The Story of an African Famine Gender and Famine in Twentieth-Century Malawi [Paperback]

This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources.This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai.This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai.This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing in particular on the nature of social and economic stratification, changes in kinship systems and the position of women and placing all this within the wider context of the impact of colonial rule.List of maps; List of illustrations; Preface; Glossary; Introduction; 1. The 1949 famine; 2. Famine as a Malthusian crisis; 3. Famine as a failure of the market; 4. Food entitlement and employment; 5. Gender and famine; 6. After the famine: a conclusion; Notes; List of oral interviews; Bibliography; Index.