Becoming abwanaand burley tobacco in the Central Region of Malawi

Author:

Prowse Martin

Abstract

ABSTRACTSmallholders 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 tobaccobwana(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.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Sociology and Political Science,Geography, Planning and Development

Cited by 16 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Tobacco Farmers and Their Communities: Interlinkages, Gains and Losses in Mazowe, Zimbabwe;Journal of Southern African Studies;2022-03-04

2. Tobacco Contract Farming, Crop Diversification and Household Relations in the Central Region of Malawi;Journal of Southern African Studies;2022-03-04

3. “Dirty like a Tenant”: Migration and Embodied Dispositions in Malawi;Medical Anthropology;2020-04-07

4. Post-harvest groundnut aflatoxin management among smallholder farmers in Malawi;World Mycotoxin Journal;2020-02-06

5. Conclusion;Tobacco, Transformation and Development Dilemmas from Central Africa;2019-12-11

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