Article contents
Some Changes in the Matrilineal Family System among the Chewa of Malawi since the Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Extract
In its ideal form, the Chewa family system is supposed to place considerable emphasis on the mother right, the avunculate, uxorilocal marriage, husband's subordination to wife's kin, and importance of female children as future reproducers of the lineage. In practice, however, there are a number of factors which have tended to mitigate the impact of these tendencies in the system, as far as men or husbands are concerned. Attention has been drawn to the fact that a number of important changes in the marriage contract, family residential patterns, exercise of domestic authority, and control or custody of children, have been the result of historical developments. There is therefore a need to understand these developments, even if the changes in the Chewa family system to which they led have not brought about a complete transformation of the system.
Several of these historical developments have been reviewed, as well as the features of patriliny to which they have given rise in several parts of central Malawi. They include the growth of the slave trade in the nineteenth century and the opportunity which this gave to some lineages to acquire women who could be married virilocally; the intrusion of patrilineal peoples like the Ngoni which increased the incidence of virilocal marriage and patrilineal descent; the spread of certain Christian missionary teachings that are in conflict with matrilineal principles of family organisation; and such developments of the colonial period as labour migrancy and cash-cropping which often impinged on relations between husband and wife and family life in general.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983
References
1 The Chewa, who also extend into eastern Zambia, are the largest ethnic group in Malawi. There were reckoned to be 885,000 in 1945, 1,260,000 in 1966 and 1,630,000 in 1977: Nyasaland Government, Report on the Census of 1945 (Zomba, 1946), 4–8Google Scholar; Atkins, Guy, ‘The Nyanja-speaking population of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia’, African Studies, IX (1950), 35–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Malawi Population Census, 1966: final report (Zomba, 1966)Google Scholar; Malawi Population Census, 1977: provisional report (Zomba, 1977).Google Scholar
2 Marwick, M. G., an affiliate of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, did fieldwork in 1946–1947, 1948–1949 and 1952–1953Google Scholar; cf. his Sorcery in its Social Setting: a Study of the Northern Rhodesia Cewa (Manchester, 1965).Google ScholarBruwer, J. P., a missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, wrote a thesis on the matrilineal family of the Chewa (M.A. University of Pretoria, 1949).Google Scholar
3 As in Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Daryll, Forde (eds.), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (London, 1950).Google Scholar
4 Cf. A. I. Richards, ‘Some types of family structure amongst the Central Bantu’, ibid. 230–6, based on the early work of Marwick and J. C. Mitchell.
5 Mair, Lucy, ‘Marriage and family in the Dedza District of Nyasaland’, J. Royal Anthropological Institute (J.R.A.I.), LXXXI (1952), 106.Google Scholar
6 Roberts, S., ‘A comparison of the family law and custom of two matrilineal systems in Nyasaland’, Nyasaland J., XVII (1964), 24–5.Google Scholar
7 Bruwer, J. P., ‘Ankhoswe: the system of guardianship in Cewa matrilineal society’, African Studies, XIV (1955), 119.Google Scholar
8 Makumbi, A., Maliro ndi Miyambo ya Achewa (London, 1955)Google Scholar, passim; Stuart, R. G., ‘Christianity and the Chewa: the Anglican case, 1885–1950’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1974).Google Scholar
9 Marwick, , Sorcery, 111–67Google Scholar; Alpers, E. A., Ivory and Slaves in east-central Africa (London, 1975), 28Google Scholar; Mandala, E. C., ‘The nature and substance of Mang'anja and Kololo oral traditions’, Society of Malawi J., XXXI (1978), 9–10.Google Scholar
10 Phiri, Kings M., ‘Chewa history in central Malawi and the use of oral tradition, 1600–1920’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1975), 24–7.Google Scholar
11 Rattray, R. S., Some folklore stories and songs in Chinyanja (London, 1907), 116–18Google Scholar; Young, T. Cullen and Hastings, Banda (eds.), Our African Way of Life (London, 1946), 11–19, 60–94Google Scholar; Marwick, , Sorcery, 169–76.Google Scholar
12 Oral testimony (O.T.): Chief Mwase Lundazi and councillors to Vail, Leroy and Chavura, K. M., Nthembwe village, Lundazi, 25 April 1974.Google Scholar
13 Mair, , ‘Marriage and family’, 113.Google Scholar
14 Schoffeleers, M. J., The Lower Shire Valley: its Ecology, Population Distribution, Ethnic Division and Systems of Marriage (Limbe, 1968), 26Google Scholar; Marwick, , Sorcery, 180–5Google Scholar; Mair, , ‘Marriage and family’, 103Google Scholar; Mitchell, J. C., The Yao Village (Manchester, 1956), 183–5.Google Scholar
15 Rimmington, G. T., ‘Dedza District’, Nyasaland Journal, XVI (1963), 38Google Scholar; Kettlewell, R. W., ‘Agricultural change in Nyasaland, 1945–1960’, Food Research Institute Studies, v (1965), 238–9Google Scholar; Lamport-Stokes, H. J., ‘Land tenure in Malawi’, Society of Malawi J., XXIII (1970), 60–1.Google Scholar
16 Kuthemba-Mwale, J., ‘The probable origins of the reserve: a synthesis from oral traditions’ (History research paper, Chancellor College, Zomba, January 1981)Google Scholar; Schoffeleers, M. J., ‘The Nyau Societies: our present understanding’, Society of Malawi J., XIX (1976), 59–68Google Scholar; Rita-Ferreira, A., ‘The Nyau brotherhood among the Mozambique Chewa’, South African J. Science, LXIV (1968), 20–1.Google Scholar
17 For a discussion of how Chewa men employed Nyau as a weapon against military recruitment in World War I, see Page, Melvin E., ‘The Great War and Chewa society in Malawi’, J. Southern African Studies, VI, ii (1980), 171–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 Vansina, J., Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1966), 26.Google Scholar
19 Hodgson, A. G. O., ‘Notes on the Chewa and Angoni of the Dowa District of the Nyasaland Protectorate’, J.R.A.I., LXIII (1923), 137Google Scholar; Bruwer, , ‘Unkhoswe’, 114–20.Google Scholar
20 Mair, , ‘Marriage and family’, 105.Google Scholar
21 Mitchell, , Yao Village, 144, 199–201.Google Scholar
22 Makumbi, , Maliro ndi Miyambo, 4–5, 20–3Google Scholar; Hodgson, , ‘Notes’, 139Google Scholar; Stannus, H. S., ‘Notes on some tribes of British Central Africa’, J.R.A.I., XL (1910), 308–10.Google Scholar
23 For a discussion of this trend among the Yao see Mitchell, , Yao Village, 187–97.Google Scholar
24 See Macgaffey, Wyatt, ‘Lineage structure, marriage and family amongst the central Bantu’, above.Google Scholar
25 O.T.: Banda, Yohane, Chinguwo, Tiyesepo and Banda, Lameck, Nkhako village, Chilowamatambe, T. A., Kasungu, 28 August 1973Google Scholar; Mwale, Chintekwe Mkanthama and Jere, Kamtepa, Mkanthama village, Msakambewa, T. A., Dowa, 20 March 1974.Google Scholar
26 O.T.: Zimba, Kalikokha, Chipeni, Lameck, Phiri, Munolo and Banda, Chibojola, Nthembwe village, Kaluluma, T. A., Kasungu, 11 April 1971.Google Scholar See also Van Velsen, J., The Politics of Kinship: a Study in Social Manipulation among the Lakeside Tonga (Manchester, 1964), 34–53.Google Scholar
27 Alpers, E. A., The East African Slave Trade (Historical Association of Tanzania, paper no. 3: Nairobi, 1967)Google Scholar; idem, Ivory and Slaves, 209–63; Isaacman, A. F., Mozambique…the Zambezi Prazos, 1750–1902 (Madison, 1972), 85–94.Google Scholar
28 Peel, J. D. Y., ‘The Changing Family in modern Ijesha history’ (paper presented to the Conference on the History of the Family in Africa, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, September 1981), 5–6.Google Scholar
29 Douglas, Mary, ‘Matriliny and pawnship in Central Africa’, Africa, XXXIV (1964), 301–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 This is clearly brought out in Vaughan, Megan A., ‘Social and economic change in Southern Malawi: a study of rural communities in the Shire Highlands and Upper Shire Valley from 1850 to 1915’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1981), 38–50.Google Scholar
31 Wright, Marcia, ‘Women in peril: a commentary on the life stories of captives in 19th century east-central Africa’, African Social Research, XX (1975), 800–19.Google Scholar
32 Phiri, Kings M., ‘Pre-colonial economic change in Central Malawi: the development and expansion of trade systems’, Malawi J. Social Science, v (1976), 19.Google Scholar
33 O. T.: Likambale, Andrew to Phiri, Kings and Maluza, Gaudensio, Makanjila village, Chikowi, T. A., Zomba, 21 July 1980.Google Scholar
34 For a recent overview of the implications of Mary Douglas' thesis, see Reefe, Thomas Q., ‘The Eastern Savanna and Northern Zambezia to the 1890s’ (paper presented to the Conference on the Social, Political and Economic History of Central Africa, University of Kent, Canterbury, 7–11 July 1980), 1–12.Google Scholar
35 Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 32–5Google Scholar; Vaughan, , ‘Social and economic change in southern Malawi’, 39–40Google Scholar; Mitchell, , The Yao Village, 195–7.Google Scholar
36 Murray, S. S., A Handbook of Nyasaland (Zomba, 1922), 52–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37 Namate, Dennis F., ‘The emergence of the Yao as a political and economic force in Mangochi district: the case of Mponda's area, 1810–1910’ (History student research paper, Chancellor College, Zomba, February 1981).Google Scholar
38 Reefe, , ‘The Eastern Savanna and Northern Zambezia’, 38.Google Scholar
39 Schoffeleers, , Lower Shire Valley, 110–25.Google Scholar
40 Kandawire, J. A. K., Thangata: Forced Labour or Reciprocal Assistance? (Blantyre, 1979), 143.Google Scholar
41 Phiri, , ‘Pre-colonial economic change in central Malawi’, 20–23Google Scholar; Isaacman, A. F., ‘The origin, formation and early history of the Chikunda of south-central Africa’, J. Afr. Hist., XIII (1972), 452–71.Google Scholar
42 Langworthy, H. W., ‘Swahili influence in the area between Lake Malawi and the Luangwa valley’, Int. J. African Historical Studies, IV (1971), 583–91Google Scholar; Phiri, , ‘Chewa history’, 137–45.Google Scholar
43 Spear, T. T., ‘Zwangendaba's Ngoni, 1821–1890: a political and social history of a migration’ (University of Wisconsin; African Studies Program, occasional paper: 1972)Google Scholar; Read, M., The Ngoni of Nyasaland (London, 1956), 10–14Google Scholar; Barnes, J. A., Politics in a Changing Society: a Political History of the Fort Jameson Ngoni (Cape Town, 1954), 1–35Google Scholar; B. Pachai, ‘Ngoni politics and diplomacy in Malawi, 1848–1904’, in idem (ed.), The Early History of Malawi (London, 1972), 179–214; Ian Linden, ‘The Maseko Ngoni at Domwe, 1870–1900’ ibid. 237–50; Thompson, J. T., ‘The origins, migration and settlement of the northern Ngoni’, Society of Malawi J., XXXIV (1980), 6–28.Google Scholar
44 Hodgson, , ‘Notes’, 128–9Google Scholar; Phiri, , ‘Chewa history’, 145–65.Google Scholar
45 Langworthy, H. W., ‘Central Malawi in the 19th century’, in Macdonald, R. J. (ed.), From Nyasaland to Malawi (Nairobi, 1975), 20–1.Google Scholar
46 Mair, , ‘Marriage and family’, 104Google Scholar; Hodgson, , ‘Notes’, 106Google Scholar; Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 162–3.Google Scholar
47 Rimmington, G. T., ‘The historical geography of population growth in the Dedza District of Nyasaland’, Nyasaland J., XVI (1963), 47–9.Google Scholar
48 Rattray, , Some folk stories, 112–16.Google Scholar
49 Hodgson, , ‘Notes’, 138.Google Scholar
50 McCracken, K. J., Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 1875–1940 (Cambridge, 1977), 180–4Google Scholar; Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 112–84Google Scholar; Linden, Ian, Catholics, Peasants and Chewa Resistance in Nyasaland, 1889–1939 (London, 1974), 42–86.Google Scholar
51 Page, , ‘The Great War and Chewa Society’, 173Google Scholar; Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 167–84Google Scholar; Phiri, , ‘Chewa history in Central Malawi’, 181–3.Google Scholar
52 Pretorius, Pauline, ‘An attempt at Christian initiation in Nyasaland’, Int. Rev. Missions, I (1950), 284–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 Gaitskell, Deborah, ‘Housewives, maids or mothers’, above.Google Scholar
54 Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 78–9, 197–224.Google Scholar
55 Aquina, Mary, ‘A note on missionary influence on Shona marriage’, Rhodes-Livingstone J., XXXIII (1963), 68–78.Google Scholar
56 The full implications of Christian teaching on marriage and the family are discussed at length in Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 26–63.Google Scholar
57 Pretorius, , ‘An attempt at Christian initiation’, 286.Google Scholar
58 Oliver, Roland, Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (London, 1956), 197–271Google Scholar; Stokes, Eric, ‘Malawi political systems and the introduction of colonial rule, 1891–1896’, in Stokes, E. and Brown, R. (eds.), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1965), 352–75Google Scholar; Sankhani, D. S., ‘The British Occupation of Malawi: the military odds, 1850–1900’ (History student research paper, Chancellor College, Zomba, 1972).Google Scholar
59 Cardew, C. A., ‘Nyasaland in 1894–1895’, Nyasaland J., I (1948), 54Google Scholar; Mwase, G. S. (ed. Rotberg, R. I.), Strike a Blow and Die (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
60 Smith, E., Report on Direct Taxation in Nyasaland (Zomba, 1937)Google Scholar; Baker, C., ‘Tax collection in Malawi: an administrative history’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, VIII (1975), 40–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kandawire, , Thangata, 27–9.Google Scholar
61 Stuart, , ‘Christianity and the Chewa’, 194–6.Google Scholar
62 Oppong, Christine, Marriage among a Matrilineal elite: a Family Study of Ghanaian Senior Civil Servants (Cambridge, 1974), 34–48.Google Scholar
63 Kettlewell, , ‘Agricultural change’ (cited in n. 15), 237–68Google Scholar; Chanock, M. L., ‘Notes on an agricultural history of Malawi’, in Page, M. E. (ed.), Land and Labour in Rural Malawi (East Lansing, 1973), 27–37.Google Scholar
64 Vail, Leroy, ‘The political economy of colonialism in Northern Zambezia, 1890–1975’ (paper presented to the Conference on the Social, Political and Economic History of Central Africa, University of Kent, Canterbury, 7–11 July 1980)Google Scholar; see also Mitchell, J. C., ‘The causes of labour migration’, Inter-African Labour Institute Bulletin, VI (1959), 14–47.Google Scholar
65 Boeder, R. B., ‘Malawians abroad: the history of labour emigration from Malawi to its neighbours, 1890 to the present’ (Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, 1974), 1–194Google Scholar; Murray, , Handbook, 45.Google Scholar
66 For a summary, see Boeder, , ‘Malawians abroad’, 195–212.Google Scholar
67 Read, M., ‘Migrant labour in Africa and its effects on tribal life’, Int. Labour Review, XLV, vi, (1942), 624–8.Google Scholar
68 Ibid. 628–9; Marwick, , Sorcery, 97.Google Scholar
69 Hastings, Adrian, Christian Marriage in Africa (London, 1973), 41.Google Scholar
70 Kandawire, , Thangata, 96–7.Google Scholar
71 Kishindo, Paul, ‘Matrilineality and agricultural change in Malawi’ (research proposal, Department of Sociology, University of Hull, March 1981).Google Scholar
72 Oppong, , Marriage, 47.Google Scholar
73 Mair, , ‘Marriage and family’, 119.Google Scholar
- 74
- Cited by