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Introduction

This study considers the absence if not the exclusion of the history and culture of the Malawian Indian Community in the national museums of Malawi as a form of a statement of inequality of citizenship recognition and representation in a space that is meant to reconstruct the complete history and heritage of the nation.[1]  Museums and other spaces of public history and culture are instruments through which societies and nations use to imagine the identity of the people and affirm their citizenship and belonging. The museums of Malawi conceived in the colonial era which continue to exist in the post-colonial era have constructed the narrative and image of its people with the absence of history and heritage of the Malawian Indian community who are one of the minority groups in the country.

This study locates itself within the discourses of political inequality of minority groups in spaces of public culture and history in the framework of cultural representation and recognition and belonging to the nation.  This dimension of political inequality presented as cultural inclusivity should be understood as form of unsettling hegemonic spaces of public culture.  Moreover, this study is also situated within the debates of negotiation of identity and heritage among the minority groups in a supposedly pluralistic society. The study asks a series of questions: What is the history of the Indian community in Malawi? What role has the Indian community played in shaping the social, cultural and economic aspects of Malawi? Why is the Indian community absent in spaces of public culture for example the national museum in Malawi? What implications does this have to the question of national identity, citizenship and belonging? What should be done to include the historical and cultural narratives of Malawian Indian communities in the Museums of Malawi?

Background to the History of Indians in Malawi

Doston and Doston’s 1968 book presented what is regarded as a classic and comprehensive history of the Indian communities in British Central Africa which in present day includes such countries as Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Their work highlights the migration of the Indian community to these African territories, their social, political and economic roles in shaping the history and future of these countries as well as their experiences and how they adapted themselves in these British colonies in Africa.[2]

Unlike in South Africa, where the Indians immigrated largely as the result of indentured labour, in Malawi the migration of Indians was as the result of motivation of commerce and trade. Doston and Doston noted that the first Indian trader, a Muslim by the name of Osman, arrived in 1885, according to his family’s reckoning. The migrant Indians were the economic middle men in the British colony that was British Central Africa and later Nyasaland. Statistics show that in 1956 in Nyasaland (as Malawi was then known) 67% of the Indian community were intensely engaged in commercial activities that largely involved retail trade and other associated businesses.[3] The relations between the local natives and Indians in comparison were much more comfortable than with white European settlers where they faced repulsive racial discriminatory treatment. The British colonial authorities had envisaged the Nyasaland colony to be the home of the immigrant Indians as way of assisting in improving the condition and status of the local people in the imperial framework of governance.[4] The colonial government used mostly Indians in some of the colonial projects and missions in the colony; for example, the laying of the railways in the country was done by the Indian labour. Sir Harry Johnston, the governor, relied on the Sikh Indians in his regiment in the consolidation of the British power in the colony.  Thus, the Indian community in various ways played a significant role in shaping the history of modern Malawi.

 

Although as a subject race in Nyasaland colony the Indians received favourable treatment, they faced the discriminatory policies of the British colonial authorities in various ways.  They did not enjoy equal treatment with white settlers, who were perceived as superior in the imperial framework of power relations. During the anti-colonial struggles the Indian community joined the native nationalists’ forces in agitating against the British colonial rule. Indians formed their own party, the Indian National Congress, which worked hand in hand with Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) which was the main nationalist movement against colonial rule. Mufuzi, writing about Indians in colonial Livingstone in Zambia, argued that the Indians only participated in agitating against British colonialism in order to protect their interests and not that of natives.[5]  While this might also be true for colonial Malawi, Indians were still united with the local natives in forming a common frontier against the British. It was therefore no surprise that Sattar Sacranie, a very well-known barrister, became Kamuzu Banda’s lawyer during the anti-colonial struggles.  

The above history suggests that the immigrant Indian community in the colony of Nyasaland played a significant role in shaping the history, society and future of Malawi from colonial times up to independence time. While most scholarly writing on Malawian Indians focused on their experiences in colonial Malawi and their political inequality with Europeans in the colonial setting there is little scholarly analysis on contemporary political inequality in the framework of cultural representation in spaces of public culture such as museums. The analysis in this paper relied on exhibition analysis of various branches of Museums of Malawi and secondary literature. While time constraints prevented systematic oral interviews, the paper demonstrates an existence of political inequality in terms of cultural representation of the history, culture and heritage of this minority group in spaces of public culture for example museums in Malawi despite this group’s significant contribution to Malawi’s history.

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[1] While in legal documents the common terms used to identify this category of community is ‘Asian community’ it normally refers to those people of Indian and Pakistan descent and origin. In the context of this paper  both the Indian and Pakistanis are grouped together as Indians as is common in the everyday reference  by Malawians on these people .

[2] F. Dotson and L. Dotson, The Indian minority of Zambia, Rhodesia and Malawi

(New Haven and London, 1968).

[3] See F. Dotson and L . Dotson, The Indian minority of Zambia, Rhodesia and Malawi

(New Haven and London, 1968) :  J. Power. ‘ Building Relevance: The Blantyre Congress, 1953 to 1956.’

Journal of Southern African Studies, 28:1 ( 2002) 45-65, DOI: 10.1080/03057070120116971.

[4] ibid

[5]  F. Mufuzi. ‘ Indian Political Activism in Colonial Zambia: The Case of Livingstone’s Indian Traders.’ In  Jan Bart   Gewald etal ,eds. Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonia Zambia ( Leidem.Boston: Brill 2011).p.235.

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The Indian Community in Post Colonial Malawi

What would be then the future and fate of the minority Indian community in the post-colonial dispensation in Malawi? Kamuzu Banda’s politics of post-colonial Malawi which worked towards unifying the nation in a nationalist mode was marred with his tribalism and segregation. Banda’s promotion of Chewa culture and heritage at the exclusion of other ethnic communities is well documented by Malawian scholars of various disciplines in social sciences, humanities and politics.[1]   Banda continued with the colonial policies of differential treatment among the races in post-colonial Malawi. The treatment which Banda meted out on the minority Indian community, such as the expulsion of the Indians from rural areas as way of promoting indigenous trade and participation in the emerging economy of the post-colony, was to some extent motivated by his identity politics by the earlier colonial discriminatory policies. The Indian community found themselves between a rock and hard place to negotiate their identity and belonging as the result of Banda’s politics. Most often Banda at political rallies demanded that the Indians leave the country if they felt that they didn’t belong to Malawi or adhere to his policies.  The question of integrating minor races in the imagination of the newly independent African states was a critical issue as has been observed in Uganda’s Idi Amin and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.  For example, James Muzondidya’s analysis on coloured people in Zimbabwe showed that land reforms designed to undo the legacy of white settler monopoly on land left the Indians and coloured as “subject minorities” ineligible to make land claims.[2] To access that land, one had to belong to an ethnic or tribal authority, and coloureds and Indians had no ethnic identity to claim. Under colonialism, to have a racial identity was an identity of privilege whilst having an ethnic identity condemned one to severe marginalization as a rural subject.  As Suren Pillay argued ‘after colonialism, in the name of justice, states tended to reverse the order in the name of Africanization and redistributive justice’[3]  Thus ethnic subjects were now the most eligible for redress, and racial subjects would be last in the line. This was the fate of Malawian Indians in Banda’s Malawi.

Spaces of negotiation, reconstruction and representation of nation’s identity such as museums under Banda’s regime never represented the history and culture of the Indian community and their role in shaping the country. The minority Indian community were not recognised as part of the larger history and heritage of the country. It was no wonder then that most Indian communities largely became involved in the movements that agitated against dictatorship and autocracy of Kamuzu Banda.  When Malawi became a democracy in 1994 the first democratic government recognised the role of Indian community as evidenced on the appointments of some of the members into various portfolios of the cabinet. And in fact, some became members of parliament. How then is the role of Malawian Indians in shaping the country’s history represented and recognised in the democratic Malawi in its national museum?

 

 Democratic era and representation of Malawian Indians’ history and culture in museums

 Museums and related institutions have been used for representing cultures, creation of national identities and fostering a sense of belonging.  Museums and such heritage institutions have played a central role in forming and fostering cultural identities, creation of civil citizens, nation building, democracy, human rights and imagination of the nation among others. If certain cultural communities and categories are not represented in these cultural institutions, they feel excluded in the larger discourse of nation belonging and recognition. A critical analysis of the exhibitions in the national museum of Malawi and its branches reveals the total absence of the cultural representation of the Malawian Indians and total absence of their role in shaping the history and society of Malawi.[4] This works to exclude their history and sense of belonging to the broader imagination of who is Malawian and what constitutes Malawianess. In other words, despite the significant role that the Malawian Indians played in shaping the history and society of modern Malawi their absence and misrecognition in the national museum that is meant to celebrate and recognise the different histories and cultures of various communities in Malawi constitutes a form of political inequality of representation which has implications on questions of belonging. Recently, the newly established Department of National Unity has for the first time in Malawi’s history invited the Malawian Indian community to participate in the national cultural festival that is meant to showcase and recognise various cultures and histories in Malawi. Nonetheless, in their present form the various museums and cultural centres are yet to respond to democratic ideals and call of inclusivity and recognition of minority groups.  

Malawian Indians are not a homogeneous community, of course. They have their internal differences in terms of culture, language and religion, as some are Muslims and Hindus and others speak Gujarat and Bengali. It would therefore be imperative to ask them how they would prefer to be presented in the national museums with regard to these diversity among them. Also, while the Indians are not the only secluded minority groups in Malawi there is a general understanding that the ethnic groups in Malawi share commonalities in terms of certain aspects of culture and it is therefore very easy for these ethnic groups to see themselves in the national museums even though they are not directly represented. This is unlike the Indians who are racially and culturally different from the rest of other minority groups.

The recent debates over and subsequent halting of the erection of a statue of Ghandhi in Malawi should also be situated within the politics of identity and misrecognition of the heritage of Malawian Indians community in Malawi. In 2019 the government of India together with the Malawi government planned to erect a statue of Mahatma Ghandhi in Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre, one of the cities with a largest number of Malawian Indians. This was part of cultural diplomacy between the two nations as way of rebuilding and enhancing their relations. The Indian government had promised assistance to the Malawi government in building some state-of-the-art infrastructure. However, some sectors of civil society protested against these plans with arguments that Ghandhi was a racist against Africans and he does not deserve such honour as a statue in Malawi.[5]  Such sentiments were similar to what happened in other African countries such as Ghana, where a Ghandi statue was defaced and pulled down by students at University of Ghana because of Ghandhi’s perceived racial comments on Africans during his stay in South Africa. However, in Malawi Ghandhi was an inspirational figure among the nationalists in their struggle against British colonial rule; for example, the challenging of unjust colonial laws and policies by Mikeka Mkandawire and others was inspired by Ghandhi.[6] Those acts inspired by Ghandhi motivated the Indian community in Malawi to support materially the nationalist movement in Malawi. This seems to suggest that the legacy of Ghandhi had influence in Malawi beyond claims of racism as espoused by those resisting his statue and that the motivations for that resistance were just a statement of broader picture of identity politics that Malawian Indians face in Malawi.

 

As Suren Pillay argued in his work on the fate of South African Indians in post-apartheid South African, the greater social and political challenges lie in reshaping how we come to think about each other and ourselves, the extent to which colonial constructions have come to be embodied and lived in our dispositions towards each other, and our discourses about others. These are amplified by the extent to which market-based inequalities breathe new life into racial and ethnic stereotypes and prejudices.[7]  The comparison to South Africa shows the need to find a difference that allows for the embrace of the multiple historical routes through which all find themselves in Malawi. Furthermore, there is need to embrace a pan-African concept of difference that remains open to inviting new migrants to becoming citizens. While the constitution of Malawi recognises the rights of all people who are its citizens it seems there is much to be done in the spaces of public culture for example national museums of Malawi in recognising and representing the history of minority race of Malawian Indians in the broader history and imagination of the nation.

 

Conclusion

Even though the Malawian Indians are in minority they have a cultural right to be recognised by state institutions of public culture. Furthermore, their role in shaping Malawi’s history and society be acknowledged by state’s cultural institutions such as  museums which play a role in fostering the imagination and sense of belonging to the nation. As it stands at present the absence and conspicuous obscurity of the history and cultural representation of this minority group in the national museums of Malawi only serves to misrecognise and exclude this cultural group from the imagination of Malawi and their sense of belonging to the nation. Efforts should therefore be made towards cultural and historical research that can inform the representation of their history and culture in Malawian museums as part of inclusive imagination of the nation particularly in a democratic dispensation that claims inclusivity, cultural rights and recognition as tenets of building a plural society.

 

                                           REFERENCES

 

 Dotson. F and Dotson. L. The Indian minority of Zambia, Rhodesia and Malawi

(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968).

 

Gaby. C. ‘The Radical and Reactionary Politics of Malawi’s Hastings Banda: Roots, Fruits and Legacy’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 43, No. 6 (2017).

 

 Kaspin, D. ‘Tribes, Regions and Nationalism in Democratic Malawi.’ Ethnicity and Group Rights Vol.39 (1997).

 

Mkandawire, M. ‘Ethnicity, Language and Cultural Violence’, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol.63, No.1(2010).

 

Lusaka, M.  ‘Curating the nation: Collections, ethnographic representations and heritage production at Museum of Malawi. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10:1, (2003) 2160577, DOI: 1080/23311983.2022.2160577

 

Malawi Court halts work on Ghandhi Statue after critics brand him racist. BBC News (31 October 2018) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46051184.

 

Mufuzi, F. ‘Indian Political Activism in Colonial Zambia: The Case of Livingstone’s Indian Traders.’ In Jan Bart Gewald etal, eds. Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonia Zambia (Leiden and Boston: Brill 2011).

 

Muzondidya. J, Sitting on the fence of or Walking a Tight Rope? A Political History of the Coloured Community in Zimbabwe. Doctoral Thesis, University of Cape Town 2001.

Pillay. S, ‘Being Coloured and Indian in South Africa After Apartheid.’ Africa is a Country (2018) https://africasacountry.com/2018/06/being-coloured-and-indian-in-south-africa-after-apartheid

 

Power. J, ‘Building Relevance: The Blantyre Congress, 1953 to 1956.’ Journal of Southern African Studies, 28:1 (2002), 45-65, DOI: 10.1080/03057070120116971.

 

Vail. L and White. L. ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi” in Leroy Vail (ed) The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989).

 

 

[1] See L.Vail and L. White, ‘Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi” in Leroy Vail (ed) The Creation  of Tribalism in Southern Africa (Berkley, CA: University of California Press,1989) ; C. Gaby, ‘The Radical and Reactionary Politics of Malawi’s Hastings Banda: Roots, Fruits and Legacy’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 43, No. 6, (2017); B.Mkandawire ‘Ethnicity, Language and Cultural Violence’, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol.63, No.1(2010):  D. Kaspin, ;Tribes, Regions and Nationalism in Democratic Malawi.’ Ethnicity and Group Rights Vol.39 (1997),

[2] J. Muzondidya.’Sitting on the fence of or Walking a Tight Rope? A Political History of the Coloured Community in Zimbabwe.’ Doctoral Thesis, University of Cape Town 2001.

[3] S. Pillay. ‘Being Coloured and Indian in South Africa After Apartheid.’ https://africasacountry.com/2018/06/being-coloured-and-indian-in-south-africa-after-apartheid

[4] For the critical analysis of the exhibition in the Museums of Malawi and its branches see M. Lusaka. ‘Curating the nation: Collections, ethnographic representations

and heritage production at Museum of Malawi. Cogent Arts & Humanities,

10:1,(2003) 2160577, DOI: 1080/23311983.2022.2160577

[5]  Malawi Court halts  work on Ghandhi Statue after critics brand him racist. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46051184.

[6]   J. Power. ‘ Building Relevance p.51.

[7] S. Pillay. ‘ Being Coloured and  Indian in South Africa After Apartheid.’ https://africasacountry.com/2018/06/being-coloured-and-indian-in-south-africa-after-apartheid