Discover the hidden history and complex legacies of colonial-era fisheries in Lake Malawi. This new pop-up exhibition explores how two distinct fisheries management regimes developed simultaneously in Lake Malawi in the mid-twentieth century: the lake-wide system imposed by British colonial authorities, and the community-based approach developed by Senior Chief Makanjira around Mbenji Island. Through a detailed display including archival photographs and recorded interviews, visitors will voyage between the colonial government’s centralised, scientifically-driven regime and Senior Chief Makanjira’s community-based management system at Mbenji Island.
The exhibition reveals how these competing approaches to fisheries knowledge—one imposed through colonial authority and scientific expertise, the other rooted in local leadership and ecological knowledge —created lasting legacies that continue to shape environmental governance today. The Lessons from Lake Malawi project was supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council and Natural Environment Research Council “Hidden histories of environmental science: Acknowledging legacies of race, social injustice and exclusion to inform the future” programme. This is a partenership project between University of Strathclyde, Natural Environment Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Mzuzu University and Scotland Malawi Partnership. For more information, see: https://www.colonialfisheries.com Last admissions 1 hour before museum closes.
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