By Mélissa Godin and William Martin
Melissa is currently pursuing a Masters in Development Studies at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar where she researchs the intersection of gender inequality, forced migration, and climate change. Specifically, she is interested in how climate-induced migration is a gendered process, one that men and women experience quite differently. Moreover, she also works as a freelance journalist reporting on these aforementioned issues and their intersections.
Photo by Melissa Godin
In Malawi, climate change is becoming one of the driving forces that are leading people to migrate within the country as well as within the larger Southern African region.
Malawi is considered one of the countries most affected by climate change, despite the fact it has contributed little to CO2 levels. Environmental disasters have become yearly occurrences, with droughts and floods plaguing the small landlocked country. Deforestation is rampant, with much of the country having been deforested in recent years. Malawi is considered one of the least developed countries in the world, with 80% of its population working as small-holder farmers. Communities are thus extremely affected by environmental changes that are inhibiting them from being able to grow their own food and earn their livelihoods. Migration has consequently become an adaptability strategy; people are choosing to leave their homes in search of work or greener pastures elsewhere.
A logging area in Zomba that has been devastated due to extensive logging. Photo by Melissa Godin
Many Malawians, however, have no choice but to leave their homes due to chronic flooding that sweep away their crops, homes, and sometimes, their loved ones.
This was the case for Faith (name has been changed). In 2015, her community was swept away during devastating floods that severely affected Southern Malawi. Like many others, she was brought to a camp on the border of Malawi and Mozambique where she stayed for several months. The conditions were terrible: there was not enough space or food, the hygienic conditions were poor, and service delivery was inadequate. On top of that, people from the camp faced harassment from local communities who were frustrated that they too were not receiving aid from humanitarian organizations.
“We faced a lot of hostility from the inhabitants of the land,” explains Faith. “They were stoning us. They said it was their land. People from the camps were getting a lot of free items. So the inhabitants were not happy about this. At night they would rob us, they were ripping the tents, looking for solar panels. We were reporting to the police but not getting any support. Our freedom of movement was restricted especially for us girls. Every time we tried to walk into town, they kept yelling at us and calling us people of the water, beating us, mocking us.”
Despite facing severe harassment from surrounding communities, Faith had no choice but to continue to reside in this area. Faith could not return to her home by the river as it was swept away along with some of her relatives. Moreover, the land by the river where she used to live was declared a disaster-prone area by the government who stopped providing services such as education or health care as a means of incentivizing people to leave.
“We would really like to relocate to a new place but the government is not giving us a place to resettle,” explains Faith. “So we continue to be called internally displaced people (IDPs) forever. As much as we are called IDPs, there is no humanitarian support.”
Though several humanitarian organisations responded in the aftermath of the flood, there was no long term assistance.
“There are no governments or NGOs here,” she says. “We have been treated like crocodiles.”
Faith has not been provided with financial or material support to rebuild her life, nor has she been given a plot to harvest. As a result, Faith continues to walk down to her land by the river to grow her crops. Earlier this year, however, her crops were swept away in another flash flood.
“We have run short of ideas of how we can adapt,” says Faith, who wishes training would be provided on how to manage the changing environment. “Now we are stuck, we don’t know how we can adapt to environmental changes.”
Though Faith would like to purchase land to cultivate, she lacks the resources to do so. After the floods in 2015, her husband left in search of greener pastures in Mozambique. To date, she has not heard from her husband and assumes he has started a new family and forgotten about her. Male migration has become quite common in Southern Malawi. Though this can often be a coping strategy for families who earn additional income, in other instances, men abandon their wives who become even more financially and physically vulnerable.
“As single women, we face a lot of discrimination from the community because we are not living in their original home,” remarks Faith. “Men are taking advantage of us because they know we need money. So we are vulnerable to male exploitation.”
Unlike men who can often afford to buy new land, it is far more difficult for women materially and socially. As women have many household responsibilities, they have less time for income-generating activities and thus struggle to save up enough capital to purchase land. Even if women do have the material resources, men often take back the land, believing that women do not have the right to own property.
“Sometimes, owners demand it [the land] back,” explains Faith.
Though Faith knows the environment is changing, she has never heard of climate change.
“We lack information and knowledge on issues around environmental disasters,” complains Faith. “We just know that things have changed but we don’t know why. We need knowledge. That way, we can plan for droughts and floods.”
For internally displaced women like Faith, migration is simultaneously a means of escaping deadly floods and yet, is a source of incredible vulnerability. Like many migrants, Faith wishes she could go back to her home. Because of climate change, however, she has had no choice but to migrate.
Many Malawians who have not yet had to leave their homes, fear that environmental changes may force them to do so in the coming years. This is the case for Fanny, a twelve year old girl residing in a fishing community by lake Malawi.
Fanny (centre left) sits with mother and members of her community. Photo by William Martin.
“A long time ago, the water level was higher,” explains Fanny. “Now the water levels are going down because of lack of rain.”
Malawi is currently experiencing a drought which has led to lower water levels in the lake.
Moreover, because of overfishing, there are now far fewer fish in the lake. For Fanny, dwindling fish populations threaten to change her entire life.
“I will be very sad when there are no fish in lake Malawi,” says Fanny. “My father depends on fishing.”
For Fanny, leaving the lake would mean abandoning an entire way of living.
“When there are no fish in this lake, should I move somewhere else?” asks Fanny. “I won’t be able to stay here because there would be no fishing.”
Without providing communities with adaptability strategies for climate change, land allocation for those fleeing disaster prone areas, or material and educational support to cope with the effects of environmental change, migration will continue to be one of the only options for people dependent on the environment for their livelihoods.
Though climate change is clearly already creating new migratory patterns that are changing family dynamics, creating animosity between displaced people and existent communities, and threatening people’s ways of living, inadequate resources have been dedicated to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Moreover, mainstream stories about migration often fail to consider the environmental factors that may have contributed to such migratory patterns. Perhaps this is due to the fact that migration is seldom explicitly caused by climate change. Rather, climate change exacerbates pre-existing issues such as poverty or inequality which makes it challenging to identify to what extent climate change does indeed factor into people’s decision to migrate. In spite of this, it remains important to understand how climate change is affecting migratory patterns if appropriate solutions are to be developed.
“My wish, is that fanny will go to school forever,” says Janette, Fanny’s mother.
(Above) Fanny sits with her mother and baby sister. Photo by William Martin.
Janette hopes her daughter will finish her schooling but is worried about how the dwindling fish population will affect her family’s income.
“My hope,” she says “is that the lake in the future is good for my daughters.”
