Cultivating Geographies: Indigeneity, Development Planning, and Decoloniality in Malawi’s Agriculture

This thesis critically examines the epistemic dimensions of agrarian governance in Malawi by interrogating the entanglement of colonial legacies, agricultural policy, and knowledge production. It challenges the persistent subjugation of Indigenous agricultural knowledges and the epistemic positioning of smallholder farmers within modern agrarian development. Engaging with Achille Mbembe’s concept of Black reason, the study demonstrates that agricultural modernization is not merely a technocratic or economic process but a racialized epistemic project that systematically erases, appropriates, or neutralizes local knowledge systems.

Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), a grounded theory approach, qualitative fieldwork (including interviews with smallholder farmers, government officials, and academics), as well as an analysis of policy documents, historical records, and educational frameworks; the study reveals how various forms of argumentation and (de)legitimation strategies shape policy narratives and maintain agronomic hierarchies. Extending James C. Scott’s seminal critique of state-led simplification, the thesis argues that high modernist agricultural development is not just a failure of top-down planning but a structural necessity of modernity that continuously reproduces epistemic exclusions.

This study contributes to decolonial thought in geography by advancing a radical critique of agrarian modernity that moves beyond pluriversal inclusion and instead interrogates the epistemic hierarchies underpinning contemporary agricultural policy. The findings highlight the need for a paradigm shift in agricultural governance—one that does not simply seek to accommodate Indigenous knowledge within existing frameworks but dismantles the structures that necessitate its erasure. Without such epistemic transformation, efforts toward agricultural sustainability and equity in Malawi will remain trapped within the recursive crises of developmentalist neutralization and agronomic dependency.

7th February 2025

A collection of photos from my research journey:

 This is my PhD research project page (still under development).