“We faced Mabvuto”: A Gendered Socio-economic History of Malawian Women’s Migration and Survival in Harare, 1940 to 1980. A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY IREEN MUDEKA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Name of Adviser: Allen F. Isaacman, Name of Co-adviser: Helena Pohlandt McCormick October 2011 © IREEN MUDEKA Acknowledgements I owe a great debt of gratitude to many friends, colleagues and everyone who provided moral and intellectual support from the period when I started research on this dissertation until its completion. I am very thankful to all Malawian women and men in Rugare, Mufakose, Highfield and Mbare townships of Harare, Zimbabwe and to those in Mpondabwino and Mbayani townships of Zomba and Blantyre who took the time to talk to me about their personal lives. Because of their generosity, they became not just informants but my teachers, mothers, sisters and friends. In Harare, I especially want to thank Mrs. Tavhina Masongera of Rugare for going beyond sharing her life experiences with me to take me under her wing and provide a bridge between me and other women in the townships of Harare as well as of Malawi. Mrs. Masongera took the time to travel with me all the way to Malawi where she introduced me to many women who had lived in Harare during the colonial period. Without her, I would not have known where to begin as a migrant in a country that I was visiting for the very first time. She also found a safe place for me to stay for the duration of my research when she brought me to her daughter Mrs. Nyarai Kumbanga, who generously opened her home to me. To Mrs. Masongera and Mrs. Kumbanga, as well as to all Malawian women who welcomed me into their lives, words are not enough to express my gratitude. I am also grateful to staff members at the National Archives of Zimbabwe, the Municipal Archives in Harare, at the Malawi Office/Embassy also in Harare and the Malawi Archives in Zomba, Malawi. The Directors at the National Archives of Zimbabwe and Malawi Archives as well as their teams of archivists unstintingly utilized their skills, knowledge and experience to assist me. Without them it would have been very difficult to find my way through the maze of catalogues snd hence data necessary for this work. At the Municipal Offices on Remembrance Drive in Mbare, the assistant superintendent helpfully moved the wheels of bureaucracy so that I could get timely clearance from the Town Clerk’s Offices to access municipal records. At the Malawi Office in Mount Pleasant, the Records Officer invested time to locate and offer me not just access to the i documents in his holdings but hospitality and very illuminating discussions on the subject under research. I also wish to express my deep gratitude to colleagues, friends and professors at the University of Minnesota, University of Zimbabwe and Midlands State University. At the University of Minnesota, I am grateful to Professors Karen Brown Thompson, Anna Clark, August Nimtz, Lisa Norling, Keletso Atkins and Tamara Giles Vernick who patiently read my proposals and challenged me to interrogate the boundaries of my own ideas. I also want to thank Jim Johnson for providing the much needed critique in the course of this work. Still in the USA, special thanks also goes to Professor Elias Mandala of Rochester University who was always available for long telephone discussions and tutorials about the subject of my dissertation. The same applies to an endless list of friends at the University of Minnesota who offered moral support. They listened, read, and constructively critiqued my work while encouraging me to persevere with kind words. To Jones Sichali, Stephanie Lawrence, Clement Masakure, Terence Mashingaidze, Puthego Molosiwa, Drew Thompson, Elliot James, David Morton, Munyaradzi Munochiveyi, Joyce Chadya who sent supportive emails from Canada, and the MacArthur group of scholars who have engaged with my work in various seminars, thank you so much. At the University of Zimbabwe, I want to thank Doctor Norman Mlambo, Dr Joseph P. Mtisi and Mr. Government Phiri who have directed my steps, listened and offered me a chance to present papers in the Economic History Department even when I was still very tentative about the whole project. At Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, I extend my gratitude to the Vice Chancellor Professor Ngwabi Bhebe who quizzed me on my project and provoked new questions the very first time I met with him in February 2011. In addition to Professor Bhebe, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to Doctor Jepheus Matunhu, the Chairperson in the Department of Development Studies, the Deans of the Faculty of Arts Professor Pfukwa and Mr. Vhiriri, for allowing me to take some time off to finish writing this dissertation. ii I also particularly want to thank two people who have especially provided me with the intellectual muscle necessary to make this work possible. To my advisers, Professor Allen Isaacman and Professor Helena Pohlandt McCormick, I am very grateful for your invaluable support and your incessant critique which has helped me to think more deeply and has taught me a lot more than any classroom learning could do. You have patiently read and reread chapter after chapter, itself a time consuming and mentally exhaustive engagement and yet you still found time to hold in-depth discussions with me on the subject. I only hope the work I have produced reflects, in some ways, your hard work and dedication. I truly appreciate your intellectual and personal generosity of spirit which has anchored me even in times when I was filled with self-doubt. Thank you for unflinchingly standing by me from the beginning of my journey. I am also thankful to my family whose support has been constant despite long periods of separation as I researched and wrote this dissertation. To my sons, Harold and Donald Tanhara, to the rest of my nieces and nephews, Eugene, Chanel and Michelle Divaris, Blessing, Patience and Anna Mudeka, Livette and Sarah Zintu and to my dear sisters Mutsa Samyn and Lilian Handina, thank you for believing in me. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my late mother and father Anna and Dennis Mudeka whose words of wisdom, kukunda kutsungirira will mark my path always. I also dedicate this dissertation to my sons Donald Nyasha and Harold Shingirai Tanhara. iv Abstract This dissertation examines Malawian women’s migration from their natal homes to the colonial capital of Zimbabwe, Harare between 1940 and 1980. It stresses that though colonial states in the two territories instituted policies designed to deny or limit women’s access into the migrant stream, women challenged such policies. Especially from 1940, the governments instituted a male oriented migrant system which spurred the most massive male exodus from Malawi, draining rural areas of able bodied male laborers. It also caused serious family disintegration leading to the escalation of women’s vulnerabilities in the rural areas, forcing many to flee the villages against state efforts to limit their mobility. They entered and settled in Zimbabwe’s capital, although the colonial government therein sought to deny them access and primarily preferred male workers. Even so, they faced serious hardships en-route and in Harare due to brutal police inspections, arrests and repatriations. They also had very limited, if any, employment opportunities and had to establish economic ventures such as urban farming, beer brewing and usury to supplement men’s meager wages and survive as families. In varied ways, they coped with, fought against and resisted the male biased system in both Malawi and Zimbabwe. As the women who came from a wide variety of ethnicities and faced similar hardships in Harare, they came together in welfare and burial unions that transcended ethnic divisions by the 1960s. By the 1970s, they had drawn from events in Malawi where Kamuzu Banda, the new independence leader, called for umodzi/ unity under the concept of dziko/ nation. They thus redefined themselves as Malawians even as they remained migrants in Harare, where they illegally settled and transformed the socio-economic landscape. v Table of Contents Chapter 1. It was never easy to get here or even to remain here.”………………………1 Chapter 2. “Nsikana, You Are Going Nowhere!” Malawian women’s Fight for International Mobility, 1940-1973………………………………………………………63 Chapter 3. From the Zimbabwean Border to Harare, 1940-1980……………………....105 Chapter 4. “This Is My Work Right Here”: Malawian Women’s Economic Survival in Harare, 1940-1980……………………………………………………………………...145 Chapter 5. “Wadziko Limozi”: Malawian Women’s Organizations 1940-1980……......186 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...232 Glossary………………………………………………………………………………...241 List of figures.....................................................……………………………………….243 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………245 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………..269 vi List of Figures Fig 1: Map of Malawi…………………………………………………………..244 Fig 2: Map of Harare……………………………………………………………245 Fig 3: Map showing location of Zimbabwe and Malawi in Southern Africa….245 vii Chapter 1: “It was never easy to get here or even to remain here.”1 My very first meeting with Alice Mbalami Kutengo on the 7th of September 2008 at her home in Old Highfield of Harare was very instructive. On that day, when the friendly, intelligent and feisty Chewa woman of about seventy years of age was seeing me off, she talked with much animation as we walked. Yet when we met the Lomwe woman Mama Ndawara, Alice abruptly broke our conversation and slowly moved to the edge of the gritty and dusty street to kneel down in the hot late afternoon sun with her walking cane stuck firmly to the ground, in deference to her.