As shown in Tables 6.13a and b, 24 respondents in total reported that they had relatives who had fled with them, but had since returned to Mozambique. In several cases the sorts of reasons given for the division of families have been discussed in this and the last chapter. They included, for example, females returning with their husbands. Alternatively some respondents had particular reasons not to have returned with their families, including political priorities as discussed in the preceding section.
However, in a number of cases the reasons for the family division could not be explained in terms of individual evaluation within the household. In this section the notion of household strategies is discussed. It is posited that just as during flight several
respondents’ families had divided, with the most vulnerable to the conflict coming to Malawi first, and the rest following later, it may be that a similar process was occurring during return. One of the most important reasons for this was economic.
The excerpts below suggest that some families had divided for reasons other than individual priorities. One respondent told me:
’Its an easy journey to join my parents and sister in Mozambique’ (C:68)
When I asked him why, in that case, he had not yet repatriated, he declined to answer. Another respondent told me:
’The whole village fled. I have ten sons, all of whom came, and all of whom went back in close succession about two years ago.’ (C:36-37)
When I asked this respondent why he had not returned with his sons, he told me:
I haven’t been back because the Government [of Malawi] tells me to stay here’ (C:36-37)
This is an unlikely reason. The Government obviously did not restrict his sons from returning, neither, as far as I was aware, had they told anyone else that they must stay. It could be argued that the implication of the respondent’s reply was that the Government, by their continued support of refugees, had indicated that he need not return yet. This idea tallies with responses from several other respondents, who insisted that they would not return until the last possible moment, in other words when they were expelled by the Malawi Government.
There were indeed sound reasons, primarily economic, for households to divide such that two homes, one in exile and one at home, were maintained. Such a strategy cannot be considered innovative amongst either the Yao or the Nyanja. One reason is that many adopted this strategy upon flight, with household members most vulnerable to the conflict fleeing first, and others following later, or staying at home. A second is that, according to the account of one village chief, the geographical division of a household between
villages was a preparation for a traditional survival strategy, such that if one area became infertile, reciprocity with or migration to the other area became a viable option.
Reciprocity and access appear to have been the main advantages of household divisions for my respondents. The excerpts below, for example, demonstrate the obvious advantage of having a household member in receipt of rations:
’My brother is a FRELIMO soldier in Lichinga. He sent me two letters, asking for food...I sent him food last month’ (M:38)
’My mother has sent six letters, the last was last month. She asks for food, which I have sent back’ (J:28)
The advantages of reciprocity in the reverse direction were most apparent in Nkhata Bay, where several respondents regularly crossed the Lake to obtain fish from relatives on the more fertile Mozambican shores. Clearly the maintenance of two homes provided a double opportunity for subsistence.
Family division also facilitated access for both sets of family members to trade. Although traditional cross-border trade routes were being resurrected in any case, to have a family member in the trading country facilitated easy access to trade goods and markets. It also provided a base from which to operate. The excerpts below demonstrate such trade networks:
’My relatives come over from Mozambique to buy soap, which they sell in Mozambique’ (C:99)
’My cousin and brother-in-law come to visit...they buy fish there [in Mozambique] and come to sell it, so their visits depend upon the availability of fish’ (M:10)
Access to various consumer items was clearly better in Malawi than in war-torn Mozambique:
’My sister is with her husband in Mtengula. They want to tailor. They’re doing piece work at home, then they’ll come here to buy a sewing machine, which I can get for them’ (M:29)
’I’ve received two letters in total from my father [in Mozambique], The last was one week ago, asking me to buy nets for his fish business. I’ll send a message to my brother in Mandimba, who will come and collect them to take them to Namalamba’ (C:101)
In the opposite direction, the most sought after resource from Mozambique was firewood.
In the longer term, the maintenance of two homes provided the opportunity for one or other set of family members to migrate to the home of the other if necessary. The ease with which household members came from Mozambique to the camps, and the large- scale occurrence of double registration (UNHCR, 1988) and increased household size after initial registration, implied that should conditions in Mozambique become unsafe, or should subsistence there become impossible, then family members would join their relatives in exile. In the opposite direction, the presence of family members at home would make social and economic re-integration easier for returnees, as demonstrated below:
’My six children have now returned to Chanika. I plan to live with my children when I return. They have enough land for me to have some of my own for cultivation’ (C:48-49)
I plan to return to Mjawa and to cultivate there. My sons are looking after my land’ (C:37)
Three respondents planned to stay in Malawi after the end of the war. The one with relatives still in Mozambique intended to bring his family to live with him then. He was already in the process of negotiation with a Malawian local chief for land. For this family, the presence of a relative in Malawi would presumably make the immigration procedure easier.
The presence of household members in Mozambique with whom there was regular contact clearly has implications for the receipt and evaluation of information by the relatives in exile. It similarly has implications for the timing of the return of those relatives. These are the topics of the next section.