist opposition to British rule.17 suitable for export to as well as a device for getting cash into African hands for tax and While the various twists and turns in British other purposes, the Department of Agriculture in policy may have made good sense to colonial 1910 began to encourage smallholder production. administrators who were responding to global Although inadequate transport, improper drying prices, shifting demands within the empire, or techniques, and the 1912 drought gave the ex- even enhanced knowledge regarding the use of periment a shaky start, the demand for fertilizers or crop rotation, the switches in policy foodstuffs during World War I provided a stimu- made little sense to the isolated smallholder in a remote village of colonial Nyasaland. As a lant to maize production. Once the war had consequence, the sustaining of agricultural inno- ended, however, the demand for maize abruptly vation and securing a commitment to cash crop evaporated, and the department once more cultivation among smallholders became more shifted its attention to European-grown tobacco difficult to accomplish once Africans had and tea. inherited the reins of power. Between the wars, the vagaries in production and export of maize sometimes reflected rainfall Finally, the colonial legacy must include the or locust infestations, but more frequently it harsh facts that the revenues secured from the 'Praditwnul maize storage (Photo courtesy Malawi Information Department) sale of agricultural commodities or the payment vators. Indeed, one of the final moves of the of hut and poll taxes by Africans did little to British administration would have been to con- transform the conditions of life for rural vert Malawi into a permanent pool of migratory Africans. The major infrastructural changes labor for the benefit of white economic interests benefited either the government itself or the in the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and small expatriate community of merchants, Nyasaland. Recruitment of Malawian labor for planters, and missionaries. Public expenditures work in Southern Africa had commenced in on health, education, African agricultural and earnest around 1934, recruiting workers from veterinary services, and other service programs Mzimba and Kasungu in the central and were meager. In many instances the protectorate northern regions.19 Professor Robert Boeder government expected these services to be pro- suggests that in the peak years of recruitment, as vided by the Church of Scotland, Roman Catho- many as 10 percent of adult Malawians were lic, or other Christian missions.18 Indeed, one absent from the country. Only part of the story is way the colonial administration dealt with un- revealed in the data in Table 2. employment, creating a cash-oriented popula- tion, and handling health and other service pro- The 1977 census data suggest that a higher grams was to encourage the "export" of young proportion of laborers were engaged through Malawians to work in the mines of Southern unofficial channels. In the 1977 census, over 17 Africa. percent of the 15- to 50-year-old population of both sexes had spent some part of their lives External Labor Migration working abroad. With respect to just the 12 External migration during the colonial period months preceding the 1977 census, 208,068 had a profound impact upon Malawian culti- Malawians indicated they had been working or Table 2 period and may still be so today in the form of family or peer pressure. In the colonial period, Malawians Recruited under Contract, the threat of fine or imprisonment for failing to for Labor in South African Mines pay one's hut and poll taxes in cash certainly propelled otherwise reluctant young males into 1968...... 35,036 the migratory experience. Other physical conse- 1969 ...... 40,992 quences also emerged: coming from a milder 1 970...... 6 1,622 climate, many of the Malawians were reported by 1971 ...... 65,951 South African mine owners to be more sus- 1972 ...... 81,628 ceptible to pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other 1973 ...... 76,227 respiratory illnesses. 1974 (through April)...... 31,650 1975 ...... The social consequence of migration is partly 1976 ...... revealed in the 1977 census data which show a 48 1977 (through December)...... 18,206 to 52 differential between males and females at 1978 ...... 16,431 the national level. Indeed, the absence from the country of young males on two- to three-year Source: Malawi Statistical Yearbook, 1979 (Zomba: Gov- contracts causes a considerable disruption in ernment Printer, 1980). family organization. Even today, among the poorest strata of Malawian society, females often visiting Mozambique, Tanzania, or Zambia, must struggle to combine both male and female whereas another 79,882 had been in other coun- economic and social roles in the absence of the tries, primarily South Africa. To many Mala- mine-laboring husband from the homestead. wians, particularly the young adult males, labor migration has become a way of life and serves as In terms of domestic economic development, a rite of passage comparable to the circumcision the advantages of labor migration must be set rites at puberty. 20 against the losses sustained by the absence of In defense of officially sanctioned recruitment, healthy young males who could be contributing it has been argued by both colonial and post- their talents to improvement and expansion of independence governments that migration pro- agriculture and the related fishing and forestry sectors. Survey research on the part of several vides government with foreign exchange earnings social scientists does not reveal that the returned that would not have otherwise been realized. In migrant is a more innovative farmer than one the absence of industrial forms of employment at who remains at home or that he had acquired any home, moreover, it provides the marginal skills that can be usefully be channeled into de- cultivator with the cash needed to purchase con- velopment efforts at home. As my own data from sumer items, pay school fees, and in other ways Tanzania suggest, the Malawian returnee often participate in the cash economy. The wives and "blows his earnings" on consumer items and is other dependents who remain behind in the rural quickly reabsorbed into rural life. sector also benefit through the dispatching of remittances via postal money orders and other Given the mixed consequences of external channels. Just using the figures for the officially labor migration it is not surprising that the sanctioned recruitment efforts, a total of kwacha policies and postures of the Banda government 29 million (one kwacha = US1.18, 1981) was have undergone adjustment in the period since transmitted in 1974-75 through the South independence. Initially, Banda opted not to African Employment Bureau of the Malawian follow the lead of Tanzania in curtailing all labor government, which banked earnings until the recruitment efforts involving contact with white migrants return.21 Since census data and re- supremacist regimes in Southern Africa. Banda searchers suggest that many laborers are re- argued that Malawi was a poor country with only cruited through unofficial channels, the total land and people as its primary resources. If, at amount remitted home in a given year or the time of independence, the only way his gov- earnings repatriated in the form of consumer ernment could help feed the people as well as goods by returning migrants must be substan- secure the needed additional revenue to fund tial. health, education, and agricultural programs was The balance sheet on migratory labor, how- to continue labor recruitment, then his govern- ever, is highly complex. On the negative side, the ment fully intended to do so. On the other hand, element of coercion was a key factor in the early as economic opportunities did develop at home through agricultural growth, the expansion of Leaving aside the estates, and the extensive processing industries (rice mills, textile mills, mountain tops and forest areas (which are desig- fruit canning, and the like), and the construction nated as public lands), roughly 80 percent of the of the new capital at Lilongwe, Malawi has land is still being cultivated under customary reduced its export of mine labor. Indeed, in 1974, tenure, with usufructory right of occupancy being using the occasion of the crash of a plane carry- the basis for land allocation. Traditional chiefs ing Malawian workers to South Africa, Banda and elders, who enjoyed official recognition and brought recruitment efforts to a complete halt. status under the British policy of Indirect Rule, As Table 2 reveals, the resumption of official continue to play a role today in land allocation, recruitment in 1977 has been at a considerably even though modern law and recent practices- reduced scale. And the figures in Table 3 indicate including land registration-have modified their a declining interest in labor migration, suggest- authority. The amount of land under the control ing that internal growth is closer to the take-off of a given family head is related to his family stage than earlier realized. needs, and to a certain extent the holdings expand and contract as his obligations increase The Two-pronged Development Strategy or diminish. Average size landholdings on the part of smallholders are roughly 4.7 acres (1.9 The government of Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, hectares) in the central region, 3.5 acres in the which assumed power on July 6, 1964, did not north and 3.2 acres in the south. Rather than entirely reject the legacy of British colonialism, consolidated holdings, however, each household and Nyasaland's constitutional position as a pro- head controls a number of land fragments which tectorate has had a lasting impact on agricultural vary in soil quality and in distance from water development. In contrast with Kenya, Zambia, sources or village settlements. While less efficient Zimbabwe, and South Africa, where a major economically, fragmentation has furthered the portion of the best arable land was literally traditional goal of distributive justice. confiscated by European economic interests, the In the absence of mass land alienation-and protectorate status did' limit land alienation. At despite the than ata sharecropper system which the height of colonial rule, the European and was outlawed a6 er independence-Malawi has Asian community had attained only a fraction of been spared the lingering racial conflict of some one percent of the population, and only 2 percent of its neighbors. Unlike many developing soci- of the land was allocated to non-Africans on a eties, moreover, it has also been spared the freehold or leasehold basis. 22 problems posed by a landless proletariat. Table 3 Migratory Experience of Malawians, aged 15 and over: 1977

Age Category Numbers in Worked abroad Worked abroad total national on official without official population contract contract

Source: MalawiStatistical Yearbook, 1979 (Zomba: Government Printer, 1980). Without such pressures, Malawi has been rela- smallholder tenure, constraints on arable land tively free to pursue a two-pronged development will simply not permit every adult Malawian to strategy relative to land. remain a smallholder. The first prong of the strategy committed the For both economic and political reasons, government to the retention and expansion of the however, the second prong of the development estate sector (a move Robert Mugabe elected to strategy-the improvement in smallholder agri- emulate after Zimbabwe's independence, despite culture-has assumed greater priority. Malawi, his commitment to socialism). The relative Kenya, and the Ivory Coast are among the few efficiency of estate agriculture and its role in states that have rejected the mechanized state export earnings could not be ignored. Increas- farms or the collectivized village settlement ingly, however, Malawians are displacing or strategies, on the one hand, and the laissez-faire supplementing the expatriate owners and drift with respect to peasant agriculture, on the managers, and the tenure in the new acreage is other. These three states, in the opinion of one leasehold rather than freehold. This means that World Bank adviser, evidence genuine efforts to the estate cultivator must pay a nominal rent to increase the productivity of smallholder agricul- the traditional authority and that the land still ture by sustaining " .. .remunerative price remains within the customary domain. The incentives for peasant agriculture, while pro- significance of Banda's continued support of the viding government support through the develop- estates was revealed in 1970, when estate exports ment of transport infrastructure, research, and surpassed the export earnings from the small- extension service."24 holder sector. Since 1968, moreover, estate Although smallholder farming is less signifi- farming has experienced a 17 percent annual cant with respect to export earnings, 85 percent growth rate, while the smallholder sector has of all agricultural production in Malawi actually been comparatively sluggish. Estate export derives from smallholder activity. The bulk of earnings have risen from kwacha 9.8 million at that activity is the production of maize, beans, independence to a peak of kwacha 107.6 million groundnuts, sweet potatoes, cassava, rice, wheat, in 1977.23 coffee and some raw materials for domestic in- Some critics of the government's continuing dustry, such as tung oil, cotton, and fire-cured attention to estate agriculture seem to overlook tobacco. Although much of this (estimates range the important connection between success there from 50 to 75 percent) is consumed as part of and success of the government's efforts to subsistence, a sizable share is marketed through improve smallholder farming. As Shankar ADMARC (Agricultural Development and Acharya, research adviser to the World Bank, Marketing Corporation), a government pur- points out, it was no coincidence that Malawi, chasing corporation, for resale in either the which chose to increase " .. . its specialization in domestic or export markets. agricultural exports together with some diversifi- The value of smallholder exports (both food cation into new agricultural commodities [is one and nonfood) climbed from kwacha 12.2 million of the few countries] which sustained the most at independence to a high of kwacha 61.2 million favorable environment for private peasant agri- in the bumper crop year of 1977. The value in culture." recent years has averaged kwacha 43.3 million. Without the exchange earnings from tobacco, On balance, smallholder production is directed sugar, tea, and other exports, Malawi would lack toward enhancing the income of smallholders as the means to import the fertilizers and other well as the achievement of self-sufficiency in food inputs needed to improve smallholder agriculture for both urban and rural residents. There is con- and to finance the rail and road network linking siderably less emphasis upon smallholder in- the village and national economies. Without volvement in the export economy. Maize, for export earnings Malawi would also lack the example, which is one of the major crops, has not means to create the import substitution and agri- been exported in recent years, in order to build cultural processing industries which are giving it up a famine reserve. The wisdom of this bore greater economic independence and improved fruit in the drought year of 1980. employment opportunities for those who cannot Incremental Pragmatism be absorbed into agriculture directly. For no Dr. Banda's two-pronged strategy has set matter how unsatisfactory the conditions of Malawi on a course of economic development estate employment may be, relative to those of distinct from that of most of its neighbors. Rather than a grand ideological blueprint, how- ADMARC (discussed below) are equally central ever, Banda's approach might be labeled to the continued involvement of smallholders in "incremental pragmatism." Unlike Tanzania, the growing economy. Mozambique, and Zambia, which have with great flourish embarked on a path of socialist It is not merely Dr. Banda's different development, Malawi has explicitly opted for a ideological course that has set him apart from course of economic growth that combines many many other African leaders and has earned him traditional values and institutions with a con- the label of "Africa's Odd Man Out"-a title he tinuity of the private enterprise and state direc- accepts with amusement. What has irritated tion of the economy it inherited from the British. his critics is his acceptance of the "historic As one critic has acknowledged, the Malawian reality" of South Africa. It has been his position emphasis on: that the capital, technology, and trade potential .. .individualism, the need to expand the scope of Africa's most significant industrial economy for entrepreneurial ability, and the willingness to can be skillfully manipulated as instruments in promote the position of the estate enclave in an improving both the Malawian infrastructure and export oriented economy did not cease to be the standard of living of his people. While operative at the end of the colonial period. Capi- stridently condemning the policy of apartheid, talist development along the lines and within the Banda appears to have utilized South African framework handed on from the colonial period, economic linkages in achieving a greater degree was intensi3ed and accelerated rather than inter- of economic independence from South Africa- rupted. 25 in terms of transport, migratory labor, and food imports-than is enjoyed by the more avowedly While concern with raising the lot of the rural liberationist leaders who criticize him. Indeed, poor remains a top priority to Dr. Banda, in- the recent acceptance of Malawi as a full-fledged creased production is regarded as a necessary member of the Southern African Development prior step to more equitable distribution. As Dr. Coordination Committee (SADCC) seems to pro- David Kimble has commented about Malawi: vide a validation of sorts for the course Banda .. . in Malawi there are few, if any, restrictions on has pursued. what you can legitimately earn. Here no attempts are made to discourage entrepreneurship or to Complementary to his policy of establishing distribute wealth before it has been created. But economic linkages with South Africa, President ifyou earn a lot, then whoever you are in Malawi, Banda has forthrightly pursued agricultural you can expect to be taxed fairly and systemati- development assistance from the other so-called cally. .. .26 "pariah" states that most other African states have rejected on ideological or strategic grounds. The profit motive provides one of the primary Thus, Israel, Taiwan, and South Korea have stimuli to increased production. Although the become important sources of trade and invest- estate sector as well as some of the more ment. The Chinese from Taiwan have been par- successful smallholders employ many thousands ticularly significant in the expansion of rice pro- of Malawians on a wage basis, the overwhelming duction. In addition, the dependence upon South number of Malawians engaged in agriculture do African economic links has been diminished so as members of private household units. In- during the past five years as both public and stitutionalized cooperation above the family level private sector links have been expanding with is encouraged as traditional forms of interfamily respect to the , Canada, the and community cooperation are being aug- members of the European Economic Commu- mented by farm clubs, credit groups, and other nity, Japan, and other capitalist-oriented states27 units concerned with the modernization of agri- Most of these non-African linkages are directly cultural production. or indirectly related to food and agriculture. The The role of the state in the direction of the EEC, for example, absorbs 70 percent of economy is substantial nevertheless. The Malawi's exports. In contrast with the expanded expansion of the road and rail network, the links with other capitalist-oriented states, the creation of the new capital at Lilongwe, and the only diplomatic or other links Malawi maintains distribution of water facilities and governmental with socialist countries are with several of its services are part of a calculated strategy of immediate African neighbors and, most recently, economic growth. The marketing activities of Algeria and North Korea. Instruments of Development: Self-Reliance, activity. The one persistent theme, which is Discipline, and Leadership peppered throughout most of his principal The ability of the Malawi people to achieve self- speeches during his 17 years as head of govern- sufficiency in food production is obviously the ment, was laid out in his speech broadcast on result of a complex set of factors. While it is often July 6,1966 at the time Malawi changed its status ill-advised to engage in cultural or national to that of a republic: stereotyping, the frequency with which outside observers comment on the industriousness and As I have said so many times before, self-govern- cooperativeness of the Malawian people cannot ment, independence and even Republican status be ignored. The agricultural enterprise and in- does not mean loa$ng. It means hard work. dustriousness of the "Marawian" people noted Money will not rain on our shoulders like manna by several nineteenth-century European from heaven just because we are independent or travelers,28was echoed constantly by expatriates we are a Republic. No. We have to work hard to of broad-based experience in Africa whom I develop our country. Money comes from the soil encountered in Malawi in 1980 and 1981. As one in the form of maize, groundnuts, rice, tobacco, Malawian official himself commented, "Hunger cotton and other products of the soil. We must and poverty in our culture are associated with work hard to produce more maize, more tobacco, shame; we do not regard this merely as a mis- more cotton, in order to develop our country. fortune inflicted on us." Another Malawian commented that "Hunger is our best teacher." Much of the literature on postindependence Thus, the attitude that one is responsible for his politics in Africa has concentrated on the role of or her own fate appears, without the need for the single charismatic leader in transforming localized communities, characterized by subsis- coercion, to be a widely accepted aspect of tence economies, into modern nation-states with Malawian culture. One Danish expatriate sum- complex global-oriented economies. Certainly marized it: "Others in Africa talk about self- the Malawian case is one of the more striking ex- reliance; Malawians are among the few who amples in which the course of development bears practice it." the imprint of the thought and dedication of a As is true of Ghana, Uganda, and other coun- single individual. The role of Malawi's President tries where the people manifested similar traits at as a teacher of his people in the ways of modernity an earlier stage, it is apparent that the qualities is evident in the daily press, in casual conversa- referred to above can be dissipated in the absence tions with officials or smallholder farmers, and in of sound leadership or in the failure of the the banners along the highways on ceremonial political system to satisfy basic needs over a long occasions. That this didactic role is most clearly period. Other observers of colonial Nyasaland, evident in agricultural and natural resource de- during the nationalist struggle of the 1950s for velopment stems in part from the fact that Banda example, commented how the feeling of betrayal came to power by mobilizing Malawian hostility with regard to the inclusion of Nyasaland in the to the thangata system and to the coercive agri- white-dominated Federation had brought to the culture rules laid down by colonial adminis- surface long-festering discontent with the trators. He managed, on the eve of independence, arbitrary colonial rules and regulations regarding to have the British reject the policy of coercion. cultivation and other uses of natural resources29 Expansion of extension services, the founding of Indeed, at the time that Dr. Banda returned to Bunda College of Agriculture, and the frequent Nyasaland in 1958 after his long self-imposed evidence of exhortation to transform agriculture exile in America, Europe, and West Africa, there demonstrate the commitment to change by was a decided hostility in Malawi toward the education and persuasion-although some forms agricultural policies and practices of the British. of coercion must exist in any society. Recognizing that the economic survival of With the constant example set at the top of the Malawi depended upon increasing its agricul- hierarchy, governmental leaders at all levels- tural output and productivity, Banda in 1961 from Cabinet Ministers down to traditional accepted the portfolio for agriculture in the pre- chiefs-appear to reinforce the President's em- independence Cabinet. During most of the phasis on the virtues of hard work and, in par- period since 1964, moreover, President Banda ticular, the need for greater efficiency in agricul- continued to hold the additional title of Minister tural production. During my visits to Malawi in of Agriculture and Natural Resources, in order to 1980 and 1981, hardly a day went by without the emphasize the importance he attaches to this Blantyre Daily Times reporting new exhortations along this line. Thus, the M.P. from Rumphi the Congress Party has aided programs in rice East, on tour of his district, urged his constituents production, the vaccination of children against to grow macadamia trees as other people have polio, providing clean water to the rural areas, been growing tobacco or tea. He called on every and other phases of development. One respected Malawian "to work hard on the land and other scholar who has spent close to 35 years engaged fields of development in order to raise the living in research and teaching in west, east, north, standards of their families." 30 south, and central Africa has stated, in com- menting on the grassroots nature of the Malawi The government press is replete with mini- Congress Party: sermons on (1) growing as many crops as they could sell to ADMARC; (2) avoiding the practice Unlike what has happened in many other African of shifting cultivation in favor of adopting more states, where the energetic postcolonial parties modern methods of farming; and (3) the evils of have either died a sudden death or withered away cutting down trees "wantonly, as this could en- to become paper organizations only, the Malawi courage desert in the country." Similarly, the Congress Party has grown from strength to Speaker of the National Assembly urged his con- strength.. .. In Malawi today, there is a unique stituents to (1) clear their fields as soon as they system of government and administration for finished harvesting; (2) buy fertilizer when money development with a unique and delicate balance is still left over from the last harvest; and (3) between authority and participation.. ..32 avoid selling their entire crop, so that they have a The demands for self-sacrifice embodied in the famine reserve on hand, through the dry Malawi Congress Party's four cornerstones- season.31 Such exhortations would become almost "Loyalty, Unity, Discipline, and ObedienceM- a daily litany. seem to have a credibility in Malawi that similar Also central to the transformation of party slogans elsewhere on the continent have agriculture and the rural way of life has been the long since lost. To paraphrase one Malawian leadership role of the Malawi Congress Party. official, "we in Malawi feel that political commit- While much has been made in the literature ment and development must go hand in hand, about the mass base of Tanzania's Revolutionary with the former being a precondition for the Party (the former TANU), in many respects the success of the latter." Malawi Congress Party (MCP) rivals it in terms Indeed, the vitality of the MCP in facilitating of its grassroots support and its utility as a agricultural objectives is demonstrated as much two-way channel of communication between the in the ad hoc organization of the people into farm leaders and the masses. I have already noted in a or credit clubs or into village self-help groups as previous UFSI Report on the Malawian clean it is through the formal party structures, such as water project, the key role of the MCP in the Young Pioneers or the Women's Organiza- generating enthusiasm for self-help projects. tion. The Pioneers, through its commercial wing, United Nations and other expatriate advisers Spearhead Enterprise, dramatizes the self-help have provided additional testimony to this author commitment to development through production on its influence at all levels in the implementa- of vegetables for export and domestic consump- tion of self-help programs. Working through the tion. District Development Committees, the tra- ditional chiefs, and the appropriate ministries, (August 1982)

Acknowledgment I gratefully acknowledge the generous assistance pro- vided to me by Malawians and expatriates during the conduct of my research in Malawi during 1980 and 1981. I am especially indebted to officials of State House, the Malawi Congress Party, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Health, and other ministries. I am also indebted to scholars and administrators at the for their advice and cooperation. Maps after A.D. Young

MALAWI PROFILE

Population: 5.6 million (1977 census); 2.6% growth rate; Head of State: President for Life Dr. Hastings Kamuzu population density: 59 per square kilometer; main ethnic Banda. groups: Chewa, Nyanja, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tumbuka. Branches. Religion: Traditional faiths 40%; Christian 40%; Islam 1. Executive, President (Head of Government, Chief of 15%; other or mixed 5%. State), plus Cabinet. 2. Leaislative. unicameral Parliament (78-member Geography: size 94,276 square kilometers, approximately ~ational~ssembl~,5-year term). the size of Pennsylvania. Capital: Lilongwe (90,000); com- 3. Judicial, Magisterial Courts, Traditional Courts mercial center:Blantyre-Limbe (170,000). Po1it;cal Party: Malawi Congress Party. Suffrage: ~n.iversaladult - Government: Presidential Republic, Member of the Political Subdivisions: 24 Districts, 3 subdistricts. Commonwealth. Independence: J uly 6, 1964. Flag: Black, red, and green horizontal stripes with half a Constitution: July 6, 1966 red sun in the center of the black stripe. 1. Uma Lele, "Rural Africa: Modernization, Equity, and hut taxes. It was assumed that the African population Long-Term Detdopment," Science, Vol. 211 (Feb. 6, had grown at an annual rate of 2.8 percent between 1981), p. 547. See also by the same author "A Revisit to 1901-11; 2.2 percent between 1911 and 1921; 1.5 percent Rural Development in Eastern Africa," Finance and between 1921 and 1926; 4.4 percent from 1926 to 1931; 2.2 Development, Vol. 16 (Dec. 1979), pp. 31-35. Another percent from 1931 to 1945; 3.3 percent from 1945 to 1966; World Bank adviser suggested that between 1967 and and 2.9 percent from 1966 to 1977. 1978, food production per capita declined by 7 percent in 11. Reports of bauxite, phosphates, graphite, and some Africa, in contrast to increases of 7 to 8 percent in Asia semiprecious stones have not attracted developers, at and Latin America. Shankar Acharya, "Development this writing. Perspectives and Priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa," Finance and Development, Vol. 18 (March 1981), p. 17. 12. See Martin Chanock, "Agricultural Change and Con- tinuity in Malawi," in Robin Palmer and Neil Parsons, 2. Address to the FA0 General Council in April 1981. eds., The Roots of RuralPoverty in Central and Southern 3. The IBRD World Development Report, 1980 (August Africa (London: Heinemann, 1977), pp. 396-409. 1980). p. 59, indicates that the growth in manufacturing 13. See my chapter on innovation in Colonial Rule and (6.7%) was the highest for any of the 36 least developed Political Development in Tanzania: The Case of the countries. Makonde (Evanstown: Northwestern University Press, 4. European Economic Community Statistical Office, 1971), pp. 126-162. ACP Yearbook of Foreign Trade Statistics, 1968-1976, pp. 14. Nyasaland Protectorate. Annual Report of the 411ff. Devertment of Agriculture, for the year 1956, Part I 5. (pseudonym) Samuel J. Waterford, "Kamuzu's (Zomba: Government Printer, 1957), p. 1. Maverick Rule," Africa Report (September-October 15. See analysis of Nyasaland Protectorate, Annual 1980), pp. 10-11. Report of the Department of Agriculture for the year 6. Uma Lele, Science, p. 547. She does comment, how- 1911 (Zomba: Government Printer, 1912) and each year, ever, that the three states do have problems of "distribu- in seriatem, through 1962-63. tion of benefits between agriculture and industry, and 16. Ibid., 1951, Part I, p. 3. within industry." 17. Ibid., years 1953 through 1963. 7. In the three years preceding the 1980 drought, Malawi was self-sufficient in maize and was a net 18. See Leroy Vail, "Railway Development and Colonial exporter of rice. It imported during 1977-1979, some Underdevelopment: The Nyasaland Case," in Palmer and 47,000 tons of wheat, mostly for expatriate consumption. Parsons, eds., The Roots ofRuralPoverty... ., p. 389. Imports (in tons) of maize, rice, and wheat for some of Malawi's neighbors during that same three-year period 19. Vail, "Railway Development and.. .," p. 389. were: Angola, 425,000; Mozambique, 884,000; Tanzania, 20. During research I conducted among Cichewa-speak- 504,200; and Zambia (wheat and maize only), 535,000. ing persons on the Tanzania side of Lake Malawi in 1955, I Source: mimeographed working papers for SADCC discovered that the migratory experience had provided a conference on "Food Security," 1980. form of social ranking among young males, based upon 8. The 1977 census indicates that 4 percent of the the distance traveled from the Mbamba Bay area. Those population lives in urban areas. The rate of increase who had traveled to the chrome mines of Zimbabwe between the 1966 and 1977 census has been 6.4 percent () or the copper mines of Zambia for Blantyre, 5.9 percent for Mzuzu, 2.0 percent for (Northern Rhodesia) were accorded social preference Zomba, and 15.8 percent for Lilongwe, which was a rela- over those who had stayed home and fished on the lake. tively minor urban area before being designated as the On the other hand, the migrants to Zimbabwe or Zambia new capital. were outranked by those who had worked in the gold mines of South Africa or who had acquired employment 9. See John B. Webster, "Drought and Migration: The as dock workers or domestic servants in Capetown. Lake Malawi Littoral as a Region of Refuse," in Madalon T. Hinchey, ed. Proceedings of the Symposium on 21. Malawi Statistical Yearbook, 1979 (Zomba: Govern- Drought in Botswana (Gaborone: The Botswana Society, ment Printer, 1980). 1979), pp. 140-157. 22. In Southern Rhodesia, the 5 percent European 10. Prior to the censuses of 1966 and 1977, population minority claimed 50 percent of the land. In the Republic estimates were crudely based on reported payments of of South Africa today efforts are being made to redirect the settlement of the 87 percent who are Africans on 13 27. European Community Statistics Office. Analysis of percent of the land, with the rest being reserved for Trade between the European Community and the ACP Europeans. States Series Trade Flows, 1979, pp. 1.61-1.63. 23. Shankar Acharya, "Development Perspectives and 28. Quoted in Chanock, "Agricultural Change and.. ., pp. Priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa," Finance and Develop- 400-401. ment, Vol. 18 (March 1981), p. 18. 29. Ibid. 24. Ibid., p. 16. 30. June 10,1981. 25. Martin Chanock, "Agricultural Change and Contin- 31. June 17,18,1981. uity in Malawi," in Robin Palmer and Neil Persons, eds., The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern 32. David Kimble, "The University and the Nation," Africa (London: Heinemann, 1977), pp. 396-409. address to the Congregation held in Zomba on July 29, 1978. 26. "The University and the Nation," Address to the Congregation. Held in Zomba on July 29,1983.