Technology in its social setting: Bloomery iron-smelting at Kasungu, Malawi, 1860-1940

This study is a reconstruction of an indigenous bloomery iron-smelting technology, now extinct, in eastern Africa. Indigenous beliefs about iron-smelting and descriptions of the techniques employed were obtained by interviewing former ironworkers. The scale of the industry and changes in the organization of production between 1860 and 1940 were estimated from field study of ironworking sites, interview data and published and archival documents, while the technical basis of the process was reconstructed by metallographic and petrographic study of material residues from ironworking sites.;Iron production at Kasungu was constrained by ideology, low demand and acute shortage of labour; most ironmasters were not full-time specialists. A specialist industry did however emerge in northern Kasungu between 1865 and 1897 to service the Ngoni army of occupation. This region remained the dominant centre of iron production until 1930, when restrictive colonial forestry laws and competition from imported iron caused the abandonment of the industry.;The bloomery technology employed at Kasungu was a technically difficult process requiring considerable skill. The prevailing belief was that success in ironsmelting, as in all other difficult ventures, required both technical competence and the active intervention of the spirits of dead ancestors (mizimu). Failures were usually attributed to behaviour offensive to the mizimu or to malicious acts of sorcery by jealous fellow mortals. Severe constraints were therefore placed upon ironworkers for the duration of the smelt, and knowledge of effective countermeasures against sorcery was considered an essential part of an ironmaster's specialist skill.