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Book chapter | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Colonialism, capitalism and the ecological crisis in Malawi: a reassessment |
Author: | Maccracken, J. |
Book title: | Conservation in Africa: People, Policies, and Practice |
Year: | 1987 |
Pages: | 63-77 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Malawi Great Britain |
Subjects: | colonization environment |
Abstract: | This chapter discusses the thesis of Helge Kjekshus (1977) and Leroy Vail (1977) that the dual impact of expanding capitalism and colonial administration resulted in a major ecological catastrophe in East Central Africa. The validity of the thesis is assessed as it is related to the spread of the tsetse fly belts in Nyasaland (colonial Malawi). For Vail and Kjekshus it was colonial administrative policies, preventing the re-emergence of a rational settlement pattern, that turned the setbacks of the 19th century into the ecological collapse of the 20th. In Malawi, however, there is little evidence to suggest that government policy had influenced settlement in more than a marginal manner. The effects of the emergence of the capitalist economy have also been oversimplified. While capitalist development stimulated the expansion of tsetse, it also created the conditions in which the advance was brought to a halt. Bibliogr., ref. |