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The Myth of the Capitalist Class: Unofficial Sources and Political Economy in Colonial Malawi, 1895-1924

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Tony Woods
Tony Woods*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Extract

One of the prevalent theories in Malawian historiography is that primitive accumulation created a unified capitalist class which worked in concert with the colonial state and sowed the seeds of poverty by viciously exploiting the indigenous community. This proposition relies almost exclusively on official sources, and scholars have rarely looked for unofficial material to corroborate it. Such a lacuna is regrettable because unofficial data indicate that Malawi's colonial capitalists were often a badly fragmented class antagonistic to the colonial administration. Moreover, the capitalists' divisions paralyzed them politically and thus allowed the state to enact legislation which was often antithetical to capitalists' ambitions and prerequisites. As a result, the capitalists often found themselves economically imperiled. Few documents demonstrate this trend better than the colony's most important expatriate newspaper, The Nyasaland Times.

The Nyasaland Times first appeared in 1895. Published by R.S. Hynde at the Blantyre Mission press, it immediately declared that “we are devoted to the planting interests of the community—the interest, we venture to state, on which the commercial prosperity of B.C.A. [British Central Africa] depends.” That the planters needed a voice devoted to them can scarcely be denied. By 1895 both the administration and the missions had established papers which were often hostile to the planters. In particular, Sir Harry Johnston's British Central African Gazette reflected the Commissioner's almost feral antipathy towards the planters in its editorials.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 16 , 1989 , pp. 363 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1989

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References

Notes

1. Two of the best examples of this type of study are Vail, Leroy, “The State and the Creation of Colonial Malawi's Agricultural Economy,” in Imperialism, Colonialism, and Hunger (Lexington, 1983), ed., Rotberg, Robert, 39–87Google Scholar; and Palmer, Robin, “White Farmers in Malawi: Before and After the Depression,” African Affairs, 84 (1985):211–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Actually, the paper had three different titles during the period in question: from 1895 to 1899, it was the Central African Planter (hereafter CAP); then from 1899 to 1910, it was the Central African Times (hereafter CAT); and finally from 1911 to 1924, it was named the Nyasaland Times. Since it was owned and edited by the same individual throughout this era, I have used the last title as a convenient shorthand throughout the text of the paper.

3. CAP, September 1895.

4. British Central African Gazette, 1 February 1894.

5. CAP, October 1895.

6. W. Hyde Wyatt to Editor, 8 October 1895, CAP November 1895.

7. CAP, January 1896.

8. CAP, 15 September 1896.

9. CAP, 15 October 1896.

10. CAP, 1 December 1896.

11. National Library of Scotland, Mss 7536 #226, McMurtie to Johnston, 23 November 1896.

12. NLS, Mss 7536 #226, McMurtie to Scott, 4 December 1896.

13. NLS, Mss 7536 #429, McMurtie to Hynde, 1 May 1897.

14. CAP, 15 June 1897.

15. The “Chartered Company” in question was the British South Africa Company.

16. Especially since the settlers had fought inclusion into the B.S.A.C.'s territory during the scramble. For instance, in 1893 Johnston mentioned that “the bringing of the Nyasaland Protectorate under the BSAC is almost impossible [because]…almost all of the now numerous bands of planters out here, are dead against it.” F.O. 403/185, Johnston to F.O., 23 March 1893.

17. CAT, 11 November 1899.

18. CAT, 29 July 1899,.

19. CAT, 9 September 1899.

20. Particularly because they overconsumed the calico needed to pay workers, CAT, 20 January 1900.

21. CAT, 27 January 1900.

22. CAT, 25 November 1899.

23. CAT, 8 June 1901.

24. CAT, 30 June 1900.

25. CAT, 21 September 1901.

26. CAT, 2 February 1901.

27. CAT, 22 August 1903.

28. CAT, 7 November 1903.

29. CAT, 12 November 1904.

30. CAT, 19 November 1904.

31. CAT, 19 November 1904.

32. In the same way, but to a greater degree than John Lonsdale and Bruce Berman have suggested for Kenya, see Berman, and Lonsdale, , “Coping with the Contradictions: The Development of the Colonial State in Kenya,” JAH, 20 (1979):487–505.Google Scholar

33. CAT, 12 August 1905.

34. CAT, 15 September 1906.

35. CAT, 5 January 1907.

36. CAT, 21 December 1907; and CAT, 18 April 1908.

37. NT, 16 March 1911.

38. NT, 6 July 1911.

39. NT, 5 September 1912.

40. NT, 22 February 1911.

41. NT, 2 October 1911.

42. NT, 29 June 1911.

43. NT, 19 June 1913.

44. NT, 15 January 1914.

45. NT, 30 October 1913; NT, 23 Ocober 1913.

46. NT, 13 August 1914.

47. NT, 1 April 1915.

48. NT, 26 October 1916.

49. NT, 31 May 1917.

50. NT, 5 July 1917.

51. NT, 9 January 1919.

52. NT, 12 February 1920.

53. NT, 4 March 1920.

54. NT, 19 February 1920. Hynde noted that he toned down this letter from L.S. Norman.

55. NT, 13 May 1920.

56. NT, 29 July 1920.

57. NT, 31 July 1919.

58. NT, 18 September 1919.

59. NT, 27 November 1919.

60. NT, 21 October 1920.

61. NT, 6 January 1921.

62. NT, 4 July 1921.

63. NT, 20 July 1922.

64. NT, 31 October 1922.

65. NT, 2 January 1923.

66. NT, 17 July 1923.

67. NT, 1 January 1926.