Chapter 5 - Eginald P. In its current usage, madaba refers to the relationship between a woman and a man in which an independent woman responsible for her own household maintains a regular, recognised relationship with a married or unmarried man.
The relationship does not involve property, kinship or payment of the traditional bride-price, yet it is not a secret. The relationship is known about and unwillingly accepted by parents and the community at large. The term mama nchukwa refer to children born in fishing settlements established in the villages; but in order to emphasise this origin, are given the names of fishes found in the lake, like the name nchukwa itself.
This paper seeks to demonstrate how the social acceptance of the madaba relationship in the Lake Nyasa region and a growing number of madaba women and mama nchukwa children perceive the disintegration of the old pre-capitalist clan-based socio-economic system on the one hand, and the capitalization of the fishing industry on the Lake on the other.
The decentralised clan-based system was at the heart of the pre-capitalist system of production. The clan based system had resulted in the domination of both women and young men.
Changes already underway during the colonial period and brought by the greater penetration and consolidation of capitalist relations in the countryside were to adversely affect the clan-based agricultural fishing economies. In particular, the changes were to alter the position and roles of both women and young men in Lake Nyasa society. The transformation of the clan-based system took place in two main phases.
