If you eat Nsima, you are happy

By Liza Koch

This photo essay is about the process of making Nsima flour, the most important food people eat every day in Malawi.

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Malawi

Most of the houses in the rural areas of Malawi disappear between the maize fields.

Malawi

The process starts...

Maize is planted in the fields and around the houses.

The process starts...

Working on the Fields

Both men and women work on the fields, one of the daily activities during the rainy season.

Working on the Fields

End of the Season

At the end of the rainy season people have to wait until the crops are dried. Slowly, the green colour of the fields turn to brown.

End of the Season

Waiting for the Harvest

A woman walks in between the maize fields, which are almost ready to harvest.

Waiting for the Harvest

Preparing the Maize

The maize is peeled and dried, now it is time to go to the mill.

Preparing the Maize

At the Mill:

The mill grinds the maize into flour. This flour can be stored and used the whole year until the next rainy season when the process starts again.

At the Mill:

• <

  >
  

  Malawi

  Most of the houses in the rural areas of Malawi disappear between the maize fields.
• <

  >
  

  The process starts...

  Maize is planted in the fields and around the houses.
• <

  >
  

  Working on the Fields

  Both men and women work on the fields, one of the daily activities during the rainy season.
• <

  >
  

  End of the Season

  At the end of the rainy season people have to wait until the crops are dried. Slowly, the green colour of the fields turn to brown.
• <

  >
  

  Waiting for the Harvest

  A woman walks in between the maize fields, which are almost ready to harvest.
• <

  >
  

  Preparing the Maize

  The maize is peeled and dried, now it is time to go to the mill.
• <

  >
  

  At the Mill:

  The mill grinds the maize into flour. This flour can be stored and used the whole year until the next rainy season when the process starts again.

Without Nsima the meal is not complete. Nsima is a kind of porridge made of maize flour. Maize is therefore the most important crop for people’s livelihood in rural Malawi. More than 80 percent of the farmable land in Malawi is covered with maize crops. When the maize crops are mature they are dried, peeled and ground into flour, which they can use the whole year.

You can read here about my fieldwork in Makata village in Malawi.

Liza Koch was a master student Anthropology at the VU. She has written her thesis about the rights and access to customary land for women in southern Malawi

In 2016/17, students in the Master of Social and Cultural Anthropology participated in workshops on ‘Visual and Digital Research Methods’ by Sanderien Verstappen and Lipika Bansal. The workshops aimed at facilitating students and their interlocutors in the field to apply visual methods of research and publication in their research projects. At Standplaats Wereld you can see the end results.