Review published in The Australian Journal of Anthropology (December 2012 Volume 23, Issue 3, pages 423–424)

Review of AN AFRICAN WORLDVIEW: THE MUSLIM AMACINGA YAWO OF SOUTHERN MALAWI by Ian D. Dicks. Zomba: Kachere Monographs No.32. 2012. ISBN 978-99908-8751-9

Ian Dicks has written an important book. The publication of this monograph, a revised version of his PhD thesis, is a significant moment for African studies and Australian anthropology. It is the first major ethnographic study of the Yawo of southern Malawi since the monumental contributions of J. Clyde Mitchell and as such it is a major new resource for anthropologists interested in the societies of east central Africa and in the interaction of Islam with African religious systems on the continent. It is important days for Australian anthropology because it marks the arrival of a new player who I dare say will go on to make an outstanding contribution to the anthropology of religion in this country.

The book opens up a much anticipated conversation between social anthropology and theological anthropology. The tentative steps that anthropologists have been making to bridge the gap between faith and science or reason and religion have just been given a firm and carefully constructed platform on which to meet. Ian Dicks is an Australian anthropologist (and Fellow of the Australian Anthropology Society) who has lived and worked in a remote rural area of Malawi for more than a decade. Working as a Language and Culture Consultant he has learned to speak Ciyawo fluently and has already published a book of Yawo folklore and proverbs with English translation and interpretations. He is currently working on a bilingual learner dictionary in the Yawo language and English – an immense and time-consuming labour of love. His immersion among the Yawo in the very area where Clyde Mitchell began his fieldwork (Namwera in Mangochi District) is such that Yawo friends have told me that if they spoke to Dr Dicks on the telephone they could not tell that he had not been born a Yawo!

The monograph is a magnificent combination of detailed ethnography and textual analysis of songs, myths, proverbs and prayers. It is an excellent source of information about the beliefs, rituals and practices of the Yawo in the twenty-first century. However, it also develops an interesting and sophisticated theoretical thrust framed around the idea of worldview. This theoretical and conceptual framework is what makes the monograph unusually valuable as it really opens up the debate about spirituality, representation and ethnographic truth. In this respect it is a must-read for all anthropologists that are interested in religion and in non-reductionist analysis of religious belief systems. Dr Dicks, in the tradition of Evans-Pritchard, Victor Turner, and Monica Wilson takes the beliefs and views of his Muslim informants seriously. He treats them with respect and shows them the courtesy of trying to believe with them instead of doing the usual anthropological trick of conjuring their beliefs away and reducing them to functionalist, structuralist or postmodernist tropes. He does not bring a heavy-handed sense of irony to his analysis of beliefs in God, ancestors or witchcraft. He can do this because he is himself is one of the members of what Robin Horton dubbed the ‘Devout Opposition’.

I have only one objection to this book. Dr Dicks uses the form Yawo to describe the people that Clyde Mitchell (and I) prefers to describe as the Yao. In fact, any number of forms of the ethnonym has been used over the years. Dr Dicks explains his choice by suggesting that it clears up the confusion between the Chinese and African Yao and conforms to the spelling adopted by the African linguistic unit at the University of Malawi. Fair enough. I asked some Yao friends which spelling they believe is the most accurate representation of the word (which means the mountain or place of origin of the tribe) and they all preferred YAO.  This however is a small quibble about what is in the end a very important and finely crafted monograph.

Anthropologist at the Zoo

Reflections on my work at the Werribee Open Range Zoo published in Popular Anthropology.

The Yao Muslims

My PhD thesis published online by DSpace@Cambridge.


The African Muslim minority in Malawi has been identified with
 one particular linguistic group, the Yao. The dissertation
 begins with the problem of their conversion and adherence to
 Islam in the face of seemingly adverse circumstances. In
 exploring-solutions to this problem the emergence of a Yao
 identity is outlined and the politics of conversion are
 described. The narrative then moves on to the transformations of
 the Yao Muslims in the hundred years since their conversion. A
 model of religious change is developed that attempts to account
 for both the dynamics of change and the contemporary situation
 of Islam in southern Malawi. The Yao Muslims are shown to be
 divided into three competing and sometimes hostile factions that
 are termed the Sufis, the sukuti or 'quietist' movement and the
 new reformists. The appearance of these movements and their
 interaction with one another is described in relation to the
 questions of identity and religious practice. The model proposes
 a three phase scheme of Islamic change (appropriation and
 accommodation followed by internal reform and then the new
 reformist movement) that is defined in part by the relationship
 of the Yao Muslims to writing and the Book. It is suggested that
 a certain logic of transformation is endogenous to Islam as a
 religion of the Book and that the scripturalist tendencies of
 the reformist movement give it an advantage over the followers
 of Sufi practices, especially in the context of modern systems
 of communication and education. The general approach is that of
 an historical anthropology, linking notions of structured change
 to anthropological concerns with ritual and practice. The
 analysis concludes by raising questions about the nature of
 religious change in the context of an increasingly volatile
 world system and the place of the anthropology of religion in
 the understanding of modernity.

On Fundamentalism

Editorial in Anthropology Today

Book review

Climate Politics And The Climate Movement In Australia

Verity Burgmann and Hans Baer

Melbourne University Press

ISBN: (Paperback)9780522861334

ISBN: (E-Book)9780522861341

15/Jun/2012

399 pages

Paperback $59.99

E-Book $49.99

This is a book about activists by activists and for activists. The authors are both significant scholars with impressive records of research and publication in the social sciences but they have somehow found time to combine their academic careers with the pursuit of social and political causes well beyond the narrow confines of university life. In a sense this book is an example of action anthropology at its best in that it combines well-documented participatory research with a resounding call to action and a clearly formulated concluding section on what they see as the best approach to the politics of combatting dangerous climate change. The book was launched by Adam Bandt, still the solitary Green in the House of Representatives, and he praised the book for its comprehensive analysis of climate politics in Australia and especially for its ambition to go beyond analysis and suggest a program of effective action. The authors are upfront in their political stance and in their enthusiasm to promote the cause of climate action and contribute to the building of a powerful climate movement in this country.

I should make a full disclosure and declare my own interest in the book. One of the authors is a close friend and I am slightly acquainted with the other. I have great admiration for both of them and for the energy, intelligence and courage that they bring to their work. They are people who walk the walk and, by contrast with some of the high priests of the climate movement, they do their very best to ensure that their lifestyles reflect their concerns about the climate. However, my friend describes me as a 'climate agnostic' and has spent many long hours trying to convert me to what he calls climate realism. I think that he was hoping that after reading this book I might shift from my agnosticism. In fact, I have shifted but probably not in the direction that he hoped. It has always been clear to me that the climate is changing and has doubtless been doing so since the planet was formed. It also seems clear that it is not changing now in the way that was predicted by some of the models of change that were developed in the first decade of this century. I can accept that humans contribute in some way to climate change inasmuch as we are part of the biosphere but I don't see compelling evidence that human activity is a major driver of global warming. I am certainly doubtful that we can halt the warming (or cooling) of the planet by limiting the amount of carbon dioxide that we produce. That seems way too mechanistic an approach to an incredibly fluid and complex phenomenon like the climate. A better approach might be to think of adapting to probable changes and getting prepared to maximise the benefits of possible changes in the climate. I just don't believe we have the capacity to halt climate change and to act as a sort of planetary thermostat even if that were desirable.

The book begins by asserting that climate change is the hottest topic of the twenty-first century. This is a nice play on words but others might argue that there are many hot topics and that, for instance, the issue of refugees and asylum seekers is a more pressing concern. I guess the authors could suggest that climate change exacerbates many other social problems and is likely to generate a tidal wave of refugees fleeing from rising sea levels, fires, drought and flooding. I am not convinced that addressing climate change is the best way of dealing with other issues like poverty, migration and indigenous health. If, on the other hand, you believe that climate change is a priority then this is the book for you. It lays out the options clearly and is not just a call to action but also provides a persuasive strategy. I'm sorry to confess that I remain agnostic about anthropogenic global warming but I do believe that this a book worth buying, reading and keeping on your shelf. Actually, as it is available as an ebook I'm sure the authors would rather you purchased the electronic version for its smaller carbon footprint.

George Silberbauer at Bells Road

Obituary of George Silberbauer

George Bertrand Silberbauer was born on the 19th of March 1931 in Pretoria, South Africa. His father was a farmer who had studied agriculture at Cambridge. He was an only child and did his schooling in Pretoria. He studied at the University of Stellenbosh, doing forestry followed by majors in Zulu, Sotho and African Law and minors in anthropology and Roman Dutch Law. He began military service with the South African Air Force in 1950, first as a navigator and then a pilot flying fighter aircraft (including Spitfires) and then moved to a maritime squadron flying Venturas, Sunderlands and Dakotas for 3 years. Leaving the air force he moved to London where he completed a law degree at the London School of Economics. He subsequently joined the British Colonial Service and was posted to the Bechuanaland Protectorate after a year of training in London. He was sent to Maun in Bechuanaland (now Botswana) as District Officer for 3 years before being promoted to District Commissioner, the youngest in the history of the Colonial Service. He was sent to the University of the Witwatersrand to do honours in social anthropology (with Max Marwick) and linguistics (with Des Cole) preparatory to beginning the great Bushman survey which formed the basis of his most important contribution to anthropology. For the duration of the survey he was based in Ghanzi but travelled extensively throughout the central Kalahari Desert. One of his lasting contributions was the declaration of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, envisioned as a homeland for the San (Bushmen) people where they could continue to pursue a hunter-gatherer way of life vital to their survival as a people and a culture. The posting wound up in 1967 when the Colonial Service departed, as a prelude to the country’s independence. George had started a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand supervised by John Blacking. The focus of his thesis (hunter gatherer socioecology) grew out of his interaction with the Bushmen over more than a decade of the survey and his work as a District Commissioner. The PhD was completed at Monash University with Max Marwick supervising after he took a job as senior lecturer in anthropology at Monash. He told me he got the job when a telegram from Marwick arrived saying “You have been appointed as senior lecturer. Please apply!” He came to Monash in 1967 and lectured on the Bushman and kinship, politics and religion. He and his family which now included two young daughters moved to Upper Beaconsfield in 1972. George joined the local fire brigade when he arrived at Upper Beaconsfield (during the second world war he had trained as an auxiliary fire fighter and was involved in fighting grass and forest fires in South Africa). In a tragic and ironic twist the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 razed the family home in Upper Beaconsfield. He retired from Monash in 1996 at the age 65. He continued to be involved with the Country Fire Authority and worked as fire fighter and consultant (his particular interest was the investigation of bush fires and community recovery after disaster). He moved to a house in the country near Korumburra in 1993 and spent his later years writing and advising colleagues worldwide. From 2004-06 George again acted on behalf of Bushmen people as an expert advisor and witness in the successful case before the Botswana High Court to reinstate traditional settlement and hunting by the Bushmen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. He died on the 29th of August 2013 at the age of 82. He is survived by his daughters Letitia, Victoria and Celeste, and his granddaughters Sophia and Claire. George Silberbauer's contribution to anthropology in general and to Bushman Studies in particular was significant and multi-faceted and this is not the place for a broad assessment. Let me conclude then with this quote from Alan Barnard's book on Anthropology and the Bushman: “It is hard to know what makes a great ethnography. Bushman studies have been blessed with many, but Silberbauer's (1981) Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert remains my own favourite.”