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Magomero: Portrait of an African Village
An insider's view of African historians' principal concerns--the slave trade, Christian missions, colonialism, land alienation and nationalism--is presented through this personalized account of a Malawi village from 1859 to the present.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 8, 2022
Besides the name Magomero, four words are key to the narrative of this book; Livingstone, thangata, Chilembwe and finally women. This book is an attempt by Landag White to analyse the impact of the christianity, commerce and civilisation colonial imperative on an east African village/region in contemporary Malawi told in four chapters from 1859 - 1985. Although I am impressed by the amount of details, sources and subjects included in the book, it fails to really stick or give me a concrete idea or lingering feeling after finishing it.
The story of Magomero starts with a group of missionaries who, at the insistence of the famous explorer Livingstone, made their way to Malawi to set up a missionary post to bring commerce, christinanity and civilisation to the region. Based on this first chapter impression I was bit on a limb what the make of it; yes Landag White makes a point in trying to compare the missionaries expectations and ideas with what the local inhabitants had to say on the matter; but all and all the story is told from the missionaries experience. As the book progressed I did notice that local points of view first matched and in the final chapter eclipsed outsiders. The final chapters gives little to no voice to the various institutions, such as a forestry and a cadet school at Magomero that have little interaction with the local inhabitants. Likewise what is noticeable from chapter one is Landag White choice to stick to a chronological narrative. This results in sudden jumps in subject as different aspects come forward such as division of labor, or conflict or religion, language and identity while of which is very interesting; it is quite difficult to keep track of the bigger picture.
As I said Four words are to be kept in mind when reading the book; Livingstone is both a reference to the explorer as his descendant who became a local fixture in the local colonial economy, Thangata was the system of control and economic surplus extraction, while Chilembwe was an African preacher, entrepreneur and agitator whose ambitions to transform the local community brought him add odds with both the thangata system and its local enforcer Livingstone in 1915. There is something deeply ironic how Chilembwe is in fact everything that colonialism was supposed to achieve; here he was an African man who built churches and schools, set up networks of farmers and entrepreneurs. Yet he was perceived a threat which led to conflict and his eventual rebellion and later execution. Irony over irony for a short time being a christian African at magomero was suspicious in the eyes of the colonial administration. Yet Landeg White never does get to the bottom of this or any of many other topics he discusses and broaches in the book.
the closest he comes to an overarching narrative and pattern of change is with women. The story of the women of Magomero is one of custom that gave them ownership over the land in conflict with patriarchal preference of the colonial administration. A story of gardens of vegetables that supported and enabled the thangata system of plantation work on cotton, tobacco and tea. A story of new religious traditions as a tool in the fight for control in marriages, a story of abandoned women in the 40ties, a story of vocal women telling their stories to Landeg White in the 1980ties. I found this aspect of the book and study to be the most appealing and interesting.
What I would have preferred is for the four chapters to be divided in themes or in shorter subchapters on a smaller number of years with concluding remarks on how the village changed in the last few years and what lay ahead. As it is now, it is still a solid piece of work and study that offers lots of interesting starting points for further research yet it fails to really instill a message to me.
The story of Magomero starts with a group of missionaries who, at the insistence of the famous explorer Livingstone, made their way to Malawi to set up a missionary post to bring commerce, christinanity and civilisation to the region. Based on this first chapter impression I was bit on a limb what the make of it; yes Landag White makes a point in trying to compare the missionaries expectations and ideas with what the local inhabitants had to say on the matter; but all and all the story is told from the missionaries experience. As the book progressed I did notice that local points of view first matched and in the final chapter eclipsed outsiders. The final chapters gives little to no voice to the various institutions, such as a forestry and a cadet school at Magomero that have little interaction with the local inhabitants. Likewise what is noticeable from chapter one is Landag White choice to stick to a chronological narrative. This results in sudden jumps in subject as different aspects come forward such as division of labor, or conflict or religion, language and identity while of which is very interesting; it is quite difficult to keep track of the bigger picture.
As I said Four words are to be kept in mind when reading the book; Livingstone is both a reference to the explorer as his descendant who became a local fixture in the local colonial economy, Thangata was the system of control and economic surplus extraction, while Chilembwe was an African preacher, entrepreneur and agitator whose ambitions to transform the local community brought him add odds with both the thangata system and its local enforcer Livingstone in 1915. There is something deeply ironic how Chilembwe is in fact everything that colonialism was supposed to achieve; here he was an African man who built churches and schools, set up networks of farmers and entrepreneurs. Yet he was perceived a threat which led to conflict and his eventual rebellion and later execution. Irony over irony for a short time being a christian African at magomero was suspicious in the eyes of the colonial administration. Yet Landeg White never does get to the bottom of this or any of many other topics he discusses and broaches in the book.
the closest he comes to an overarching narrative and pattern of change is with women. The story of the women of Magomero is one of custom that gave them ownership over the land in conflict with patriarchal preference of the colonial administration. A story of gardens of vegetables that supported and enabled the thangata system of plantation work on cotton, tobacco and tea. A story of new religious traditions as a tool in the fight for control in marriages, a story of abandoned women in the 40ties, a story of vocal women telling their stories to Landeg White in the 1980ties. I found this aspect of the book and study to be the most appealing and interesting.
What I would have preferred is for the four chapters to be divided in themes or in shorter subchapters on a smaller number of years with concluding remarks on how the village changed in the last few years and what lay ahead. As it is now, it is still a solid piece of work and study that offers lots of interesting starting points for further research yet it fails to really instill a message to me.
January 18, 2016
interesting text-used in college african history class.
June 17, 2017
A very accessible and exciting book, laying out a history of Malawi. Recommended! I would suggest a new printing... And more like this from Malawi!
December 31, 2020
The British-born Africanist Historian Landeg White’s 1987 monograph, Magomero: Portrait of an African Village is a very well-written history of the region around the village of Magomero in Southern Malawi. When the reader in Landeg White’s Magomero is first introduced to the region of the village of Magomero in Southern Malawi in 1859, the British explorer-Christian missionary David Livingston has found that the region is run by leaders from the Mang’aja people. The Mang’aja people are a group that originated with the break-up of the kingdom of the Maravi. When the reader reaches the end of the monograph, the region around Magomero is part of independent Malawi under the rule of Kamuzu Banda. One of the main groups of people in the region identify as being part of “Lomwe” people. The “Lomwe” people have their origins as migrants coming in large family groups to work British agricultural plantations in the early 20th Century from the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. In the early 20th Century in response to work on the plantation in Colonial Mawai, these migrants created a new identity as “Lomwe” people. Landeg White in Magomero is interested in labor history, gender history, religious history, and other aspects of cultural history. The Africanist Historian Hugh Macmillian writes in the obituary of Landeg White in The Guardian (U.K.), that “pioneered the use of work songs and praise poetry in the writing of African history and were hugely influential.” Landeg White’s history of the region around the village of Magomero in Southern Malawi is a well-written cultural history of the region. I found Hugh Macmillian’s obituary of Landeg White from January 2018 useful in writing this “review".
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews