Urban appropriation and transformation: bicycle taxi and handcart operators in Mzuzu, Malawi, by Ignasio Malizani Jimu, Mankon, Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group, 2008, 141 pp., £18.95, ISBN 9956558753
Ignasio Malizani Jimu's book is about informal responses to urban poverty and urban unemployment in Mzuzu city, Malawi. He illuminates linkages between rapid urbanisation, increases in urban poverty and unemployment and the growth of the urban informal economy as a refuge for young people unable to secure formal sector jobs. Jimu's point of departure is the fact that Malawi is experiencing high urban growth rates driven by natural population increases and more so by high rates of rural–urban migration. Every year many young people flock from rural areas to towns and cities such as Mzuzu to look for better socio-economic opportunities associated through historical times with cities (1). In Malawi – as in many other African countries – these young people are also pushed to towns and cities by a complex myriad of factors. These include (but are not limited to): low levels of rural economy development hence excessively low economic activity; lack of economic diversification; low development of transport and communication infrastructure hence high transaction costs; limited access to farming inputs; risks of natural shocks, adverse weather, crop and animal diseases; and physical insecurity as a result of political violence. In addition, droughts, floods, declining land–people ratios, falling soil fertility and rising costs of farm inputs have undermined optimism in rural Malawi and raised doubts about the sustainability of agro-based livelihoods (29). It is no longer profitable nor a viable livelihood option for most families to continue with agriculture in rural Malawi. These harsh realities have pushed many young people to migrate from rural to urban centres such as Mzuzu in search of ‘greener pastures’, accelerating Malawi's urbanisation in the process. Consequently, Malawi is one of the fastest urbanising countries in the world with the urban population growing at an annual rate of 4.6% per annum against the national average population growth of 2% per annum (38). Such rapid urbanisation is confirmed by the UN which estimates that by 2015 more than 44% of Malawians will be urban dwellers.
However, rapid urbanisation in Malawi does not mean economic prosperity, poverty reduction and increased employment opportunities in cities such as Mzuzu. As Jimu underlines, the prevailing rate of urban population growth is not commensurate with the growth of the formal economy (45), hence the formal economy cannot absorb all new job seekers. Consequently, many young Malawians discover that the ‘grass is not greener in cities’ as they fail to secure formal sector jobs. Jimu summarises: ‘the economic challenges that recent rural–urban migrants encounter, at least in the initial stages of their stay in towns and cities, revolve around limited employment opportunities and slim chances of ever getting meaningful and rewarding employment’ (1). Thus, migrating does not mean an end to poverty for these young people as they discover upon arrival in urban centres. Instead, they face the harsh reality of entering an urban environment experiencing increasing poverty levels that were pegged at over 60% in the early 2000s (2) and have increased since then as Malawi has become poorer due to the failed neoliberal macro-economic policies pursued by former presidents Bakili Muluzi and Bingu Wa Mutharika.
These increasing urban poverty levels and unemployment – especially after the failed neoliberal policies of the 1990s to early 2000s – have been one of the main drivers behind the growth and expansion of the informal economy in Malawi. Out of economic desperation, many urban unemployed young people have ventured into the informal economy to create jobs for themselves and earn a living. This was the case for Jimu's respondents who were bicycle taxi and handcart operators in Mzuzu city. These bicycle taxis and handcarts represent transport options with significant socio-economic and environmental benefits for the operators and their clients. Relatively lower costs make them convenient options for passenger and freight services for the low income and over relatively longer distances (4). By linking various informal and formal socio-economic activities within urban spaces, these bicycle taxis and handcarts serve as modes of urban transformation. Although Jimu did not succeed in gathering exact amounts of daily or monthly incomes, his qualitative assessments, approximations and other indirect measures show that these informal activities make a significant contribution to the economic life of the operators and their families (94). Approximated daily incomes are higher and more regular than in other informal occupations averaging US$2 to US$7 (125). These earnings are used to meet minimum daily nutritional requirements, as well as other needs such as clothing, education, housing rentals and transportation. This suggests that operating in this sub-sector of the informal economy in Mzuzu city is an economically rewarding enterprise and a means for negotiating challenges associated with urban poverty and unemployment. For Jimu, this is also a demonstration of the agency, capability, creativity and ingenuity of the urban masses denied or deprived access to orthodox and formal economic opportunities. These activities stand out as creative and imaginative ways of appropriating urbanisation. They also showcase grassroots responses to widespread poverty, unavailability of meaningful employment opportunities and the failure of the state as well as the private and non-state sectors to respond to escalating demand for formal sector jobs.
Jimu is however careful not to romanticise these grassroots responses to urban unemployment as he correctly notes that bicycle taxis and handcart operators are beset by numerous challenges. These include stiff competition among themselves and with minibus operators; instability of income as it fluctuates responding to cycles of household incomes and expenditure patterns, unsound small business practices due to lack of business management skills; limited access to credit due to lack of collateral; non-payment of fares by some unscrupulous clients; frequent road accidents, sometimes fatal, due to congestion on the narrow city roads; problems of organisation and cooperation among the operators; and theft of bicycles by thugs who disguise themselves as clients (71). These constraints obviously affect net income returns and the overall socio-economic contribution of these informal businesses to the livelihoods of the operators and their families. Some of these challenges are not unique to this sub-sector of the informal economy in Malawi but cut across the entire informal economy in Africa.
Given the contribution of the informal economy to the livelihoods of many urban unemployed, one would expect the Malawi government to institute interventions that support increased efficiency, profitability, growth and sustainability of these small businesses. But alas, just as in so many other African countries, this is not the case. The Malawi government's lack of positive interventions in this sub-sector implies lack of commitment by local and national government officials to institute strategies that can guarantee better business environments and returns for the poor eking a living in the informal economy (72). This government inaction trivialises the informal economy even though it is a direct product of its failed neoliberal macro-economic and employment creation policies. Trivialisation of the informal economy is framed in ‘unofficial’ discourse that sees it as a problem, disorganised and causing urban disorder in Mzuzu. This belittling language (which is regurgitated by the media) questions the very existence of informal non-motorised modes of transport in cities with a tone that is degrading to the humanity of the operators and disparaging to the users of such services (3). These operators who are trying to exercise ingenuity by creatively responding to desperate economic situations created by the failure of the state to provide essential services and employment, are quite often the subject of state sponsored stigma and oppression. This is a contradiction because while this trivialisation and criminalisation of informality by the authorities continues, the official Malawi government discourse on pro-poor growth is dominated by the need to empower the poor economically as encapsulated in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The Malawi government is speaking in a ‘forked tongue’: how can it talk of empowering the urban poor when it does so little to support poor bicycle taxi and handcart operators (and others in the informal sector) who are using their own initiative and ingenuity in an attempt to economically empower themselves?
In conclusion, Jimu argues that while many urban informal sector activities in Malawi have grown without state support to this date, state involvement is necessary to regulate and promote the growth of the sector and the welfare of the workers as well as the users of their services and the general public. Such constructive state engagement with the operators and users of their services, adds Jimu, will be an acknowledgement that urban informal economy workers are not simply people who have lost out on the struggle for formal economy opportunities. Rather they are people attempting meaningful ways to address the real causes of poverty at a level that even the state with its agents of development and oppression cannot reach.