EXPLORING LITERACY AND

INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN MALAWI

Dr. Ahmmardouh Mjaya | Dr. Jean Chavula

Dr. Symon Chiziwa | Mr. Alick Bwanali
This report is part of a larger research programme, the Global Research Translation Award: Meeting the SDGs:
creating innovative infrastructures and policy solutions to support sustainable development in Global South
communities. The University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Global Research Translation Award (GRTA) sets out to help
tackle health, nutrition, education and environment issues in developing countries. The GRTA has been funded as
part of the UK government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Innovation and Commercialisation
Programme, developed to fast-track promising research findings into real-world solutions.The over-arching project
comprises four interconnected sub-projects addressing child malnutrition, sustainable food systems, family literacy
and microplastic pollution. These projects work across disciplines and scales, supporting the strengthening of
capacities at multiple levels – from communities to implementers, researchers, universities, media agencies,
industry and policy makers, with a view to long-term sustainability.

The University of Malawi is a partner of the UEA UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social
Transformation. The UEA UNESCO Chair programme aims to develop understanding about how adult learning –
particularly for women and young adults - can help address inequalities in the poorest communities of the world.
Through investigating how or why adult literacy might facilitate or respond to processes of social transformation,
including women’s empowerment, the programme works to strengthen the interaction between formal, non-formal
and informal learning in research, policy and practice. A collaboration between the universities in Malawi, Nepal, the
Philippines, Ethiopia and Egypt, the UNESCO Chair was established in 2016 at the University of East Anglia, UK.

Acknowledgement:

Meeting the SDGs: creating innovative infrastructures and policy solutions to support sustainable development in
Global South communities (GS-DEV) is the title of University of East Anglia's Global Research Translation Award
(ref. EP/T015411/1). The award is funded by United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global
Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), part of the UK's Official Development Assistance.

The Malawi team is indebted to traditional leaders in Machinga and Salima districts for allowing them to conduct
the study in their areas and to the participants for sharing with the team their lived experiences. The team is also
thankful to UNESCO Chair (UEA) for giving it the opportunity to take part in this exciting project and the United
Kingdom Research and Innovation for funding it.

About the cover (Clockwise):

Scenes from ethnographic fieldwork – women making mats, fishermen on
Lake Malawi, women selling mushrooms collected in the forest

All photo credits: UEA UNESCO Chair University of Malawi research team

July 2021

ISBN 978-1-870284-03-5
Exploring literacy and intergenerational learning for sustainable development in Malawi
 TABLE OF
CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 Background p. 1

Research Questions p. 2

Report structure p. 2

Family literacy and p. 3

intergenerational learning in Malawi

Methodology p. 5

Ethical dilemmas p. 8
p. 8
Challenges and Limitations

CHAPTER 2 Literacy and (Inter)generational p. 9

learning practices in Machinga

CHAPTER 3 Literacy and (Inter)generational p. 18

learning practices in Salima

CHAPTER 4 Reflections and Conclusion p. 26

Emerging Issues p. 27

Implications for policy and practice p. 29

 1 Background
The significance of literacy in fostering national development is highlighted in many key policy and related documents in
Malawi such as the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 2012; National Gender Policy, 2008; Malawi National
HIV/AIDS Policy, 2003; Policy and Investment Framework, 2001; Agricultural Extension in the New Millennium Policy,
2000; National Youth Policy, 2013. In chapter three, part (f) section (i) the Malawi Constitution pledges to make adequate
resources available to the education sector and formulate programmes in order to eradicate ‘illiteracy’ in the country.

However, the Malawi Government is concerned that although literacy levels appear to be improving in percentage terms,
from 64% in 2008 to 69% in 2018 “[‘illiteracy’] has been steadily worsening in absolute terms” (The Government of the
Republic of Malawi, 2007: 2). It is estimated that 3,844,575 people lacked basic literacy skills in 2008 compared with
4,700,000 in 2018. According to the 2018 Malawi population and housing census the literacy rate for men was 72% while
that of women was 66%. The literacy situation is exacerbated by the fact that despite the introduction of free primary
education in the country in 1994, it is estimated that only about 50% of the children complete their primary schooling (see
Moleni & Nampota, 2006) and most of them leave school before acquiring basic literacy skills (see Kadzamira & Chibwana,
2000; Chilora, 2007; Smith and Barret, 2011). Even for those learners who continue with their education, many literacy
assessments continue to indicate poor performance by learners in Malawi.

In view of this, a number of initiatives in Malawi aim to help both adults and children to gain basic literacy. However, while
there appears to be overwhelming interest in designing programmes meant to enhance the achievement of basic literacy
among children, the marginalisation of adult literacy, especially for poorer women, within development policy at national
and international level appears to persist. The figures cited above suggest that demand for adult literacy programmes may
continue. The current project sought to understand community members’ family literacy and intergenerational learning
practices which could help not only to enhance such initiatives but also strengthen capacities to meet the United Nation’s
sustainable development goals, especially zero hunger, education and gender equality and women’s empowerment in
Malawi.

Deforestation in Liwonde Forest Reserve

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 Fisherfolks on the shores of Lake Malawi
Research Questions
Overall Research Question
What kind of (inter)generational literacy and learning
practices are families engaged in?
Specific Questions
In what domains are families engaged in literacy and
learning practices?
How do family members participate in literacy and
learning practices in different domains?
What kind of knowledge and skills are involved in the
literacy and learning practices families engage in?
How do families value the literacy and learning practices
they engage?
Report Structure
This report shares the findings of the family literacy and
(inter)generational learning project which was conducted in
Machinga and Salima in Malawi. The report has four chapters.
Chapter one sets the context in which this study was conducted. It
provides the background to the study, research questions, an
outline of research and programmes on family and
intergenerational learning in Malawi, methodology, ethical
dilemmas and concludes with a reflection on challenges and
limitations.
Chapter two presents research findings focusing on Machinga. The
chapter considers (inter)generational learning in community
members’ sources of livelihoods such as rice farming, curio making
and selling, mushroom gathering and home literacy learning
practices. Chapter three provides the findings from Salima. It
focuses on (inter)generational learning practices in two main areas:
mat making and fishing. Lastly, chapter four pulls together the
major issues emerging from the research findings and then teases
out some implications for policy and practice.
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Family Literacy and Intergenerational Learning in Malawi
Although the notions of family literacy and intergenerational
learning are not new in Malawi research, programmes in these
areas are rare. When such programmes are offered, they usually
take the form of what Auerbach (1995) would describe as an
intervention prevention model. This model is informed by the
perception that the assumed literacy problems “are rooted in
the undereducated parents’ inability to promote positive
attitudes and interactions in the home” (ibid: 644). Parents are
regarded as the first teachers of the children and therefore,
their deficiencies in skills and beliefs about literacy are passed
on to their children. In this regard, the literacy programmes that
are designed aim to change “parents’ beliefs about literacy and
literacy interactions with their children,” (ibid) while others
target the children, teachers and the community at large.
Literacy Interventions for Children Involving
Parents and the Communities
From 2013 to 2015, an NGO called Link Community
Development ran a family literacy project based on the
understanding that among others things, literacy attainment
among primary school learners in Malawi was low and that many
children lived “in a literacy-poor environment, with many
parents and community members themselves being illiterate
and with very little access to reading materials” (Link
Community Development, n.d.: 7; see also Linan-Thompson,
2014; Dowd, Wiener & Mabeti, 2010). The project not only
sought to address the problem of low literacy achievement
among learners but also to deal with the issue of “lack of
confidence” among parents or community members regarding
their ability to provide educational support to their children,
(ibid: 8). It framed parents as “the first and most important
educators of children” and hence saw the family literacy
approach as being critical in helping both adults and children to
attain literacy (ibid). The aim of the project was to increase the
literacy levels of parents, particularly mothers, and to enhance
community support for literacy. To achieve this, the project put
in place several activities. First it provided literacy classes for
mothers. Second, it established reading clubs where children
learned and read together.
The project reported many successes but those that are
relevant to the current study include:
More mothers and adult literacy graduates were checking
what their children had done at school;
More children were able to read, write and numerate;
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Teaching and learning to read was made easy because
teaching materials were available and methods that were
used were fun;
Graduate adult literacy learners know how to read and write,
(Link Community Development, n.d.: 36-37)
The project also reported challenges, including:
Absenteeism of learners and mentors sometimes;
Limited amount of teaching and learning aids where
numbers were very big;
Weak parental support in some areas, (ibid: 37)
A similar project was implemented by Save the Children in 2009
with a view of strengthening “children’s reading ability through
both community and teacher-focused elements” (Dowd, Wiener
& Mabeti, 2010: 4) called Literacy Boost (see also Pouezevara,
Costello and Banda, 2013). Just like the Link Community
Development initiative, Literacy Boost was an intervention
aimed at addressing what the programme designers saw as a
deficit. The programme targeted teachers and the community at
large. It combined reading assessments and interventions and
was underpinned by the understanding that “children’s reading
skill development is influenced by availability of reading
materials, reading habits and opportunity to read” (Dowd &
Pisani, 2013:359). In the end, the project established three key
issues: first, few households had materials for children to read;
second, where materials were available, few family members
read to the children; third, children who spent more time doing
chores had lower predicted reading skills than their peers, even
if family members read to them.
One of the successes reported by the project is that in just one
year the intervention had helped children to make tremendous
improvements in their reading abilities both in terms of fluency
and accuracy for comprehension. However, the project also
acknowledged that standard 2 children lacked Chichewa word-
level skills and that standard 4 children who had not yet been
introduced to English as a medium of instruction, had a low text
level skill of comprehension in English.
In 2016, the Malawi government launched the National Reading
Strategy (NRS) with the aim of supporting “early reading and to
strengthen existing mechanisms to track reading performance”
(Koch et al., 2019:1). Noting the key roles parents and the wider
community played in boosting literacy abilities in learners, the
NRS initiative also incorporated some literacy enhancing
activities for parents and other members of the community.
Some key findings from the midline report are relevant to this
study. The report found evidence that learners who were
assisted with homework at home did better on letter names and
sounds in Chichewa and in English than those who were not.
Learners who read outside school or were being read to at home
among other things, also obtained high scores.
Literacy Interventions/Programmes for Adults
and Out of School Children
The National Adult Literacy Programme, also called the
Functional Adult Literacy Programme, is the Malawi
government’s primary literacy initiative, meant to help
individuals aged 15 and above who are regarded to be non-
literate to be literate. The current programme was launched in
1986 under the Ministry of Gender and Community Services and
it is run by the National Centre for Adult Literacy and Education.
Its curriculum covers reading, writing, numeracy and functional
knowledge. Presently, the programme is not directly linked to
formal education so learners who complete their programme
have no pathway to join formal schooling.
The programme faces numerous challenges but those relevant
to this study include the failure of the curriculum to respond to
the differing needs of groups and regions and the absence of a
link between it and other socio-economic and community
development activities. The programme has also failed to
attract men in the way that it has done with women. Its greatest
strength is that interest and engagement from the communities
has remained high.
In 2005, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
introduced the Complementary Basic Education pilot
programme based on evidence that about 50% of pupils had not
completed their primary education (see Moleni & Nampota,
2006). The purpose of this initiative was to teach learners
“essential knowledge, skills and values to promote self-reliance,
encourage lifelong learning and full participation in societal
development” (Ministry of Women and Child Development,
2008: 42) with an emphasis on the attainment of literacy and
numeracy (Jere, 2012).
Although intergenerational learning has been the informal
means for the transfer of knowledge, skills, competencies,
norms and values within families and communities in Malawi,
research or initiatives in this area are rare to non-existent.
Hence, literature on any form of intergenerational activity in
Malawi is hard to find.
Summary
As stated in the background to the project, key policy
documents in Malawi recognise the importance of literacy to the
country’s socioeconomic development. It is for this reason that
the Malawi Government and NGOs are involved in initiatives
aimed at enhancing literacy abilities for school going children
and out of school youths or adults. It should be stated however,
that there is no comprehensive family literacy policy in Malawi.
All the initiatives reviewed in this section appear to have been
informed by what the programme designers perceive as literacy
deficits. Thus, programmes such as the National Adult Literacy
Programme (NALP) are organised to help adults who are
perceived to be non-literate to learn how to read and write. One
of the assumed benefits of the NALP is that once the adults
become literate they are be able to help their children with
school work. Initiatives which have elements of family literacy,
such as the Link Project, Literacy Boost and the National
Reading Strategy, aim to strengthen the literacy abilities of
school going children. In this case, the key assumption is that
children cannot succeed academically if they are unable to read
comprehension materials meant for their grades.
The aims of these initiatives differ because of different
perceptions of the cause of the ‘literacy problem’. Thus, the
NALP places the problem on non-literate community members
whereas the Link Project situates it in the lack of parental and
community support. The Literacy Boost sees lack of reading
materials and parents’ inability to read to their children as one
of the causes of the children’s low literacy levels while the
National Reading Strategy locates the problem in the
educational processes, especially the mode of instruction.
Suffice to say that all initiatives which have elements of family
literacy promote school-based literacy practices and assign
parents the role of teachers. Consequently, local learning
practices are ignored, including the fact that adults can also
learn from children.
Fisherfolks setting off for fishing
4|
 Methodology
The study sought to understand the lived experiences of
community members by employing an ethnographic approach.
Ethnography has a complex history and therefore, it does not
have one common definition Hammersley and Atkinson (2007).
In this study, ethnography is conceptualised as a “research
approach in which the researcher attempts to understand and
represent the beliefs, values and culture of a group or a
community in their own terms” (Gebre et al., 2009: 5). The
study took place in two sites in two districts in Malawi, namely
Machinga and Salima. Two researchers spent three weeks in
Machinga and two weeks in Salima respectively. To ensure some
form of continuity, the principal investigator was the only one
who took part in fieldwork in both sites. Our operation was
organised in such a way that we spent some time with the
community members during the day and left the villages in the
evening to our lodges where we continued with the work of
making sense of the data we had gathered, in readiness for the
next encounters. Our primary data collection method was
participant observation supplemented by individual interviews,
focus group discussions and photography/video. The fieldwork
had to be paused in Salima due to the Covid 19 epidemic
prevention strategies.

In Machinga, after introducing ourselves to the group village

headperson, the latter arranged for a meeting with his subjects
where we were introduced. It was during this meeting that we
learnt about some of the activities the community members Dr Chiziwa participating in transplanting rice

engage in to sustain their livelihoods, including agriculture (fish

farming, bee keeping, rice and cucumber farming), gathering
Machinga was chosen as a research site because it is one of the
and selling mushrooms and curio making. In Salima, TA
districts in Malawi which hosts a vast forest, namely Liwonde
Makanjira introduced us to some group village headpersons and
Forest Reserve, which currently faces serious deforestation.
a contact person. Unlike in Machinga where some community
Liwonde Forest Reserve was declared a protected area in 1924
members gathered to listen to the purpose of our research, in
to safeguard catchment areas and special tree species. It covers
Salima it was the contact person who introduced us to the
a total area of 26266 hectares (Machinga Planning Task Force,
community members when we visited their homes. The people’s
2007). The study was conducted in group village person
sources of livelihoods were identified during such visits. More
Chingoli’s area, T/A Nkula, adjacent to Liwonde Forest Reserve.
details about both sites are provide in the next part.
The community is situated some two kilometres west of the old
Machinga district offices, along the M3 road.
Selection of research sites
Fish is another resource that is facing tremendous pressure in
Malawi: “Malawi lakes are under considerable stress due to high
Realising that literacy and (inter)generational learning are not
population growth and increasing levels of poverty which have
ends in themselves, this study sought to understand how these
led to overexploitation of fishery resources,” (Jamu et al., 2011:
facilitate the sustainable or unsustainable use of natural
3). In Malawi, fish supply 60% of animal protein in human diet
resources, particularly forestry and fisheries. Our focus on
(ibid). In addition, the fisheries sector employs 60,000 directly
forestry was based on the recognition that “about 90% of
and 450,000 indirectly, in fish processing, distribution and
Malawi’s population use wood for fuel and charcoal production,
associated trades (ibid).
accounting for about 88.5% of the country’s energy
requirements,” (Gamula, Hui & Peng 2013: 45). This situation
puts Malawi’s forests under tremendous pressure; hence, the
need to understand how rural communities, sustainably or
otherwise, utilise these resources to support their livelihoods.

5 |
Salima in the central region of Malawi lies along the shores of
Lake Malawi. This district was chosen because it hosts one of
the areas where traditional practices are used to promote the
sustainable utilisation of fisheries. The study took place in TA
Makanjira’s area, located some 12 kilometres to the east of
Khombedza trading centre along the M5 road about 30
kilometres north of Salima district headquarters. Apart from
farming, fishing is the main source of livelihoods in T/A
Makanjira’s area. The community’s source of fish is mainly Lake
Malawi, especially the areas surrounding Mbenji island. The
island is situated in Domira Bay in group village head person
Mpiringidzo’s area, T/A Makanjira. The influence of culture and
tradition in the management of fisheries around the island dates
back to the 1950s. No one is allowed to fish without following
the rules, most of which are culturally governed. For example,
destruction of wildlife is prohibited and doing the latter is
regarded as synonymous to uncovering the spaces where the
spirits reside. Women are not allowed to go to the island.
Drinking beer and smoking of any type of tobacco is prohibited
for fear of making the spirits angry. It is generally believed that
for peace to prevail and for the weather to be favourable for
fishing, there is a need to offer sacrifices to appease the spirits.
Hence in April every year, the offerings are done on the grave of
Nyangulu, the first chief of the island. The island is closed for
fishing from the third week of December to April every year. The
communities believe that during this period, the spirits demand
a noise free atmosphere on the island. Suffice to say that it is
Map of Malawi showing some Districts
during this same period that most fish species breed (Njaya,
including Machinga and Salima
n.d.).

In both sites, this study sought to understand the communities’

sources of livelihoods in relation to the natural resources and
how the old and young generation support each other in the
acquisition of local knowledges and skills, including literacy.

Gaining access to the research sites

Access was negotiated at different levels. First, the research

team paid the district commissioners courtesy calls. During
these visits, the team informed the commissioners of the
significance of the study, as well as what it would involve. The
commissioners stamped the introductory letters the team
presented to them as a way of both giving their approval as well
as providing evidence to others, such as the police and
traditional leaders, that they were aware of our presence. The
team did the same with the police. At community level, access
was first negotiated with Traditional Authority (T/A) or Chiefs
who handed us over to group village headpersons. Ideally these
group headpersons were supposed to direct us to village
headpersons but in our case, it was the group headpersons who
gave us access because we conducted our fieldwork in their
villages. Thereafter, access was negotiated with members of the
households especially the heads, before seeking informed
consent from the individuals we focused upon.
6 |
It should be noted that in Malawi, there are about six hierarchies
of traditional leaders. The higher the hierarchy, the larger the
area and power they have. At the top of the hierarchy are
paramount chiefs followed by senior chiefs. Below the senior
chiefs come chiefs, sub chiefs, and group village headpersons, in
that order. At the bottom of the ladder are the village
headpersons. Most traditional leaders in Malawi assume their
position based on lineage and receive monthly honoraria from
the government commensurate with their rank.
Methods
Our main data collection method was participant observation
which “involves participating in the social world, in whatever
role, and reflecting on the products of that participation”
(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007:15). In this study we were with
the community members in the forest to gather mushrooms and
in the rice fields to plant rice; in the process, we not only talked
with them, gazed at what they were doing but also did what they
were doing. Visiting such places and participating in these
activities allowed us to gain some insights which questioned our
assumptions regarding the items these participants sold to earn
a living, such as mushrooms and rice. Through participant
observation, we were able to understand how communities
reserved some activities for women or men, children or adults.
Also, through this method we were able to not only learn but
also experience, the challenges community members face due
to the unsustainable utilisation of natural resources such as
forests. During these observations we sometimes audio
recorded the conversations and took pictures. Suffice to say
that although we had prepared an observation guide, it was
rarely used because we realised that it was not only disruptive
but also somehow limiting in that it directed our gaze to specific
aspects of the interaction, as if such specifics could be
understood without the nuances such as the smiles, gestures,
laughter and expectations it appeared to trivialise. Besides, it
made us become over-conscious of our role as researchers,
thereby making it rather difficult for us to become insiders. In
view of this, we used our experiences as ethnographers to
participate in these activities with a purpose, without making
undue reference to a set of guidelines.
In order to understand certain things noted during participant
observation, we engaged the community members in two forms
of one-on-one conversations, namely unstructured and semi-
structured interviews and group discussions. Unstructured
interviews were mainly spontaneous and on the spot
discussions which took place whenever we saw or heard
something which required further understanding. Through this
technique we were able to understand why community members
did certain activities in the manner that they did. These informal
conversations also helped us to identify individuals who could
give us more information on issues we sought to pursue further.
¹ Adult literacy programmes consider individuals aged 15 as
adults.
7 |
In Salima for instance, the T/A gave us a contact person who
took us round the villages in the area. As we walked around, we
saw and discussed what the villagers did to earn a living.
Through such discussions, we were not only able to tease out
the villagers’ sources of livelihoods, but also pick up clues about
where community members involved in specific activities were.
When such activities and individuals were identified, we fixed a
date for meeting them and talking to them. These discussions
revolved on how or what motivated them to be involved in such
activities. We also wanted to know how or where they learnt
these activities. In most cases, we told the participants to carry
on with their activities as we talked. The reason for doing this
was to try as much as possible to make the encounters informal
so that we were also able to observe what happened when they
were engaged in these activities. Here too we had an interview
guide which was prepared in advance but which we used
sparingly, as the context provided us with more relevant issues
that required further understanding.
In some cases, we noted that the activities were done in groups,
such as curio making. Also, we sometimes encountered issues
we thought required a number of people to share their views for
us to understand better, such as the gendered activities in rice
farming, mushroom selling and palm leaves mat weaving. We
therefore organised focus group discussions of three to five
individuals. In other cases, these discussions were conducted to
confirm what we heard or saw. However, the key in these
discussions was not to establish a consensus on the matter at
hand but rather to get more information on such issues,
including why the villagers had different views, if at all. The
discussions were audio recorded. The participants were
disaggregated based on gender and age. Men aged 15¹ and
above and women of similar age ranges were put in separate
groups. Boys aged between 8 and 14 years and girls of similar
age groups were also assigned to separate groups.
Mushrooms on display for sale
 Ethical Dilemmas
When applying for ethical approval from the University of
Malawi Research Ethics Committee we made a commitment that
for purposes of maintaining the confidentiality of both the
research site and the participants, our data would be kept
securely and anonymised. In this regard, we pledged to use
pseudonyms. However, while we have successfully kept our data
in password protected computers and all transcripts have been
placed in lockable drawers, the use of pseudonyms for both
research sites and participants has proven to be problematic.
This is because both research sites are identified by the physical
features associated with the activities and sources of livelihoods
we sought to understand. In Machinga, there is only one place
known for mushrooms along the M6 road. In Salima, there is
only one traditional leader who has control over Mbenji fishing
grounds, i.e. T/A Makanjira. For this reason, it was rather futile
for us to make any attempt to use pseudonyms to make these
areas anonymous. For participants, there is a paradox in that
whereas we have tried to use pseudonyms to represent their
names, their photo cannot be subjected to the same process. It
should be noted however, that the owners of the photos
included in this report gave their informed consent which was
signed and documented. The team had a printed consent form
both in Chichewa and English. After introducing ourselves and
explaining the purpose of our research, we gave the participants
the consent forms to read for themselves or read aloud for
them. The individuals who decided to take part in the study
signed two copies, one for the researchers and their own copy.
Participants who could not write asked someone else to sign on
their behalf.
Part of Liwonde Forest
Challenges and Limitations
Finding secure accommodation within or very close to the
communities was a challenge in both sites. Our accommodation
was very far from our research sites, particularly for Salima
where we had to cover a two-way distance of 84 kilometres on
each field visit. However, we were in constant interaction with
the traditional authority (T/A), the group village headperson
(GVH) and our contact person through mobile phones.
At the beginning of the field work period, we had some resource
challenges. Unlike our colleagues in participating universities,
we did not have our own money to use for project activities and
claim a refund later. Fortunately, our GRTA colleagues
responsible for financial issues promptly worked out a plan to
provide us the resources upfront and so the project activities
were not affected.
A major limitation was that because of the Covid-19 pandemic,
we did not have the opportunity to accomplish all activities in
the manner we had planned. Our field work was supposed to
cover five weeks in each site but instead, we spent three weeks
in Machinga and two weeks in Salima. As a result, we were not
able to participate in and observe certain activities, especially
fishing on Mbenji island in Salima, which would have allowed us
to understand how traditional and cultural practices are used to
inform policy and practice in the fishing industry at local level.
8 |
 2 LITERACY AND (INTER)GENERATIONAL
LEARNING PRACTICES IN MACHINGA

In this chapter, we outline the findings generated through

interacting with key informants and prolonged observation in
group village headperson Chingoli's area in Machinga District. In
this area, most of the members belong to the Yawo tribe and are
involved in passing on intricate knowledge and skills from one
generation to the next through participation in activities that
sustain peoples’ livelihoods. We share how knowledge and skills
are transmitted (inter)generationally through home literacy
practices, rice farming, wild mushroom gathering, curio making
and selling. In general, we observed that much of the societal
knowledge of sustainable living is not recorded but preserved
and transmitted through oral tradition. There were also unique
instances where knowledge was transmitted from younger
generations to older generations. This implies that
(inter)generation learning is not unidirectional, i.e. the old
Figure 1. Ms. Upile’s rice nursery
teaching the young. It also emerged that literacy and
(inter)generational learning practices spilled over from one
context to the other, such that splitting the activities into what
was happening at home, ‘market’ or fields would amount to “I was taught how to grow rice by my mother and the plot I am
telling ‘half’ stories. using now belongs to her,” Ms. Upile told us, as we walked on
piles of slashed bushes to her rice field. “I have been growing rice
for some time now,” she added. As we approached her plot, we
Rice Farming: Tasks and Practices
saw three women waiting for us. Ms. Upile told us that the
community members had an arrangement in which they worked
Farming is a key activity that sustains people’s livelihoods in
on one member’s plot on a given day and did the same on
group village headperson Chingoli’s area. The community
another member’s plot on another day. She said we should not
members grow different crops for family consumption and
be surprised by the presence of the three women because they
income generation. One of the crops they produce is rice. One of
had come to fulfil this arrangement. She said that transplanting
the community members who grows this crop is Ms Upile.
rice was a huge task for one person. Apart from the three
women, there was also a young man probably in his early
Ms. Upile is a mother of three, two boys and a girl. We met her
twenties who was ploughing and breaking the soil. She
during the introductory meeting when group village headperson
explained:
Chingoli arranged for us to meet the community members. At
that meeting, we were made to understand that many
community members, including Ms. Upile, had just started
preparing and transplanting rice. We therefore requested and We started by slashing the bushes and then we
arranged to observe how Ms Upile and her family did the work. ploughed the soil. After doing that the rain came
and now the bushes are decomposing and this
Ms. Upile welcomed us along the M3 road and led us to her rice improves soil fertility. Now to make the work easy
plot through her rice nursery. On the way to her rice plot, she that is why you see the boys turn and break the
explained to us how she ended up in rice farming. She said that soil once again. We do not want to be busy
as a young girl she used to see her mother grow the crop. Over picking up litter and the like. Furthermore, we do
time she developed an interest in rice farming and eventually not want to weed our plots too soon.
decided to learn it.

9 |
Ms Upile and her helpers started doing their work as we stood
on the piles of slashed bushes on the boundary. Another woman
joined them. Ms Upile said the woman was the oldest in her
family and therefore, they considered her to be their
grandmother. She was the mother of the young man who was
ploughing the soil in Ms Upile’s plot. This meant that three
members of the same family were involved in this activity. Two
were transplanting and one was preparing the soil. She said that
her mother learnt rice farming from her grandmother who in
turn learnt it from the great grandmother, and that her eldest
child, who was 13 years old, had already started learning rice
farming. Ms Upile said that rice farming was important because
it was not only a source of food but also a source of money in
her family.

Growing rice involves a sequence of activities namely clearing

the land, tilling and ploughing the land, planting seeds on the
nurseries as well as transplanting the rice. Ms Upile informed us Figure 2: Young women involved in Kucakaca
that the first thing she did on her plot was to slash the bushes.
This was done by young men. Not many women were involved in
this task as it involved bending and swinging at the same time.
We were told that women preferred to use hoes even when
slashers² were available. Then Ms Upile tilled her plot to make
the soil loose, a process she called kucakaca. This task involves
turning the soil upside down and then breaking up the lumps,
thereby making the fields muddy. She said that turning the soil
upside down helped in delaying the growth of weeds. She
explained that if weeds were allowed to grow, both weeds and
rice mice would invade the field and destroy the rice. Ms Upile
told us that breaking up the soil lumps served two purposes.
First, the rice field became flat thereby allowing water to flow
through it easily. Second, it made transplanting easy. Ms Upile
assigned kucakaca to a young man. The gendering of this
activity appeared to be the norm, although there were some
exceptions. In a plot next to Ms Upile’s we saw two young
women help a young man in kucakaca as shown in figure 2.

Transplanting the rice seedlings requires learning specific skills

and knowledge. Ms Upile said she put three to four seedlings on
each planting station because she wanted her plants to form as
many branches as possible. She also said that there was a need
to leave adequate spaces between planting stations, which she
did by using just her eyes. When transplanting the seedlings,
she held them against the thumb, index and the middle finger.
She slid them against the index and middle finger into the soil,
using the thumb to make sure that the roots were sunk into the
mud. Unlike in a maize field where you move forward after
planting your seed, when transplanting, she moved backwards.
Ms Upile explained that this was because she wanted to avoid
stepping on to the seedlings she had just transplanted.
Figure 3: Ms Upile (in red t-shirt) transplanting rice
as a young man tills the plot
Ms Upile’s story illustrates how family members and others are
involved and share their knowledge and skills of rice farming. It
demonstrates how livelihood skills are passed on from one
generation to the next. In the context of the study, learning is
done through observation and practice. This implies that
approaches in family literacy programme should consider
employing practical approaches in which young people acquire
knowledge and skills through hands-on activities.

² A tool for cutting grass similar to a panga knife.

10 |
 Gathering Wild Mushrooms: Earning on Learning

One of the features that stands out in group village

headperson Chingoli’s area is the gathering and selling of wild
mushrooms. Being the rainy season, one of the stories that
dominated in this community was that of mushroom gathering.
We were told that both men and women were involved in this
activity. We heard many stories concerning how family
members got involved in this activity. In this section, we
highlight excerpts from Ms Asiyatu’s stury and her son Ukoto.
We met Asiyatu and Ukoto in the forest when we accompanied
Tilamanja, Ms Mwenye, and Ms Samson to fetch mushrooms.

We set off for the forest at 6:20 am. In a single file, we climbed
Milinje hills through the forest. By the time we reached the
summit, we were all drenched in morning dew. Then the three
community members began to hunt for the wild mushrooms.
Before long, we realised that gathering mushrooms was not as
easy as we had assumed. In most cases the mushrooms did not
grow in large clusters. Instead, we saw the three community Figure 5: Ms. Asiyatu and her son, Ukoto

members pick one mushroom here, two or four mushrooms

there.

The boy was not just helping his mother carry the bucket. He too
was seen hunting for mushrooms. But whenever he found a
mushroom, he took it over to his mother to confirm whether or
not it was edible. On each occasion, the mother carefully
examined the mushroom before telling him to either put it in the
bucket or throw it away. When the mother was not near him, the
boy carefully separated the mushrooms he had gathered by
placing some leaves between the mushrooms accepted by his
mother and the ones she had not yet accepted.

Observing the three community members fetch their

mushrooms, we noted that there were some specific practices
involved. For instance, when they found mushrooms, they did
not just uproot them from the ground but rather they used a
knife to cut the stocks, leaving a stump in the ground.

Tilamanja explained why they were doing this saying:

Figure 4: Ms. Samson collecting mushrooms

As we climbed one hill after the other, we met Ms Asiyatu and
her son, Ukoto. They too had come to the hillside to gather
mushrooms. Ukoto was carrying a bucket in which the two were
putting their mushrooms.
There are two reasons why we are doing this. First,
we want the mushrooms to be clean. We do not
want to take the mushrooms together with the soil.
Second, we believe that the stumps we leave
behind will help in producing new mushrooms in
the following year.

11 |
 7 8

9 10

11 12

Figure 6: Tilamanja harvesting a mushroom with a knife 13 14

Apart from the use of knives, we also noted that all of them were
carrying solid containers (buckets). We were informed that
carrier bags were not ideal for carrying mushrooms for sale
because the mushrooms got squeezed and crushed. They said
that broken mushrooms did not attract customers. The other
reason for using solid containers was that it made it easy for
them to keep their mushrooms fresh, which they did by covering
15 16
the mushrooms with fresh leaves.

The forest had both edible and poisonous mushrooms. The

mushroom gatherers were able to distinguish these and the
edible ones had a name. Tilamanja told us that to identify the
mushrooms, they relied mostly on their sense of sight and smell,
as well as the knowledge passed on to them by those who knew
the mushrooms. But Tilamanja conceded that differentiating Figure 7: Edible mushroom
edible and poisonous mushrooms was not easy because some Figure 8: Poisonous mushrooms
were very similar. Figure 9: Mangungunguli mushroom
Figure 10. Uwumbu mushroom
He emphasised that extra care was required to avoid selling Figure 11. Utale/Utenga mushroom
poisonous mushrooms to customers. This, he said, was the Figure 12. Dodolido/Usinda mushroom
critical part of gathering and selling wild mushrooms, because it Figure 13. Cipatwe cecejewu or kungulokwetiti (red

hinged on the safety of the consumers cipatwe)

Figure 14. Cipatwe cecejewu or kungulokwetiti (red
cipatwe)
Figure 15. Cipatwe cepiliwu (black cipatwe)
Figure 16. Cipatwe ca mandanda or mnofu wa nkhuku
(yellow cipatwe, or chicken flesh)

12 |
The gatherers identified the mushroom in figure 9 as
Making and Selling Curios: Learning through
mangungunguli. They differentiated it from the others due to its
curly appearance. No other mushroom had this feature. Figure
Teamwork
10 shows another type which they said is called uwumbu when it
Just like the mushroom gathering activity, curio making was a
is in this state (in incubation) but becomes utale or utenga when
task that directly benefited from Liwonde Forest Reserve. The
it breaks out and unfolds.
logs that the curio makers used to curve their items were taken
from this forest. Both young and old men were involved in this
Ms Samson, Ms Mwenye and Tilamanja explained that utale and
activity but the stories of how they developed an interest and
dodolido differed in colour, shape and the texture of their
got involved in it were generally similar. Here we highlight the
surface areas. They dodolido felt slightly rough compared to
stories of Thomson and Zikomo.
utale. They also informed us that some mushrooms belonged to
the same type but were differentiated by their colour such as
The story of Thomson Thomas was not about the young learning
those in the cipatwe family.
from the old. It was the opposite. Thomson developed interest in
curio making when he realised that young men in his community
Apart from being able to identify the mushrooms, the three
were getting substantial amounts of money from selling their
mushroom gatherers also said they knew where and when
curios. Recalling how he got involved he said:
different mushrooms grew. They told us that when gathering
the mushrooms, they did not comb the entire forest as they
knew which type of mushrooms grew where. Ms Samson gave us
a glimpse of this when she argued with Ms Mwenye on where I did not learn this job from my parents. I learnt it from
they should go next during the hunt for mushrooms: these young men. Now I know everything about curio
making but the major part I play is sandpapering. Here
we share different tasks based on what the individual
does best and not because of age. Before I started
Ms Mwenye: Let us go over there. making curios in the early 1980s, I was selling
sandpaper. Then in 1987 I expanded my business to
Ms Samson: Where? You cannot find mushrooms include buying and selling curios.
there. Mushrooms do not grow where there is tall
grass. They grow where you have short and small
grass under trees. They need manure and dry leaves
from trees provide manure.

As if to prove herself right, Ms Samson left us and said that she

was heading to what she called her ‘territory.’ She claimed that
in that area, only red cipatwe grew and before long, we saw that
she was busy gathering mushrooms. Tilamanja too went to his
‘territory’ where he said yellow cipatwe grew and came back
with a handful of these.

Figure 17: Assorted curios

When Ms Samson found one big white mushroom
(utenga/utale), the three concurred that the season for this
type of mushroom had just begun. We were told that these
mushrooms are found in abundance in February, while cipatwe,
mangungunguli and others were common in January.

In the above case, we observed that learning was achieved

through participating in what we would call a “field exposition.”
A novice accompanies a more experienced mushroom gatherer
to the hills to acquire the skills. What we observed can be
likened to an internship model of training, as the novice was
under constant supervision of a more experienced mushroom
Figure 18: Thomson
gatherer. One fundamental lesson the mushroom case brings to
the fore is that learning yields better results if conducted in an
appropriate context.

13 |

Figure 19: Designing a curio
Figure 20: Idi, chiselling a curio
Figure 21: Gluing and sandpapering the curio
Figure 22: Zikomo and his curio--Noah’s Ark
Thomson left his business after being robbed by thieves. This is
when he decided to join the curio makers to supplement the
income he earned from farming.
At the time we met him, he appeared to have mastered all the
processes involved in curio making. He explained the processes
saying:
We first of all cut down the trees or branches we deem
fit for the curios we want to make. If we want to make a
chair, the tree is then cut into logs. The logs are
thereafter split and curved out. Then designing follows.
We draw anything we want such as wild animals. We
draw these using chisels, after which we scrape them.
Sometimes cracks develop in the process. We fill such
cracks using sawdust and glue and when they dry, we
sandpaper them. Lastly, we polish them up.
With regards to the involvement of his children in curio making,
Thomson said that in the past, some of his grandchildren joined
him at the workshop but that they appeared to have lost
interest because curio making was not as lucrative as it used to
be. Notwithstanding this challenge, some young men were still
involved in this activity and one of them was Zikomo.
Zikomo withdrew from school because of problems of fees and
joined the curio making group in 2016 to earn some money. At
first, he was just going to the workshop to observe what the old
members were doing. Later, they begun to give him some curios
to rub. Thereafter, he started making his own curios.
Just like Thomson, Zikomo was attracted to curio making
because he saw others get money from selling their curios. He
was particularly fascinated when he saw tourists visit the
workshop and buy curios. Zikomo said curio making was very
important to him because from the sales of his curios, he was
able to help his parents meet some of the family needs. Zikomo
said his young brother had also started to get involved in curio
making. He said “most of the times I make my curios at home and
my young brother usually comes to observe me do it. I assign him
different tasks. He is not there yet but he is interested.”
The above case is an interesting example that challenges the
general assumption whereby skills are transmitted from older
persons to young people. The case of Thomson shows that older
people can also learn from young people. On the hand, it is also
evident from the case above that the need to generate income
for a living is a powerful motivator to engage in curio making.
14 |
 When asked how she got interested in supporting her children
Home Literacy Support Practices: A Gap Filler?
to be able to read and write, Ms Anubi said:

In this section, we look at literacy learning practices that

parents and children engaged in within the community. Some of My interest came when I realised that when a child
these practices were spontaneous while others had some form goes to school and he or she does well in class, she or
of regularity. The section focuses mainly on two women, Ms he enjoys school. The child does not think of being
Anubi and Ms Upile. absent from school, she or he always wants to be in
school. The other thing is that I am one of the teachers
We met both women at Ms Anubi’s house where we had gone for of kindergarten children. So, it starts there. Also, I am
a chat. When we arrived at the house, we found the mother, Ms of the view that leaving everything to teachers does
Mbwana, sitting on her veranda surrounded by her daughters not help. We should be sitting down with them and
and grandchildren. The group continued to grow as some discuss with them what they have learnt in school,
children who had gone to school arrived. Then one of the school including the things they failed. You explain to them
children who had just arrived took a notebook from her bag and how they should have done and next time they will not
begun discussing with her older sisters how to spell some words. fail again. Having done that when the children go to
school, teachers find it easy to teach the children. At
Meanwhile a small child, Rose, saw the notebook and cried for it. the same time, the children find it easy to learn
The mother reproached the toddler, saying “Can you write?”. because they already know most of the things. I teach
The child did not listen to her mother and when she finally got them the little things I know.
the notebook, we heard her say “Rose uyu” (this is Rose),
referring to the images printed on the notebook cover,
prompting her to say “what do you mean by ‘this is Rose?’”
Ms Anubi said that supporting her children in learning how to
read and write was the same as employing a part time teacher
As we continued chatting, we touched on the issue of literacy
for them, because the children continued learning even after
support at home and one of Ms Anubi’s daughters said that the
coming back from school. She said that what she was doing was
children in their household are taught the alphabet at home.
beneficial to her children because teachers had too many pupils
When we asked her to tell us who offered this, she simply said
in the class so it was difficult for them to identify problems for
that there was someone and Ms Anubi identified herself as that
each and every child and help them accordingly. Although Ms
person. We therefore sought to find out more and arranged a
Anubi was keen to help her children learn literacy, this was not
chat with Ms Anubi.
something she planned to do each and every day. On this she
said:
On the agreed date, 19th February 2020, we found Ms Anubi
sitting outside her house with three children. She said that she
had done her primary school up to grade 8. She withdrew from
school not because her parents could not afford to pay for her
When I have time, I teach them. I cannot cheat you that
school fees but rather because of what she said was “my
I do it every day but when I am happy and I have time, I
arrogance.” She told us that she had two children in secondary
do it. You know, this is a village setting and we have a
school, two in primary school and one in kindergarten. She said
lot of work to do. So, finding time to help children with
she did not want her children to be like her so:
schoolwork is difficult. Sometimes the children come
to me on their own and say “mum look, how can I do
this”. I tell them “here this is how you should have
I try to help my children so that they are able to read done”. I do only those I am able to do. I teach them that
and write. Like the boy who is in grade two I try to teach this one is a capital letter and this one is a small letter.
him letters. He is not able to combine them yet. The girl I also teach them syllables. In school, they are taught
who is in standard four is able to read in Chichewa and syllables, they call them syllables like when they
English. The only problem is I do not have textbooks combine /m/ and /a/ to make /ma/; /b/ and /a/
because when school is closed the teachers take the making /ba/. They call these syllables. So, they know
books away from the children. now I am struggling with that when we combine /b/ and /a/ it is /ba/ even if
the youngest one whom I am teaching the alphabet. they are not yet able to read. They know the letters of
the alphabet.

15 |
At the time we visited her, we found Ms Anubi helping her two So, there are some parallels between the organisation and
children learn how to read English and the letters of the operation of these camps and the way the literacy initiative was
alphabet respectively. She said she starts by teaching her conceived. Thus, while the Literacy Boost represents a western
children Chichewa and then does the same with English. As her model of literacy promotion, the use of the concept tsimba and
daughter read, she listened attentively and made sure that the the creation of an environment reminiscent of the traditional
girl paused where there were full stops and commas. initiation camp, located literacy acquisition within the
traditional knowledge sphere. Perhaps it is important to stress
On the day we were chatting with some community members at that this explanation does not suggest that literacy learning was
Ms Mbwana’s house, we were told that some women such as Ms part and parcel of the actual traditional initiation camps in this
Upile were involved in a community-based literacy activity area; rather, what we are emphasising is the use of a local
under the initiative called Werengani Malawi (Read Malawi). conceptualisation of a space to characterise an activity whose
Read Malawi is an initiative which was designed in partnership major function is to transfer knowledge.
with the Ministry of Education, Malawi Institute of Education,
United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) and other
local international partners (Sailors et al., 2013). This initiative
focused on four key areas, namely the provision of
complementary books and teacher’s guides, teacher training,
school leader training and community sensitisation (ibid). As in
the Save the Children’s Literacy Boost programme, Werengani
Malawi employed the idea of bringing together children to one
place where a volunteer helped them consolidate their literacy
skills. They called this arrangement simba (see Dwod et al,
2010). One of the key features in the Literacy Boost initiative
was the need for children to participate in reading camps. The
communities in liaison with the nearby school, established the Figure 23: Ms Anubi and her children in a literacy activity

reading camps and the former was expected to provide a

volunteer to lead in the reading. In this case, it was the children
in lower primary who were expected to assemble at designated
locations known as tsimba on days agreed by the community
where the volunteer(s) assisted young children acquire literacy
and numeracy skills.

Maybe the concept of tsimba requires some elaboration in

relation to the Malawian context. Tsimba, which this Yawo
community pronounced as simba because the /ts-/ letter
combination does not exist in their language, is a word used to
Figure 24: Some pages of one of the textbooks
describe an initiation camp. Both young boys and girls are taken
to such camps for a period of time. For the Yawos, traditionally
the camp for boys is constructed in the bush, while for girls the
As stated earlier, one of the community members who took on
parents choose a house within the community. Parents are
the challenge of helping children master literacy in her area was
responsible for deciding whether or not their children are due
Ms Upile. Ms Upile was a mother of three children who had
for such initiations. Though not mandatory parents sometimes
completed fourth grade of secondary school. After finishing her
feel the pressure to send their children to these camps just to
education, she had not found a job. She therefore got married
conform to traditional norms. In fact, a grown-up adult is
and decided to stay in the community.
considered to be a little child if he or she is not initiated because
one of the key activities that takes place at the initiation camps
When her community decided to have a simba to support
is the sharing of information ranging from how to behave in the
children learn and consolidate their literacies under the Read
company of old people, the need to work hard in the fields, child
Malawi initiative, she volunteered to do the job. She saw her
care, politeness, reproductive and family matters etc. In short,
involvement in this task as a community service in an area
the initiates learn the community’s ‘tradition and culture’ and
where some parents, especially women, could not do it, either
the ‘teachers’ are basically those individuals who have been
because they themselves were not able to read and write or
initiated before.
because they did not have time.

16 |
At her simba, Ms Upile was supporting the children in literacy
(Chichewa and English) and numeracy. She also helped and
encouraged the children do their homework and helped the
children who had failed classwork do corrections if they had not
done so at school. For children who were in grades one and two,
Ms Upile helped them recognise sounds and letters. These
classes were held from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm for three days a
week. According to Ms Upile, children benefitted very much
from the lessons so that some were able to read as early as in
grade two. She said she was happy to see children scribble some
words on the road after gaining some writing skills.

However, the challenge she faced was that many parents did not
encourage or send their children to the literacy and numeracy
lessons. During our interaction with other community members,
we noted that many families were not engaged directly in
helping their children learn to read and write as Ms Anubi was
doing. Instead, they told us that they supported their children’s
literacy learning by providing them with what they required in
school. They also said that they made sure that their children
were fed before going to school, arguing that a child who is
hungry cannot learn. They further said that they made sure that
their children were not absent from school. They argued that
children would find it difficult to learn if the parents did not
provide food and other necessities.

In this case, we see different ways in which community members

engage in supporting their children to learn literacy. The key
issue is that the western model of literacy support where
parents help their children learn how to read and write is not a
common practice because of a number of reasons. First, parents
especially women have time constraints. Second, many women
consider themselves non-literate and therefore are not able to
do this task. Such women considered the support they provided
to enable their children learn in school as literacy support.

17 |
 3 LITERACY AND (INTER)GENERATIONAL
LEARNING PRACTICES IN SALIMA

Just like in group village headperson Chingoli, T/A Nkula in

Mat making begins with the fetching of palm leaves and the mat
Machinga, families in group village headperson Mwawa in
makers have to walk long distances to get them because they
traditional authority Makanjira, were involved in different
are not readily available in nearby bushes. We were told that
activities in which some (inter)generational learning took place.
they sometimes set off from as early as 4 am to fetch the palm
Apart from farming, some of them were involved in small scale
leaves and come home around 2 or 3 pm. We were informed that
businesses, weaving mats, fishing and tailoring. In this chapter
the process of getting the palm leaves was not easy and straight
we look at mat weaving and fishing.
forward. Ms Ajibu said:

Mat Weaving: Processes, Skills and Terms

When fetching palm leaves, we do not cut any palm leaf
we see. Rather we cut the ones that have not fully
One of the most notable activities taking place in group village
matured. When doing this we face many challenges. We
headperson Mwawa’s area, was mat weaving. Nearly all
have to clear the bushes before cutting the palm leaves.
households in this area were involved in mat weaving and most
We then shake the palm trees and sometimes you hear
of the individuals involved were women. In this section, we share
the hissing of snakes or see wasps fly around. So, we do
the story of Ms Ajibu and her daughter Ms Madi.
not just go straight to cutting them. Snakes run away
from the wet ground and take refuge in the palm trees.
We met Ms Ajibu through our contact person. Having seen and
You also needed to be extra careful with the palm
discussed with many women regarding how they got involved in
leaves because the stocks are thorny. If you get pricked
mat weaving, there were certain processes we had not seen. The
by those thorns, the wound takes a very long time to
mat that Ms Ajibu and her daughter, Ms Madi, were making was
heal.
about to undergo such processes. So we requested permission
to observe and chat with them as they did their work.

When we arrived at Ms Ajibu’s house, we found Ms Madi

stitching the mat ribbon together as the former watched.
Explaining how she got involved in mat making Ms Ajibu said
that she learnt it from her mother and she in turn taught her
daughter. Ms Ajibu said that her daughter learned mat making
by observing and doing what she was doing. She said that when
she was weaving, Ms Madi as a young girl had sat there
observing her do it and,

sometimes when I was not around, she took my mat

ribbon and wove. When I came back, I would ask “who
did this?” “I did it,” she would answer. Then I explained
to her that “here you got it wrong. This is how we do it. Figure 25. A young palm
Undo it and start afresh.” The following day when she
saw her friends weave mats, she would take my mat
again and weave. This is how she learnt it.

18 |
Ms Ajibu explained that not all palm leaves are ideal for mat
making. Others are tall but too brittle such that they easily
break. When the ideal palm leaves are cut, they spread them in
the sun before carrying them home. We were told that they do
this so that the palm leaves should be light after losing some
moisture through wilting. When the palm leaves are brought
home, they are spread in the sun again for them to be dry. Ms
Ajibu continued:

Sometimes you see beautiful palm leaves in a few Figure 26: Drying palm leaves
places while the others in the surrounding areas have
been cut. When this happens ask yourself one or two
questions before you approach them. This is a sign that
there is something hiding in those palm leaves. That is
why people are avoiding them.

When the palm leaves are dry, they are cut into laces of
different sizes, depending on various factors. Ms Ajibu explained
that if the mat they want to weave is small then they make thin
laces which are called ‘wakunyala.’ Similar laces are made when
they want to make the mat durable. Such mats are usually made Figure 27: Ms Ajibu holding a palm leaf lace called mbalule

to be used in their own homes. The laces for the mats they make
for sale are broad and they call such laces ‘mbalule.’ Their
explanation suggested that their understanding of the notions
We use odd twenty-one or twenty-three and not twenty
of measurement and size was different from the one we had. For
or twenty-two because when weaving, we take two laces
us, measurement and size meant getting actual dimensions in
at a time, one on each side. For instance, if you are
centimetres or inches, while the mat makers simply used the
using twenty-one laces it means you will have ten laces
differences in terms of how big a piece was relative to another.
on one side and eleven laces on the other. In this case,
the eleventh slice is the one you use to weave and when
Ms Ajibu said that they use their knowledge and skills to
it reaches the centre it means the side that had ten
determine the sizes of their laces. There were no measuring
laces will now have eleven, hence you pick the eleventh
instruments used. After cutting a substantial amount of laces of
one from that side and weave to the centre. This
the sizes they want, they start weaving mat ribbons. This
ensures that the weaving is done in an orderly manner
process was very specific, as Ms Ajibu explained:
without making one side get smaller.

To begin weaving we count the number of laces The issue of measurement was also critical when it came to
depending on the size of the mat. For a binding ribbon measuring the length of the ribbons for any mat. Ms Ajibu said
use we use 21 or 23. For the actual mat we use 27 or 29 that to determine the length of the ribbon for any mat, they
for a big mat. These will determine the height of the roll. count mikwamba. She explained that mikwamba is,
It also depends on the size of the laces. When the laces
are small then the mat will be small and the opposite is
also true.

What caught our attention from Ms Ajibu’s explanation was that

she mentioned odd numbers only. We soon realised that this
was not a mere coincidence, but rather one of the critical
aspects anyone wishing to learn how to weave a mat was
required to know. Ms Ajibu and her daughter explained the
choice of such numbers saying:

19 |
 the length of your arms fully stretched from the tip of
your middle right finger to the tip of middle left finger.
Eight mikwamba is enough for a mat. If the cijelo (the
width of the ribbon) is small you need nine mikwamba.
Eight mikwamba is for a mat whose cijero is big. When
the cijero is small, the mat will have fourteen fatika
(parts of the ribbon stitched one after another).
Cijero
(width of the ribbon)
The mat was not made by cutting the ribbon into pieces and
then stitching them together. Rather, the ribbon was sewn
together into a cylindrical structure as shown in figure 28.
Thereafter, the cylindrical structure was cut from one end to the
other. To complete the process, a binding ribbon was sewn
around the edges.
Figure 28: Mat ribbon sewn into a cylindrical
structure
The mat was not made by cutting the ribbon into pieces and
then stitching them together. Rather, the ribbon was sewn
together into a cylindrical structure as shown in figure 22.
Thereafter, the cylindrical structure was cut from one end to the
other. To complete the process, a binding ribbon was sewn
around the edges.
Ms Madi stitched the mat ribbon without using any measuring
instrument yet the cylindrical structure she made was the same
from one end to the other. Ms Ajibu and Ms Madi explained that
the secret lay in sewing. When they skip two slots on one part of
the ribbon, they do the same on the other. Any mismatch would
result in the mat being wrinkled. Thus, the process requires a
great deal of patience and concentration.
This mat had 20 fatika (parts of the ribbon joined one after the
other. The ridges show the joints of the fatikas).
The mats they wove were sold at different prices depending on
the type and size of the mats. Small ordinary mats were sold at
K500.00 while big ones were sold at K1000.00. A big round mat
like the one shown in figure 29 was sold at around K3,500.00.
This mat is called citanga.
Binding ribbon
Fatika
Just like curio making, this case illustrates that the key
motivating factor for the transfer of mat making knowledge
among community members is income generation. Whereas
most men were involved in fishing, which we look at in the next
case, women focused on mat making to generate income. As we
have seen in this section, mat making is a complex activity
which requires not just physical dexterity but also numerical
knowledge as well as environmental awareness. Perhaps the
most important lesson one can take from the mat making case is
that the learning does not follow a rigid and structured pattern.
That is, you do not have to learn how to fetch and process the
palm leaves before you begin weaving. Different individuals
have different entry points.
20 |
 Fishing: Net Making and Maritime Local
Knowledge and Skills

Being a community living along the shores of Lake Malawi,

fishing is one of the main activities for community members,
especially men. The men participate in this activity differently.
Some work for ‘commercial’ fishers while others have their own
fishing nets and therefore, work for themselves. One of the
fisherfolks who had his own nets was Mili Juma.

Mili was a young man in his late thirties. He was introduced to

fishing by his uncle in 1993 when he was about ten years old. He
developed an interest in fishing after seeing his uncle do the
job. He explained that the fishing activity is divided into two, the
actual fishing and preparing the nets. Mili begun by
accompanying his uncle onto the lake where he was taught how
to set nets to catch fish. He explained that:

You do not learn this work in the same way you do with
formal learning. You are not told to sit down at home
and learn fishing. You are taken to the lake. You are told
that for you to paddle a canoe, this is how we do it. Do
Figure 29: Citanga this. When it comes to setting machela, you are told to
hold one rope (mtawo) and the one teaching holds the
other. You are told to start setting the net by releasing
the mtawo into the water and the one teaching you does
the same on the other end. If it is windy the canoe will
be moving backwards and you will be releasing the net
into the water in front of you. If it is calm, then one
person will be paddling while the other will be releasing
the net.

It took Mili about a month to learn the actual fishing. At the

same time, the uncle taught him how to turn ordinary nets into
fishing nets, including how to mend them. Mili explained that a
net bought from a shop was not ready for fishing and is called
cilambi. It has to be prepared to become either cilimila (a net
that is pulled to catch fish) or macela (a net which is set as a
trap to catch fish). When we met him, he had the latter and he
explained to us how he prepared the nets he had bought from
the shop to became macela:

We start by inserting ropes through the net both at the

top and bottom. These ropes are called “mtawo”. This is
not done anyhow, otherwise the net will be too tight and
it may not catch fish. We insert the rope through the
spaces in the net. Then we count about forty-eight or
forty-five spaces and tie the net and the rope securely
with a string and fix some floats to the top rope. We do
not use the same number of spaces. In some areas we
count forty-eight, in others we put forty-five or forty-
three spaces and then tie a string.

21 |
Mili said that he makes sure that the net is not too tight to avoid
the fish bouncing back. At the bottom of the net, he inserts
another rope and attaches small stones just below each set of
floats to balance the net. He explained that the floats are not
supposed to be too big because then the net does not reach the
bottom of the lake and fish pass underneath. At the same time
the floats should not be too small because the net will sink. Mili
added:
We know that during the rainy season, fish come close
to the shore hence we set our nets close to the shore.
But during the dry season, fish go to deep waters in
search of cool water because the water close to the
shore becomes warmer. Therefore, we set our nets in
deep waters during this time, October up to
November.

Mili further said that just knowing the fishing grounds was not
The floats are set one metre apart. The same is the
enough. He said that as a fisherperson, predicting the possible
case with the weights. To determine the length, we
conditions on the lake was very critical:
use one fully stretched arm from the tip of the
middle finger to the centre of our chest. We use our
local knowledge. On each end of the bottom rope we
attach big stones to ensure that the net remains in As fisherfolks we know that according to the weather
one place. today fish may be found in this or that area.
Sometimes before the weather broadcasts are made
His explanation suggests that preparing nets involves specific on radio, we already know how the conditions will be
knowledge and skills. Successful fishing therefore, depends on a on the lake by just paying attention to how the wind is
better understanding of such knowledge and skills. The same is blowing. When westerly winds blow, we know that the
true when setting the nets in the water. next one will be huge. There are four winds, southern,
northern, easterly and westerly. The good one is
Mili explained that for one to set and catch fish successfully, one westerly because the lake remains calm but the other
needed to know not only where and when to set the nets but three are very bad. Southern wind is slightly good
also what to do when one was in trouble. In addition, one was because the wind is very strong but the waves are
required to have the ability to trace where one has set the nets. small. Easterly winds are strong and they bring big
He explained that the nets are not always set in deep or shallow waves. Northern winds bring waves which are twice as
waters but that they change their fishing grounds depending on big as the easterly ones.
the season:

Figure 30: Mtawo (in blue) and floats.

22 |
Mili explained that when big waves come, paddling the canoe
requires some knowledge and skills. He said that in such
situations, he turns the canoe towards the wave and goes over
it, then turns and follows behind it. In an event where the canoe
overturns, he swims by holding the overturned canoe because it
does not sink to the bottom of the lake. “If you let the canoe go,
you are finished” Mili emphasised.
Having seen the benefits of fishing, Mili said that he was
teaching his young boys, including some relatives, how to do
this activity. He said that he was being cautious not to introduce
the children into the activity too quickly because he was fully
aware of the risks involved. His approach was therefore that of
letting them know certain aspects of the job without necessarily
being full time fisherfolk. He said:

Mili stressed that the mastery of these skills and knowledge was
critical for one to become an accomplished fisherperson. He said
I tell them that death can come any time. I say to them
this was the case because fishing was a risky adventure as
“when I am gone you should have something to rely on”.
sometimes the nets were set very far from the shore, a distance
So, when I buy a new net, I involve them by asking them
which took them 7 hours by canoe. With no rescue boats nearby,
to fix the ropes through the net. Thereafter I tie the
and with weather forecasts coming on the radio mostly after
strings to hold the net to the ropes. Now they are at a
news bulletins, the safety of fisherfolks lay in their hands.
point where they can turn ordinary nets into fishing
nets with minimum help. On the lake they are able to
Knowing where to set one’s nets was one thing but knowing
paddle canoes.
where one had set them was another. This was the case because
the fisherfolk operate on the lake without using any navigation
gadgets such as compasses. In view of this, locating where they
Mili said that he tells his children that he could not give them
have set their nets involves using local knowledge and skills as
nets to fish on their own because they may not be able to rescue
Mili explained:
themselves if they got involved in an accident. He assures them
that they will take over from him when he is no longer able to
perform this activity.
We use our knowledge and skills to locate the nets we
set. We use the trees standing on land. When you paddle
the canoe on the lake you see that the tree on land
changes its position relative to where you are. So, you
pick two trees on land and see their positions relative to
each other as you paddle. When you see that one of the
trees is hidden behind the one in front, then you set
your nets. When coming to remove the nets, you follow
the same route and observe the same trees on land and
when you see that one tree is hidden behind the one in
front, then you know that you are within the area where
you set your nets.

Mili explained that once the nets are set, the identification of
which net belong to who is done by checking the big plastic cans
that are attached to the top mtawo and everyone knows the
type and colour of their cans. Besides, Mili said that all fisherfolk
identify their nets easily because they differ in the way they
prepare their nets. Some do not skip spaces when tying their Figure 31: Mili demonstrating how to mend nets
nets to the ropes. Others do. So, they have no difficulty
identifying their own nets.

The use of physical features to determine one’s location is not
new, but the strategy used by these fisherfolks was to some of
us fascinating. They use one tree as a campus needle and the
other as a scale. Doing this requires a high level of
concentration - otherwise one would not be able to locate where
the nets have been set.
At the time this study was taking place, the fishing activity was
rather scaled down because Mbenji island which is the hub of
the fishing activity in the area, was still closed for fishing. It was
earmarked for opening on 11th April 2020 but the emergence of
the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted our field work, put the
opening of the island in doubt.

23 |
Mili’s case demonstrates how the community uses local
knowledge and skills to successfully undertake their fishing
activity. They use such knowledge and skills to determine
weather patterns and predict the situation on the lake. They
also use physical features on the land to determine their
position on the lake. What is critical from this case is the fact
that learning how to fish does not take place by simply listening
to someone explaining it to you in a decontextualized situation.
You learn through involvement.
(Inter)generational Learning Beyond the Family
Unlike Mili who had his own net and was fishing for himself and
his family, there were other fisherfolk who were involved in
fishing as employees of individuals who owned boats and nets.
In this case the workers learned the fishing tasks through
observing and interacting with experienced workers who were
generally not their family members, just like the curio makers
did.
One of the individuals who learned this way was Khumbo. Born
in 1977 in Karonga, he started fishing in 1993. At the time we
met him, Khumbo was one of the respected members among the
fisherfolk in the area in terms of net making and he was called
fundi (expert). But Khumbo did not learn net making from any of
his family members. Instead, he told us:
There was someone who was making nets in
Nkhotakota. I was just observing him when he was doing
his work. This was in 2003. He was making nets used for
catching fish such as utaka. Then my brother and I
wanted to have our own net. We went to Tanzania to buy
the materials for making the net we desired. I told my
brother not to look for a net maker. I told him that I will
make it myself. When my brother asked me how I did it, I
told him that I had been observing what the net maker
was doing. I also told him that at home as a boy I used to
make small nets using mosquito nets to catch fish close
to the shore. After making that net, people began to
hire me to make their nets. Then I said to myself “one
does not work alone”. So, I looked about for young men.
I worked with them for some time until they mastered
how to do it and I told them to do it on their own. I took
another group and did the same thing. Right now, I have
some who I am working with.
It was not just net making that individuals learned from the
wider community. They did the same with other tasks involved
in catching fish. Khumbo told us that each net is assigned about
20 or 22 individuals who form what is called a ‘company’. Each
company has a manager. The role of the manager is to ensure
that everything is set for the fisherfolk, including mending the
net. Under the manager there are sometimes heads whose role
is to select the fisherfolk that will be involved in a particular
fishing shift. When asked to explain how an ordinary
fisherperson becomes a manager, Khumbo said:
It depends on the owner of nets. The owner knows that
if I give this position to this one, he will take care of the
net even when I am not around even for a full year. He
then calls you and gives you the responsibility of
looking after his nets.
Khumbo said that when selecting individuals to become
managers, the owners of the nets look for fisherfolk who are
both hardworking and trustworthy. On how one becomes a
siginala, he said:
For one to be a siginala we check if the individual is
clever, calm and fearless. The reason for this is that the
siginala works alone in a canoe away from others. He is
assigned a canoe a battery and some light bulbs. He
lights up the bulbs to attract fish to the surface.
When he gets signs that there are some fish swimming in a
particular direction, he directs them to the net using the light:
He must not be too fast or too slow. If he goes too fast,
he leaves the fish behind and if he goes too slow, he
loses them. Sometimes strong winds blow on the lake
and if the siginala is not calm and fearless, he ends up
being thrown into the water because the lake becomes
rough. He has to either paddle the canoe to the boat or
he has to wait for other fisherfolk to pull the net into the
boat and drive the boat to where he is.
24 |
During informal conversations, one of the fisherfolk said that
the siginala uses sand to determine water currents below the
(Inter)generational Learning Beyond the Family
surface which they called mweza. On this Khumbo said:
Just like curio making, fishing appeared to be an activity
dominated by men. All the companies we observed leaving the
It is true that sometimes this is done to determine
shore had no women. The fisherfolk claimed that the task of
where to cast the nets. If the currents are going
casting and pulling the nets was not only tedious but also
southwards for example, it means that the fish are
dangerous. They also cited the fact that fisherfolk left the shore
swimming northwards and therefore you set your nets
in the afternoon and worked throughout the night in deep
where the fish are going. But mweza can be tricky.
waters as another reason why they thought the activity could
Sometimes you have two water currents; one near the
better be done by men. However, when we asked T/A Makanjira
surface flowing in one direction and another one at the
to explain this disparity, especially with regard to fishing on
bottom flowing in the opposite direction. Because of
Mbenji Island, he said:
this you may set your net based on the currents near
the surface and get nothing. Then you change and set
the net again, based on the currents at the bottom and
catch fish. Women do not go there because of several reasons. The
work done there is suitable for one gender. The
fisherfolk spend most of their time on and they do not
Apart from the siginala, the company also has a chigwibidi. We
dress properly. They just put on their underwear and
were told that this role is usually played by an apprentice. The
there are over a hundred fisherfolk working and dressed
chigwibidi is given a bucket which he uses to drain water out of
like this. So, imagine a woman working in these
the boat. As he carries out his task, the chigwibidi should also
circumstances. Secondly, the fisherfolk stay on the
observe what the others are doing in casting and pulling the net.
island for a long period, away from their families,
Khumbo emphasised that all activities that involve catching fish
sometimes for three months. So, what would happen if
are learned where they take place so that the less experienced
you bring a woman on the island? If women were
member is be able to observe and sometimes get involved in the
allowed to go to the island there would be no peace on
activity. Khumbo’s case demonstrates that (inter)generational
the island. Men would be fighting for women because
learning is not just about family members passing their
certainly there would be more men than women on the
knowledge and skills amongst themselves but also about
island. Any fight on that rocky island would lead to very
sharing such experiences with others who are interested.
serious consequences. We already have cases of men
snatching other people’s wives here on land, leading to
serious fights and we do not want this to happen on the
island.

We do not prohibit women from venturing into fish

vending. For Mbenji island, we encourage them to find
some trustworthy men who will go to the island to buy
the fish for them. Women then receive their fish on land
and take them to the markets.

The issues raised in this subsection illustrate how culture and

gender stereotyping promote and or prohibit
(inter)generational learning of some knowledge and skills. Here
we note that women do not learn the tasks involved in the actual
catching of the fish for no other reason than being a woman. A
question may be asked, if casting and pulling nets are tedious
and dangerous tasks for women, why are they not for men?

25 |
 4 REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION

The stories highlighted in chapters two and three show that community
members in both sites are involved in many literacy and (inter)generational
learning practices. Most of the activities permeate across what would have
been regarded as separate domains. Mili’s fishing activity starts from home
where he prepares his net before going to the lake and then comes back home
again where the net is mended. Hence to understand how Mili’s family take
part in learning practices as well as the kind of knowledge and skills involved
in these activities, it is necessary to look at the full cycle.

Findings: Reflecting on the Case Studies Relative to

Research Questions

The overall question this study sought to address involves the kind of
(inter)generational literacy and learning practices that families engage in.
The case studies presented in this report show that although activities in
which literacy played a part were minimal, the family members were involved
in different kinds of (inter)generational learning practices, ranging from
mushroom gathering and selling, rice farming, curio making and selling, mat
weaving and selling to fishing.

In specific terms, the study also wanted to find out the domains in which
family members are engaged in literacy and learning practices and how they
participate in such activities. The findings show that family members were
involved in learning practices in different ‘domains’ such as the ones we could
normally categorise as home and work domains, although in practice the
boundaries between these were blurred. The family members’ participation in
these learning practices were voluntary and were in some cases spontaneous.

The study also sought to understand the kind of knowledge and skills involved
in the literacy and learning practices the families engaged in and how the
families valued such literacy and learning practices. All the case studies
presented in this report show that different kinds of knowledge and skills
were involved in all the learning practices the family members engaged in.
Mushroom gathering did not just involve the knowledge of which ones were
edible or not but also the skill of harvesting them from the ground without
spoiling them. Similarly, fishing did not just involve the skill of preparing the
nets but also the knowledge of weather patterns. From their own accounts,
the family members valued the learning practices greatly because they
defined their sources of livelihoods.

Ms. Mwenye holding mushrooms

26 |
 Emerging Issues
The knowledge and skills this report has highlighted vary
depending on the activity under discussion. Several issues stand
out from these stories and these can be summarised as follows:
(Inter)generational learning takes place in different
ways. For example:
To become mushroom gatherers the children begin by
participating and observing the adults selling the
mushrooms before accompanying them to the forests. By
the time they go to the forests they already know the
names, the colours, the textures, the shapes and even the
smells of the mushrooms. The same is the case with mat
weaving. Thereafter they continue the learning through
doing. In this case the learner is completely immersed in
doing the actual activity with the help of someone who
knows how to do it. Mili emphasised this strategy when he
said that fishing is never learnt through lectures at home
but through doing it on the lake.
To perfect their knowledge, some mushroom gatherers were
involved in what could be termed as co-learning. In this
approach those involved learn from each other, filling the
gaps in each other’s knowledge. In simple terms, it involves
exchanging knowledge and skills. Through this approach,
they introduced to each other the mushrooms which the
other one did not know.
Culture and gender stereotyping influences the
participation of men and women in some activities.
For example:
In the mushroom story, we saw that both genders were
involved in the collection of mushrooms from the forests but
men were rarely seen selling mushrooms along the road. The
selling was dominated by women and children. When
Tilamanja gathered his mushrooms, he put them in plates
which he placed on the benches along the road and passed
on the responsibility for selling them to women and children.
Some men just fetched the mushrooms from the forests and
sold them to the women. To some extent this shows that the
mushroom activity os associated with women.
In curios, all the curio makers we interacted with were men.
We were told that sometime back there was only one woman
who was interested in curio making but that she did not go
far because society made her feel out of place. The
community perceived her as doing the “man’s job.” The curio
makers noted that as a woman, the community expected her
to look after her family and thought that since curio making
was time consuming, she would not cope with it.
Some tasks in rice farming were also stereotyped in terms of
gender. The community generally believed that slashing,
ploughing and breaking the soil lumps were supposed to be
done by men. The women were associated with
transplanting the rice which the community supposedly
regarded as being easy. Notwithstanding this, our
experience showed that some women did the tasks
associated with men. It also showed that transplanting rice
was not as easy as it was perceived to be. In fishing, the
primary activities taking place on the lake were done by men
only. It was claimed that the activities were both tedious and
dangerous for women. At the same time, women were not
allowed to go to Mbenji island based on two reasons. First,
culturally, women and men cannot go fishing together
dressed in underwear. This is a taboo. Second, the presence
of women on the island would disrupt the assumed peace
prevailing on the island. Consequently, women were denied
the opportunity to learn the knowledge and skills necessary
for catching fish.
In group village headperson Mwawa’s settlement in Salima,
mat weaving and fishing were gendered activities. There
were very few, if any, men who wove mats in this community.
Men were involved in fishing. A typical day would therefore
start by both men and women going to their fields to farm.
When they came back, men prepared to go fishing while
women remained home weaving mats. In contrast, in
neighbouring communities mat weaving was done by both
men and women. Groups of men were seen sitting under
trees weaving mats together while women did the same in
their households. These men were reported not to have been
involved in fishing.
The community members used their own
measuring systems to determine the lengths and
amounts of certain things.
Their measure of length was mkwamba and the measuring
instrument was two stretched arms from the tip of the middle
finger of one arm to the tip of the middle finger of the other.
Size was determined by the mass of the items and not in
centimetres.
Hence, they employed terms such as wakunyala for small sized
lace and mbalule for big ones. The same was the case when
selling mushrooms or navigating on the lake. They used plates
to measure the mushrooms and physical features to determine
locations, respectively.
27 |
 In both sites the communities were taking part in conservation
The western type of literacy support which is
efforts. In Salima, the people were actively involved in the
modelled as an obligation was not only rare in preservation of fish in the lake by following the traditional
many households but also difficult to enforce norms set out by their traditional leaders. In Machinga they had
successfully allowed trees to regenerate in one of the hills near
because of many factors.
group village headperson Chingoli’s house. They said that they
were finding it hard to do anything to protect the forest reserve
While some parents said they did not engage themselves in
because many people in the area were jobless.
family literacy activities with their children at home because of
their self-proclaimed problem of illiteracy, others such as Ms
Anubi said they did not have time and the resources required.
However, even when an opportunity arose for the children to Community members involved in all activities
have extra literacy lessons through the simba, the helpers valued the knowledge and skills they had acquired
complained that few parents were keen on sending their
mainly because they helped them earn a living.
children to such initiatives and hence the support was
discontinued. There was also a clash of activities for the children
Young as well as old people were keen to learn the activities
in the afternoon. In the morning, they went to school and when
because they knew their benefits.
they came back in the afternoon, they were expected to go for
either madrassa lessons since the dominant religion in in both
sites was Islam or simba activities, especially at Chingoli in
Machinga.
(Inter)generational learning involved not just
members of the same family but also those of the
wider community.
Literacy support extended to things one may not
ordinarily consider to have any link with literacy. Just as Thomson did not learn curio making from his immediate
family members, the same was the case with Khumbo who
Providing the children with food and anything they need in learned net making from someone who lived in his area.
school was considered as literacy support because without them
the learning of reading and writing would be difficult. In other
words, the provision of anything that supported the children’s
wellbeing was part of literacy support.

Communities in both sites were aware of the

challenges emanating from unsustainable use of
natural resources.

In Salima, community members were feeling the effects of this

practice as they had to walk long distances to get palm leaves.
Similarly, in Machinga the mushroom gathers had to climb
several hills before finding the mushrooms. They categorically
stated that deforestation was the reason why mushrooms were
not found in areas where they used to be.

Ismael showing how to make citanga

28 |
 Implications for policy and practice
This study sought to find out the kind of (inter)generational
literacy and learning practices families in the two communities
were engaged in so as to find some good approaches to inform
both policy and practice. The case studies presented in this
report show generally that unlike numeracy skills, literacy was
not embedded in most of the activities studied. However, Ms
Upile’s and Ms Anubi’s stories show that community members
are involved in some literacy practices in different ways only
that as Ms Anubi’s story shows, her involvement in her
children’s literacy activities is not something she regards as her
responsibility but rather as a gap filler. This implies that there is
some potential for community members to be involved in their
children’s literacy activities. Perhaps what is required is to find
ways of enhancing the efforts of parents like Ms Anubi by for
instance integrating local learning approaches into the family
literacy model cited in chapter one.
One of the key emerging issues highlighted in this study is that
(inter)generational learning takes place using different
approaches. The mushroom gatherers, the fisherfolks as well as
the mat makers learn their various activities through participant
observation. In these cases, the ‘novices’ do not just sit and
watch those who are knowledgeable but rather they try to do
what they are doing. In this way, the learners not only acquire
the knowledge and skills required in their work but also much-
needed experience. Besides, they went home with some
mushrooms, fish or made their own mats which they sold. This
finding is crucial in a number of ways. First, it reaffirms the
benefits of embedding literacy in what people do. Second, it
suggests that both parents and pupils can learn by getting
involved in the literacy practices of the other.
In addition, the study has also established that
(inter)generational learning is not confined to the immediate
family. People learn certain skills and knowledge from members
of the wider community that enable them to participate in their
sources of livelihoods. This implies that in situations where most
parents regard themselves as non-literate, it may be a good
idea to widen the understanding of family literacy to include the
support children may get from members of the wider
community.
The study has also found out that owing to some cultural
restrictions, there are gender disparities in the learning of
29 |
knowledge and skills required for participating in some sources
of livelihoods such as fishing. This implies that for any literacy
learning programme, there is a need to understand the cultural
context so that proper strategies may be devised which would
help in dealing with such disparities without undermining
people’s cultural values.
The study has also highlighted the fact that the mushroom
gatherers and, to some extent the curio makers, learned their
activities through what we have called co-learning, which in
simple terms means sharing information and skills with one
another. This finding implies that both parents, children and
even adult literacy learners may learn from each other by
engaging in two-way literacy support initiatives. This may be
done by mapping out the areas in which each group is doing
better than the other as well as those areas in which they need
support. For example, during our fieldwork we came across Ms
Asibu and her daughter Akole. Ms Asibu told us that she
struggled to operate a smartphone while her daughter did it
with ease. But when we asked the pair to sign our consent
forms, we noted that Ms Asibu wrote her name with ease while
Akole struggled to the extent that her mother had to tell her
which letters to write. This is an example where co-learning as a
literacy approach may be useful. Activities may be devised in
which the mother can learn how to operate a smartphone from
her daughter while the daughter can be assisted by her mother
to improve on her literacy skills.
This study has also highlighted the fact that some community
members, especially women who considered themselves non-
literate, argued that the provisions they made available to help
their children in school also contributed to literacy learning. The
implication of this is that, apart from attempting to make such
women ‘literate’ to enable them to help their children master
literacy, we may also consider how to strengthen and sustain
the motivation they already have for supporting their children’s
education.
The study has also emphasised the fact that many community
members value the knowledge and skills they learn
(inter)generationally because they see the benefits. This finding
reaffirms what we already know regarding the need to make any
learning relevant to the expressed needs and aspirations of the
learners.
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ABOUT THE LEAD AUTHOR
DR. AHMMARDOUH MJAYA

Ahmmardouh Mjaya is a lecturer in linguistics in the Department of

African Languages and Linguistics and a Ciyawo language specialist at the
Centre for Language Studies (CLS) at Chancellor College in the University
of Malawi. He is a Commonwealth alumnus and holds a PhD in research
related to education obtained from the University of East Anglia (UK). As
a lecturer he teaches linguistics courses including language and literacy.
His work as a Ciyawo language specialist includes teaching Ciyawo
language to non-native speakers, translating documents from English to
Ciyawo, developing and compiling orthographies, dictionaries and
grammars for Ciyawo. His research interest is in language and adult
literacy.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH TEAM

DR. JEAN J. CHAVULA
is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Language Studies since 2003 and
Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Malawi with expertise in both
general and Applied Linguistics. She is also the Acting Deputy Director at
the Centre. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from Leiden University
(Netherlands). She successfully led the compilation of the first ever
Citumbuka monolingual dictionary. She is a member of the Malawi UEA
UNESCO chair team.

DR. SYMON CHIZIWA

is a Senior Lecturer in School of Education, University of Malawi. He holds
a PhD in Teacher Education. He is an expert in Curriculum Design,
Development and Implementation, Early Childhood Education,
Intergenerational learning and literacy, Pedagogical and Assessment
practices, Teacher Education, Outcomes. He is UEA UNESCO Chair
coordinator at Chancellor College. Dr Symon has among others served as
Head of Education Foundations Department and Dean of the School of
Education at Chancellor College.

MR. ALICK BWANALI

is a Language Specialist at the Centre for Language Studies and a Lecturer
in Linguistics at the Department of African Languages and Linguistics,
University of Malawi. His primary research interests are in Language
Development and Empowerment focusing on developing new scientific
terminologies for education in Malawian languages by using Indigenous
knowledge. He has served as Principal Examiner (Language) for the
International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) since 2007.