Non-governmental organisations and the politics of mining law review in Malawi: Bifurcations, subjectivities and contested emancipation agenda

Abstract

In response to NGOs’ demand that mining must benefit communities living around the mining areas, the Government of Malawi reviewed the 1981 MMA. About six local NGOs actively participated in the processes of reviewing the Act. The review of any law, however, involves bargaining amongst political actors holding different interests and power. Mobilizing the concept of governmentality, this paper investigates how and, in whose interests, NGOs that were involved in the review of the 1981 MMA in Malawi shaped the mining review processes. While grassroots struggles against the extractive industry are not new, increased NGOs’ advocacy action in the sector provides new avenues for understanding current forms and structure of struggles. Employing a qualitative research approach (in-depth interviews, focus group discussion and participant observation), the study findings demonstrate how NGOs’ advocacy action through political processes resulted into NGOs’ bifurcated royalties and subjectivities into hegemonic knowledges and rationalities. Thus, the paper questions the conventional argument on NGO political empowerment agenda for marginalised communities by demonstrating how technocratic processes of policymaking within hegemonic structures produces environmental subjects that (re)construct agendas along the interests of powerful actors.