Colonial Currents, Contemporary Counter Currents

This project investigates how colonial and post-colonial fisheries management and development programmes continue to shape sustainability challenges in Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa's transnational waters.

 

Pairing historical interrogation through archival documentation and oral histories with participatory research methods and community-directed environmental analysis, we examine how non-state actors—from fishers and traditional authorities to international development agencies—have responded to challenges transcending the borders of Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania since the mid-twentieth century.

 

Operating across two strategically selected sites, Likoma Island and Mwenitete, that reflect key aspects of transnational fisheries challenges, our humanities-led interdisciplinary approach centres Indigenous and Local Knowledge systems while providing a holistic framework for imagining historically grounded, environmentally informed fishing futures rooted in community realities and perspectives. 

 

Our findings will offer new approaches to addressing the planetary challenge of sustainable fisheries through equitable knowledge partnerships, particularly where colonial legacies obstruct effective governance with consequences for human, fish, and environmental health.