Becoming a bwana and burley tobacco in the Central Region of Malawi

Prowse, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1271-468X (2009) Becoming a bwana and burley tobacco in the Central Region of Malawi. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 47 (4). pp. 575-602. ISSN 0022-278X

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Abstract

Smallholders now grow most of Malawi's main export crop – burley tobacco. Based on nineteen months' fieldwork in the Central Region, this article offers a sociological interpretation of why some smallholder growers spend a proportion of burley income on conspicuous consumption in rural towns and trading centres. This practice can be seen as a form of inculcated behaviour whereby smallholders reproduce elements of one model of success in this region: that of the Malawian tobacco bwana (boss/master). The article discusses implications from this form of potlatch behaviour by describing the contrasting fortunes of two non-farm rural enterprises, examining data on how tobacco production and ‘cooling off’ is viewed by wives, and comparing the crop preferences of husbands and wives. It concludes by suggesting that the concept of conspicuous consumption may provide an alternative prism to the instrumental lens of neo-patrimonialism through which to view apparently unintelligible investment decisions in African economies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 2 - zero hunger ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/zero_hunger
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
Related URLs:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/i...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2020 23:56
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 06:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76490
DOI:	10.1017/S0022278X09990139

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