‘Informal’ Land Transactions in Peri-Urban Villages, Blantyre (Malawi)

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the process of commodification of the land, defined as the process by which land held under customary tenure and in principle non-transferable to non members of the lineage or kin group becomes a saleable item. I will be examining how people in peri-urban villages manage the transactions- who are involved, how and why? My main research questions are: what are the processes through which ‘informal’ land transactions are initiated, mediated and consolidated or concluded? In what ways are land owning systems transforming over time, with what effects on the socio-economic status of local people? And, in what ways are the land transactions embedded in social and power relationships within and beyond the village level community? I will collect data through close participation and observation in the lives of individuals in two villages at the fringes of Blantyre, Malawi’s main commercial centre. These methods will be complemented by a combination of interviews and open-ended unstructured and structured interviews with the actors, namely: the sellers, buyers, village level chiefs, agents/brokers and government officials. I will also hold focus group discussions (FGDs) with members of village based groups, and also collect case studies on transactions and life histories of different actors. Further, I will seek to inspect the records of pervious transactions kept by the sellers, buyers, agents and also village level chiefs. Data analysis will be informed by the grounded theory.

Keywords: Customary land, commodification, land transactions, peri-urban, Blantyre, Malawi

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Till Förster

Short CV

• Lecturer in human geography at Mzuzu University (Malawi) since 2000
• Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) from the University of Malawi (1998) and a Master of Arts from the University of Botswana (2003).

Publications