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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Tenacious Women: Clinging to Banja Household Production in the Face of Changing Gender Relations in Malawi |
Author: | Davison, Jean |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 19 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | September |
Pages: | 405-421 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Malawi |
Subjects: | gender relations women farmers women's work small farms Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Labor and Employment Urbanization and Migration Cultural Roles agriculture migration Sex Roles Status of Women |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636909 |
Abstract: | This article looks at major changes in household productive relations that have intensified women's agricultural workload while undermining their economic autonomy in matrilineal, peasant communities in southern Malawi (the lower Shire). The article first outlines a conceptual framework for analysing gender as it pertains to relations of production in the 'banja' (matrilineally based individual family) household. Then it takes up key historical factors that have resulted in an erosion of female economic power. Next, it examines the preference given by women, historically and currently, to individual family production over collaborative production in agriculture, paying special attention to women farmers in Zomba district (smallholder production, labour allocation in maize production, women's use of hired labour). The conclusion is that the 'banja' system provides women with a sense of relative autonomy in the matrilineal context, at least for those women with enough land to be self-supporting. Because they are relatively independent, women in southern Malawi think twice before participating in collaborative forms of production with other women with whom they may have conflicting claims to land or whose commodity crops may compete with theirs in the local market. Notes, ref., sum. |