The limits of Malawian headmen’s agency in co-constructed development practice and narratives

Abstract

Seeking to foreground the role of local agency in development practice, anthropologists laud chieftaincy for its ability to reshape development projects and narratives. However, studies commonly focus on the higher ranks of hierarchical chieftaincies or present chieftaincy as a homogenous and unified institution. This has led to an overstatement of sub-chiefs’ ability to influence development projects and discourses. This article explores the relationship between Malawian villagers and three NGOs, Mbwezi, Nkuvira and GreenEarth. The former two had permanent offices in a small Malawian community, their wealth and the westernization-as-development they promised, prevented village headmen (the lowest strata of Malawian chief) from credulously linking development to traditional rule. The latter’s work in a village distant from its office was utilized by a headman to enhance his legitimacy. This article explores the interplay between village headmen’s agency, chiefly hierarchies and international development signifiers. It argues that headmen’s involvement in a development activity neither inherently confers legitimacy to a project nor represents a local co-creation of development.