| dc.description | Most historians of Malawi portray Chewa institutions and discourses as static cultural givens, incapable of spearheading change within Chewa communities. As such, many analyses of the Chewa encounter with colonial rule and earlier incursions have emphasized the way Chewa institutions resisted structural and discursive domination. The Chewa have been seen as defenders of a static, unchanging "tradition" rather than a flexible social system. Others scholars have located forces of political, economic and social innovations among the Chewa in external factors, such as Christianity and labour migration. Yet the Chewa and their institutions neither held fast nor remained unaffected by alien structures and ideas. Throughout the period under study, 1870--1945, Chewa practices and ideas adapted to developments in their environments. This study examines the ways in which indigenous institutions such as nyau (Chewa men's secret society) and chinamwali (female initiation) enabled ordinary Chewa men and women to redefine or remake important Chewa social systems such as matriliny in the face of dramatic changes and challenges. The study has important implications for the way we understand structure and agency in African history, its gendered character and the importance of in-depth case studies for the study of historical change in precolonial and colonial Africa. | en_US |
