Research Fellow

Who I am

How I became interested in monocultures

What I do

David Drengk

Universitätsstraße 150
Gebäude GA 4/53, Fachnr. 182
44780 Bochum
Germany
Email: david.drengk@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Tea plantation of Satemwa Tea Estate in Thyolo, Southern Malawi. © Georg Berg
I am an Africanist historian of technology and work as a postdoc researcher in the MaMoGH project at Ruhr University Bochum since October 2024. More info on my academic background and my research interests can be found here. 
Who hasn't seen the beautiful fields of rapeseed in their glorious yellow blossom? In my hometown, the country lanes are lined with such yellow plantations every year. As beautiful as this 'sea of yellow' is to look at, I always wondered what was behind those monotonous-looking fields.
Later, when my studies took me to regions of sub-Saharan Africa, I kept an eye out for such plantations. Initially, I was particularly fascinated by the question how such large-scale plantations of a single crop could be integrated into existing ecosystems and what impact they had on such environments. These were actually my first points of contact with monocultures. My current postdoctoral project aims to build on this interest, but more importantly to go beyond it.
As a new member of the MamoGH team, I am delighted to add a project from and about Southern Africa to the overall project. This work focuses on Malawi, a landlocked country in south-eastern Africa that gained formal independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.
Having spent time in Malawi over the past few years, I know that as a visitor it is difficult to avoid encountering tobacco, tea or sugar in some form. If you sweeten your hot drink in Malawi, it is likely to be brown cane sugar from Illovo Sugar. If you smoke a cigarette, the tobacco may come from one of the country's tobacco auctions. And if you enjoy your morning English breakfast tea, it is likely to have come from the tea plantations of Mulanje or Thyolo in the south of the country.
Tobacco, tea and sugar cane have become an integral part of Malawi's daily (economic) life, despite the adversities of the long 20th century. With the help of a historical reappraisal of their cultivation, I hope to look behind the scenes of these three export pillars of Malawi and get to the bottom of the survival strategies of these monocultures and the everyday practices of planters, scientists and politicians.
Tea plantation of Satemwa Tea Estate in Thyolo, Southern Malawi. © Georg Berg