diff --git a/borg/archive.py b/borg/archive.py
index 27cd9d0aa..77638d6c1 100644
--- a/borg/archive.py
+++ b/borg/archive.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from itertools import groupby
 import errno
 from .key import key_factory
 from .remote import cache_if_remote
-import msgpack
+
 import os
 import socket
 import stat
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ if have_cython():
     from .platform import acl_get, acl_set
     from .chunker import Chunker
     from .hashindex import ChunkIndex
+    import msgpack
 
 ITEMS_BUFFER = 1024 * 1024
 
diff --git a/borg/key.py b/borg/key.py
index 81f9185c8..3e8150f2a 100644
--- a/borg/key.py
+++ b/borg/key.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ from binascii import hexlify, a2b_base64, b2a_base64
 import configparser
 import getpass
 import os
-import msgpack
 import textwrap
 import hmac
 from hashlib import sha256
@@ -11,6 +10,7 @@ from .helpers import IntegrityError, get_keys_dir, Error, have_cython
 if have_cython():
     from .crypto import pbkdf2_sha256, get_random_bytes, AES, bytes_to_long, long_to_bytes, bytes_to_int, num_aes_blocks
     from .compress import Compressor, COMPR_BUFFER
+    import msgpack
 
 PREFIX = b'\0' * 8