Harri Englund (University of Cambridge)
Vulnerable Citizens, Assertive Subjects: Human Rights and New Headmen in Malawi
As in many parts of the Global South, anti-poverty policies in Malawi have increasingly sought to identify the ’poorest of the poor’ for hand-outs such as cash transfers and farm input subsidies. A notable trend that has accompanied these interventions in Malawi has been the emergence of new village headmen. High population densities and the scarcity of arable land prevent relocation, and the new headmen come to divide existing villages among themselves. In contrast to the state-appointed Senior Chiefs, whose numbers have also swelled in recent years, the new headmen often arise in response to discontent among villagers and are not recognized by the central government. For some government officials, this phenomenon represents a cynical attempt to benefit from the government’s programme of distributing subsidised fertilizer through traditional authorities. This paper shows, however, that by attaching themselves to a headman they have chosen themselves, villagers engage in complex negotiations over the meaning and direction of democratization that has been taking place in Malawi since the early 1990s. Analysis of these contests suggests that the concept of human rights, in particular, needs to be opened up to account for the ways in which villagers’ legal and moral sensibilities contradict anti-poverty policies.
Enshrined in the national constitution of 1994, human rights has come to be discussed through the concept of freedom (ufulu in Chichewa) in Malawi. Rural subjects’ use of this concept of human rights in their claims on the agricultural inputs suggests that their sense of freedom lies more in the hierarchies and dependencies they can generate than in being citizens with individual rights. As such, the paper contributes to the critique of Mahmood Mamdani’s thesis on citizens and subjects in Africa by demonstrating how traditional authority, and the so-called customary law it is associated with, can encompass highly contradictory tendencies in the relationship between the state and rural subjects. The current discourse on human rights, as advocated by urban-based activists and aid donors, comes under particular critique for its failure to appreciate how freedom among the rural poor might inhere in the generation of multiple dependencies.
Enshrined in the national constitution of 1994, human rights has come to be discussed through the concept of freedom (ufulu in Chichewa) in Malawi. Rural subjects’ use of this concept of human rights in their claims on the agricultural inputs suggests that their sense of freedom lies more in the hierarchies and dependencies they can generate than in being citizens with individual rights. As such, the paper contributes to the critique of Mahmood Mamdani’s thesis on citizens and subjects in Africa by demonstrating how traditional authority, and the so-called customary law it is associated with, can encompass highly contradictory tendencies in the relationship between the state and rural subjects. The current discourse on human rights, as advocated by urban-based activists and aid donors, comes under particular critique for its failure to appreciate how freedom among the rural poor might inhere in the generation of multiple dependencies.
