About Me

 Hello and welcome

I'm Stewart Maganga, an anthropologist by training. You might wonder how I ended up in this field. To be honest, I never planned it. Back in 2002, my goal was to become a lawyer. At that time, I had no idea what anthropology was—hardly surprising, since most secondary schools worldwide, including those in Malawi, don’t offer it.

My path changed when I was preparing to enter university. That same year, I found myself sharing a flat with a Rastafarian—a person and culture I knew nothing about at the time. That encounter sparked a curiosity that would shape the rest of my life. I had always been drawn to the humanities and social sciences, but I didn’t expect this curiosity to turn into a lifelong passion for anthropology and, specifically, for studying Rastafari in Malawi and Africa.

I’ve long wanted to create a blog, but life’s busy schedule often got in the way. Now, I’m making the time. This space is where I share my thoughts, research, and reflections on topics that matter to me—particularly anthropology in Africa, cultural studies, and Rastafari.

I hope this blog becomes a place where you can learn, reflect, and maybe even challenge your own ideas. Feel free to comment, share, or simply enjoy the journey with me.

Enjoy!

Location: CP3C+M4 Macheca, Mozambique

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As the Centenary Approaches - The State of Scholarship on Rastafari from a Global Perspective

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 In the next four years, the Rastafari movement will have entered its 100th year. This is quite an achievement for a movement that has continued to survive despite the odds. To me, it speaks of the resilience of this oft-misunderstood movement.  It also speaks of how the Rastafari movement in my country Malawi has continued to survive despite the question that Margaret Nyondo Musyani  posed in the title of her 2006 thesis "Is Rastafari Going to Survive in Malawi?". I will speak about in depth in just a moment but for now it is imperative that I begin by providing my assessment on the state of Rastafari scholarship specifically in view of the upcoming 100th anniversary coming up in four years. There is no doubt that a lot has been achieved in the last decades in so far as scholarship is concerned. This is significantly so as the movement has moved from being dismissed as a fringe spiritual-cultural expression to one that has gained recognition in academic, theological and ...
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