Collage of tobacco industry videos (1:15 mins, 2007). See the University of California San Francisco Tobacco Control Archives Multimedia Collection.

Click image below to view video.

In summer 2001, the University of California Research Expeditions Program sponsored my research project called “Slave Traders of Lake Nyasa in Malawi.” The project involved 13 international fieldworkers focused on past and present forms of slavery in Malawi, specifically child labor and bonded labor in Malawi’s tobacco growing sector. Two teams of field assistants conducted ethnographic research on tobacco farms and villages nearby tobacco farms in Nhkotakota and Kasungu districts in Malawi during two week trips.

The Wall Street Journal mentioned the Malawi fieldwork project in a news story on international education projects in October 2001.

Short video (5 mins.) shows key project findings.

Click image to watch video

15% of Malawi’s tobacco is flue-cured, a type of leaf processed in brick barns in which hot air heats up the barn. Each year, a typical farmer in Malawi grows flue-cured on 2.4 acres and uses 10 chords of wood (36 cubic meters). Malawi has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world and tobacco growing is a contributing factor to the country’s deforestation rate. Images of tobacco-related deforestation in Malawi from June 2003.

click image to watch film (1:10 mins.)

click image to watch film (2:20mins)

Malawi is the world’s most tobacco dependent economy with 70% of its foreign earnings from tobacco. The film asks the question: What policies are needed to reduce Malawi’s economic reliance on tobacco?

click image to watch video

In the southern African country Malawi, tobacco is the major export crop- responsible for 70% of all export earnings. Agriculture is the mainstay of Malawi’s economy- accounting for over 90% of the GDP. Out of a total population of 11 million, the majority of Malawians are farmers- and 7 million owe their livelihoods to the tobacco industry. But economic dependency on tobacco has not brought the country wealth. According to the World Bank, over 60% of Malawians live below the poverty line- with limited access to land, little education and poor health. Yet, despite the poor returns from tobacco growing, the government has actually increased the land under cultivation. Now as Up in Smoke shows, Malawians are beginning to question if the wealth promised from growing tobacco is really an illusion.

Up in Smoke co-directed by Marty Otañez and Christopher Walker for Television Trust for the Environment (2003)

Up in Smoke Study Guide, DVD cover, and script

Click on images below to watch Up In Smoke in 3 parts

Up in Smoke, part 1 (8:30 mins)

Up in Smoke, part 2 (9:00 mins)

Up in Smoke, part 3 (8:25 mins)

Thangata (verb) A chinyanja term that means to help; to assist

Thangata (noun) A system of forced labor in tobacco and other cash crops imposed by British colonialists in Malawi

Thangata (today) A system of debt slavery in Malawi and other tobacco growing countries that produces profits for Philip Morris (a.k.a. Altria) and other cigarette manufacturers

Thangata (15 mins, 2002) is my first film co-produced with Michelle Otañez about tobacco farm workers in Malawi and US-based cigarette manufacturers and leaf buying companies.

Check out the Thangata study guide, artwork and dvd cover.

Malawi’s draft 2005 Tobacco Tenancy Labor Bill needs to be enacted to increase and protect the rights of tobacco farm workers. Created in 1994, the Tenancy Labor Bill, revised in 2005, would clarify the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants with a view to avoid exploitative situations. In fall 2005, the United Nations International Labor Organization and government bodies in Malawi including the Ministry of Justice discussed the Bill and made suggestions for revision. As of April 2007, the Bill is with the Ministry of Justice to prepare a draft that could be sent to the Office of the President and Cabinet for further analysis. The passage of the Bill appears to have been delayed indefinitely because several members of Malawi’s Parliament and other government officials are tobacco farm landlords. Little or no legislation protecting the rights of tobacco farm workers exists in Malawi.

Additional Resources:

Allegation of corruption and connivance among tobacco buyers, Auction Holdings Limited and other stakeholders in the tobacco industry, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Malawi 2006

Review of working and living conditions of tobacco tenants and other workers on tobacco estates, Hastings Kafundu, Center for Social Concern, Kanengo, Malawi 2005

Tobacco tenants in Malawi’s economy, Jos Kuppens, The Lamp [Malawi] November/December 2005

Preliminary note on tobacco sales in Malawi, Clive Stanbrook, Belgium 2005. Report documents allegations of a cartel of Lilmbe Leaf and Alliance One, US-based leaf buying companies in Malawi, and companies’ price-fixing at tobacco auctions in Malawi.

The world smoking business: tobacco tenants in Malawi, Liv Torres, FAFO [Norway] 2000

Labour agreement between the Tobacco Association of Malawi, the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions, and the Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi 1999. The Tobacco Association of Malawi has failed to honor the agreement to begin collective bargaining with the Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi as of April 2007.

Tobacco Tenants- Justice and Peace, Fr. James Greene 1997

Click image below to watch Thangata

Tabaco, Voces Desde El Surco (Tobacco, Voices From The Fields) is a video created by Wara Alderete about tobacco farmers and workers in Jujuy, Argentina.

Click images below to watch the video in three parts.

Tabaco, Voces Desde El Surco, part 1 (7:50 mins.)

Tabaco, Voces Desde El Surco, part 2 (7:30 mins.)

Tabaco, Voces Desde El Surco, part 3 (8:10 mins.)

Watch the preview video on the Public Hearing on the impact of the Free Trade Area of the Americas on health (5:20 mins.).

Ellen Shaffer and Joe Brenner with the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH), and I created the preview video in January 2007. CPATH is a widely recognized leader and a reliable resource in the debates on global trade and health. CPATH has encouraged public health leaders to articulate their stake in protecting public accountability. Visit the CPATH website for more information, and to subscribe CPATH’s listserv on global trade and health policy issues.

The preview video is part of a video project on the Public Hearing on the impact of the Free Trade Area of the Americas on health. The Public Hearing occurred in Miami, Florida, in November 2003.

Judith Wilkenfeld, a global tobacco control advocate with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C., presented on global trade and the tobacco industry at the 2003 Public Hearing. Wilkenfeld’s presentation and the presentations of other public health advocates are available on the DVD of the Public Hearing. Contact CPATH at cpath@cpath.org to obtain a copy of the complete DVD.

Watch the third episode in the series of six episodes on the practices of tobacco companies. The series of short videos highlights tobacco industry documents research using the online Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and British American Tobacco Documents Archive.

Holly and Ashlee Temple, artists in Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area, contributed artwork to Best Friends Forever. See some more of their artwork at InLiquid.com.