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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Fishing Rights, Ecology and Conservation along Southern Lake Malawi, 1920-1964
Author:Chirwa, Wiseman ChijereISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:95
Issue:380
Period:July
Pages:351-377
Language:English
Geographic terms:Malawi
Great Britain
Subjects:colonialism
environment
inland fisheries
History and Exploration
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/723572
Abstract:This paper discusses how issues of socioeconomic class, race and politics were densely interwoven with the competition for fishing rights, access to land and fears of ecological degradation along southern Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) from the early 1920s to 1964. The main contenders in the competition for the lake's resources were traditional leaders, European and Asian commercial fishermen and fish traders, a rising group of African 'small-scale' commercial fishermen and fish traders, and nationalist politicians. The African 'small-scale' fishermen and traders were predominantly returning labour migrants and petty traders. From the early 1950s, they received political support from nationalist politicians in their campaigns against the European entrepreneurs. The debate on the lake's environmental resources centred on three related questions: who had the control over the lake's fish resources; who had the authority to determine the development of the lake's fishing industry; and who had the right to allocate plots along the lakefront for non-fishing purposes? The account suggests that no single group won the contest for the fishing rights and control over the environmental resources of Lake Malawi. However, certain groups benefited more than others and the greatest losers were the traditional leaders. Ref.
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