Fulbright winner Norma Anderson '99
will spend next year studying women's tobacco clubs in Malawi,
Africa.
Norma Anderson, a double major in religion and African American studies, is having one busy senior year. After spending the fall of her junior year in Ghana studying Akan (a large cultural group in Ghana) witchcraft perceptions, she returned to MHC to take three African studies seminars last spring. This year, she began preliminary research on women's tobacco clubs as an indicator of women's roles within the economy of Malawi, in order to develop a Fulbright proposal. In addition, she began translating her fieldwork in Ghana into a thesis. Doing independent research on two different areas of Africa, in two different fields (her thesis falls within the disciplines of history and religion, her Fulbright within women's studies and development sociology), has paid off: Anderson recently was awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Malawi.
Anderson's adviser, Assistant Professor of African Studies Holly Hanson, attributes her student's success to talent and diligence. "Norma is a creative, engaged thinker, and she is exceptionally hard working," Hanson says. "A successful Fulbright application has to prove that the proposed project will contribute to the scholarship in the field, that the applicant can accomplish it, and that the applicant has contacts in the country who will support her. Making that case takes a lot of effort." The Fulbright Foundation received 4,189 applications for the 954 grants available for its 1999 - 2000 competition.
The road to a Fulbright grant is arduous. Anderson estimates that she wrote six or seven complete drafts of her proposal before she satisfied her adviser and several Malawi experts whom she consulted. After Anderson decided to work on small-scale women's organizations in Malawi, Hanson put her in touch with Peter Von Doepp, who recently completed a dissertation that included an analysis of the role of church women's organizations in democratization in Malawi. Von Doepp helped Anderson shape her proposal to accurately represent current conditions, and suggested tobacco clubs as a topic.
Tobacco clubs are a method of "development" encouraged by the Malawian government. Through credit assistance, grants for fertilizer and seed, the government hopes that women (and men) will enter into large-scale tobacco production, thereby strengthening Malawi's economy. "The problems with cash crops as a development strategy are numerous, but include possible economic crisis if the crops fail and also economic crisis when world tobacco prices fall significantly," says Anderson. "Farmers at one time planted diverse crops for dietary purposes and to ensure against hunger should any single crop fail. With only one crop, this safety net is destroyed. I hope to look at tobacco clubs as a development strategy and as a social network for women. I believe that women likely utilize the clubs for more than simply economic assistance. I hope to take a holistic approach in my research--investigating economics, politics (state, gender, and identity), and history."
"Part of what is interesting about Norma's project is that she is asking about how small-scale community organizations work," says Hanson. "What do women get out of participation in them, and what are the internal dynamics that cause some clubs to be successful and others to fail? African women farmers are often objectified in development studies (as victims or as saviors); Norma is taking women participants seriously, and asking how they are using tobacco clubs for goals that may not be on the agenda of development planners."
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