HOW DOES RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION AFFECT TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN MALAWI: THE CASE OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE.

Abstract

This study examines how rural-urban migration affects medicinal traditional knowledge of both the migrant and the rural dwellers from Traditional Authority Mavwere in Mchinji district. The study focuses on the medicinal traditional knowledge of the following three ailments; Epilepsy (Khunyu), Migraines (Mutu waching‟alang‟ala) and Acute febrile illness (Mauka). Using a mixed methods approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted during which data was gathered from 98 respondents in Senior Group Village Manguwale in Mchinji district and 97 respondents who had migrated from TA Mavwere, SGVH Manguwale to Lilongwe Town. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for data analysis where descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to present socio-demographic characteristics of migrants and rural dwellers. To assess how migration affected the migrant‟s knowledge on traditional medicine, simple linear regression analysis was used. To assess how the migrant‟s demographic characteristics affect knowledge on traditional medicine, multiple linear regression analysis was used. Study findings suggest that migration from the rural to the urban areas is not a significant predictor for the knowledge of traditional medicine. The results also showed that the percent knowledge score for Mauka (40%) traditional medicine was found to be higher than that of Mutu waching‟alang‟ala (38.6%) and khunyu (36.5%). The study findings also showed that household socio-demographic characteristics such as age, sex, income, education status, occupation do not contribute significantly towards one‟s knowledge of traditional medicine. The study recommends the development of a database of traditional knowledge that can be easily accessed by citizens at a community level; which will include the names of the remedy, the preparation method, the treatment, the place of supply and a picture of the remedy for various ailments so that knowledge of traditional medicine is not lost between generations.