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Law, Violence and Penal Reform: State Responses to Crime and Disorder in Colonial Malawi, c.1900–1959

The historical analysis of state punishment in colonial Africa has been dominated by studies of individual arenas and practices of judicial authority: prisons, detention, flogging, and the death penalty. This article on Malawi adopts a more holistic approach, focusing on ‘penality’ – the broader nexus of criminal justice infrastructure and discourses – rather than ‘punishment’, to explore the shifts and tensions within colonial judicial and penal policy. Drawing on sociological theories of punishment from Durkheim to Foucault, the development and functioning of such penality is analysed, beginning with a study of state concerns about African criminality, colonial courts and justice, before moving to an analysis of the forms and functions of state punishments. The article then explores state responses to large-scale disorder and rebellion in 1915 and 1959, and highlights how the experiences of colonial justice shaped Malawi's struggle towards independence.