Lessons from Lake Malawi: Fisheries governance in the colonial era. The Scottish Fisheries Museum is proud to announce a compelling new pop-up exhibition examining the complex legacy of British colonial fisheries management in Lake Malawi. The exhibition, based on the innovative research project “Lessons from Lake Malawi: British Colonialism, Marine Sciences, & Fisheries Governance in the Mid-Twentieth Century,” has been curated by the Principal Investigator of the project, Dr David Wilson, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde. The exhibition will open with a special launch event featuring presentations from international researchers on 14 August.
Featuring a detailed display including archival photographs and recorded interviews, the exhibition draws on the extensive research conducted by an international team from the University of Strathclyde and Mzuzu University, Malawi, exploring how colonial-era fisheries regimes emerged in the mid-twentieth century and their legacies for contemporary environmental governance. The exhibition reveals how two distinct fisheries management regimes developed simultaneously in Lake Malawi: the lake-wide system imposed by British colonial authorities, and the community-based approach developed by Senior Chief Makanjira around Mbenji Island. Through historical investigation paired with contemporary environmental sampling, the exhibition explores the unique outlooks and long-term outcomes of these approaches.
Key findings highlight how these contrasting approaches—one imposed through colonial authority and scientific expertise, the other rooted in local leadership and ecological knowledge—created fundamentally different legacies that continue to shape fisheries governance today. By examining these parallel histories, the exhibition illuminates how colonial-era management systems emerged and became embedded in post-independence governance structures, while demonstrating that community-led approaches like Mbenji Island offer alternative models that developed from local responses to changing fishing conditions.
The Mbenji Island fishery, which implements an annual four-month fishing closure and restricts destructive fishing methods, currently maintains healthier fish stocks than nearby government-managed waters. This community-led approach, combining targeted regulations with robust local leadership, transparent processes, and enforcement embedded in existing cultural institutions, have sustained fish populations and fishing communities for over seven decades, offering crucial lessons for contemporary sustainable fisheries management.
The exhibition will launch with a public event, supported by the Scotland-Malawi Partnership, on 14 August featuring a roundtable discussion and reception with members of the research team, including:
- Dr Charles Knapp (University of Strathclyde) – Reader in Civil and Environmental Engineering and water-quality environmental scientist
- Dr Wellman Kondowe (Mzuzu University) – Senior Lecturer in Language, Cultural, and Creative Studies, with expertise in Indigenous and Local Knowledges
- Professor Tracy Morse (University of Strathclyde) – Professor of Environmental Health and Head of Strathclyde Centre for Sustainable Development, whose research focuses on addressing environmental health challenges in low and middle income countries
- Professor Bryson Nkhoma (Mzuzu University) – Professor of Environmental and Agricultural History at Mzuzu University, expert in precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial interventions related to agriculture, irrigation, food security, and Indigenous Knowledge
- Dr David Wilson (University of Strathclyde) – Senior Lecturer in Maritime History specialising in British colonialism, law, and maritime activities
Tickets for this event can be found here:
The exhibition is open from 1 August until 12 October and entry is included within Museum general admission.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION OR PROJECT, CONTACT:
- Linda Fitzpatrick, Head Curator, Scottish Fisheries Museum,
01333 310628, linda@scotfishmuseum.org
- David Wilson, Exhibition Curator and Senior Lecturer in History, University of Strathclyde,
07950666084, david.wilson.101@strath.ac.uk
The Lessons from Lake Malawi project was supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) “Hidden histories of environmental science: Acknowledging legacies of race, social injustice and exclusion to inform the future” programme [AH/W009099/1]. The project employed innovative methods combining archival research in London and Malawi, oral history interviews with fisheries participants and leaders at Mbenji Island, and environmental analysis of water quality and fish health data.