The State, Settlers, and Indigenes in the Evolution of Land Law and Policy in Colonial Malawi

Ng'ong'ola, Clement

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Title:	The State, Settlers, and Indigenes in the Evolution of Land Law and Policy in Colonial Malawi
Author:	Ng'ong'ola, Clement
Year:	1990
Periodical:	International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:	23
Issue:	1
Pages:	27-58
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Malawi United Kingdom
Subjects:	colonists Europeans colonialism colonial policy land Politics and Government Law, Human Rights and Violence Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/219980
Abstract:	This paper focuses on the formulation of legislation on land tenure, land control, and land use in colonial Malawi; the legal and other disputes which such legislation engendered; and the general impact of the law on the social and interest groups in the colonial agricultural economy. While not discounting the fact that colonial laws often responded to the interests of settler and metropolitan capitalism, the paper highlights instances when no such grand design was apparent in the formulation of colonial land law and policies in Malawi. The first part deals with the proclamation of a protectorate over Nyasaland (Malawi since 1964), and the inception of a dual land policy. This initial phase in the evolution of land policy gave rise to the most significant cases and legal disputes. The second part examines the control of 'thangata' - a form of labour tenancy - on private land with the aim of exploring how legislation evolved in response to special interests of the various actors in the colonial political economy. The third part reviews the outlines of a Crown lands policy. It was in the evolution of this policy that the divergent interests of the colonial State and the settlers became more apparent. The paper finally discusses the regulation of African land use. Notes, ref.