Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2002): African Sociological Review

4 - Matriliny, Patriliny, and Wealth Flow Variations in Rural Malawi

Mike Mathambo Mtika
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Eastern University. He was a visiting scholar at the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsiylvania for the 2000-2001 academic year.
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8369-2092
Henry Victor Doctor
Doctor is a demography doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0378-1415

Corresponding Author(s) : Mike Mathambo Mtika

mmtika@eastern.edu

African Sociological Review, Vol. 6 No. 2 (2002): African Sociological Review

Abstract

Literature on African kinship political economies suggests that under matriliny, wealth flow would be biased towards a matrilineal line in that children would engage in transfers with their maternai more than their paternal relatives. Under patriliny, the reverse would be the case. We explore these propositions using data from a sample survey of 1257 respondents in rural Malawi, 29 percent of whom were from a predomi­ nantly matrilineal ethnie group, 36 percent werefrom an ethnie group that is transformingfrom matrilineal to patrilineal practices, and 35 per­ cent were from a patrilineal ethnie group. These data were comple­ mented by qualitative interviews of 18 respondents from the matrilineal ethnie group, 20 from the transforming group, and 18 from the patrilineal group. Results reveal little evidence to support the propositions. We think that the increasingprivatisation of production and consumption, that has over the years penetrated rural Malawi, has led to some individualistic tendencies among rural Malawians and weakened both matrilineal and patrilineal influence on people 's wealth transfer behaviours.

Keywords

Matriliny Patriliny Wealth Flow Rural Malawi
Mike Mathambo Mtika, & Henry Victor Doctor. (2002). 4 - Matriliny, Patriliny, and Wealth Flow Variations in Rural Malawi. African Sociological Review, 6(2), 71–97. Retrieved from https://journals.codesria.org/index.php/asr/article/view/3896
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Author Biography

Mike Mathambo Mtika, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Eastern University. He was a visiting scholar at the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsiylvania for the 2000-2001 academic year.

Dr. Mike Mtika joined Eastern University in August 2001.  He retired as Emeritus Professor in August 2022 but still teaches as an Adjunct Instructor. A major interesting exercise he engaged in was taking Eastern University students to Zowe, his original home community in Malawi, Africa, in 2004. This led to the founding of Pamoza International, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization incorporated in Pennsylvania, which carries out holistic Christian Outreach and Community Development work in northern Malawi.  The work is guided by the contiguity principle, starting in a community and contiguously expanding to other communities. Thus, Pamoza International started work in Zowe, a community with a population of 1,200 people in 2004. The program contiguously expanded to 4 communities with a population of 6,000 by 2008.  The organization is now (2023) serving 20 communities with 10,500 households in 460 villages with a total population of 45,000 people. Contiguity follows the start “in Jerusalem then all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8b) principle. Pamoza plans are to start from somewhere and expand contiguously.

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