BETTERING THEIR FOODS, peasant production, nutrition and the state in Malawi, 1859-2005

215pp., maps, paperback, Makhanda, 2023

"This is an excellent book. It offers a very clear and cogent historical examination of the Malawian state's dispositions and imperatives regarding peasant agriculture as well as the state's shifting priorities regarding large-scale/small-scale (peasant) farming and food crops/cash crops" Professor Kirk Helliker, Department of Sociology, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

"The author has put together a comprehensive study which is a useful intervention in the current period of uncertainty with development models. The peasants are depicted from the beginning as active – not just consumers of state policies. They have a logic or way of approaching issues which in most instances both the colonial and postcolonial states fail to acknowledge, leading to a collapse of many development initiatives. This is original work covering an important topic." Dr Tendai Murisa, Executive Director, SIVIO Institute, Harare, Zimbabwe

Bryson Gwiyani Nkhoma is a postdoctoral research fellow with the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in South Africa. He is an Editorial Board member of African Historical Review and Journal of African Religion and Culture.