There is one place in Zomba that has something you do not often hear or see anywhere else in the country: the absence of photographers.
This place, known to many outsiders as Nsombi Island, is actually a two distinct “beach village” spread across the eastern shores of Lake Chilwa. The villages are Namalele and Chinguma in Traditional Authority Mkumbira.
In this digital age, hardly can the presence of a human being, with a camera hanging around the neck, attract morbid curiosity from a thousand pair of eyes in a particular society.
But in this place, it does, on a greater scale, with astonishing fascination.
Moving around Nsombi with a camera, one is likely to meet a multitude of requests from locals to take pictures of them.
“There are no photographers here and people become excited when they see one,” said Bright Mussa, a restaurant owner at Nsombi.
39-year-old Mussa, who comes from Nyumwa Village in T/A Kawinga in Machinga but settled here because of business, believes that the potential for commercial photography is huge and remains untapped in this area.
For the two years that he has lived here, Lackson has seen no one take pictures of people and give or sell them back to the owners.
“What I see are people like you who come here, take pictures and then disappear for good,” he said referring to this reporter and the rest of people who visit the place for work-related activities and “photographs.”
Just like everyone else, many people here want to document their life histories through printed pictures but they cannot.
Since the first successful picture was produced in the late 1820s, human existence has depended upon images for visual communication and culture.
“Photographs are credible sources of illustrating the past… They can be an important reference for future generations,” writes Wanda Verster in one of her scholarly studies titled “The role of photography, place and memory in gallery and museum design.”
Verster is lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State in South Africa and currently a visiting Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student at Uppsala University in Sweden.
She further states that photographs form part of our identity, give us a connection to history through an imagery journey of the past, and help us search for aspects of our own identity and need for belonging.
It is apparently this need of belonging that people in Nsombi miss much through starvation of photographic services in their area.
OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF SIGHT
The absence of photographers in Nsombi may have little or no impact to socio-economic development in the area. But it symbolises how out of focus and sight this place is from the official lens of policy and decision-making in all aspects of development.
It also epitomizes a sense of disconnection, distraught and desolation that engulfs this place and its people.
Firstly, the place has no local mobile phone network. The cell network that reaches this place is from Mozambique provided by Movitel.
“It is hard to connect with people in Zomba and the rest of Malawi. Chisi Island, where coverage of local networks is available, is not far from here but we make an expensive international call to get in touch with relatives and friends,” said 40-year-old Yusuf Masharubu from Namalele Village on Nsombi beach.
The unavailability of local networks means that Malawi is losing out in terms of revenue realised from services and products like talk time, according to Masharubu. The same goes with most of the merchandise including beverages that are largely from Mozambique.
For instance, to access local brands of beer brewed in Malawi, one has to have the patience of a thirst that endures a long wait. It takes a two-day wait for the product to arrive here from the mainland in the western shore.
Accessibility to this place is only through water transport. The schedules of boat rides are often erratic and determined by the number of people travelling to and from Nsombi, where fishing is the major economic activity.
Secondly, Nsombi is a distraught place because of its general lack of social amenities and development projects towards improving people’s livelihood.
“There is no office of government or any organisation. It’s just like any other place in the bush, no amenities,” said 31-year-old Costa Chisoni from Chinguma Village in Nsombi.
Infrastructure development is also taking ages to grace this place. There is only one public structure worth pointing at; a new school block at Chinguma Primary School which is as recent as this year.
One major thing missing here is a facility for provision of health services, which forces many people to seek services in Mozambique.
Access to clean and potable water is another major challenge. There is only one borehole whose water is salty. As such, many locals are forced to rely on unprotected sources of water like murky swamps which are often breeding grounds for waterborne diseases like cholera.
The absence of police personnel and a structure raises anxiety about security and human rights concerns. A vigilante-like bunch of young men entrusted with community policing here sometimes uses unorthodox means of corrective punishment, according to the locals.
“They sometimes tie suspects to the tree, beat them up even before making a statement,” claimed Masharubu adding that the only time police sets foot in the area is when there is a serious case.
Development projects are very few and far in between. Until two years ago, no development project trickled down to this area. The ones that have come have not been around for long.
“On e organisation came with a project about Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) and another one about human rights. They were here for a few weeks or a month,” Masharubu claimed.
Lastly, for all the blessedness it derives from fishing, Nsombi is a desolate place when it comes to agricultural production through farming. Except for the rice cultivated in a few selected patches of clay soils along the lake, no crop emerges out of the Dambo sand that largely dress this place.
“The soils are poor. No vegetables and fruit trees respond to the conditions here. That means people have to buy products like maize from other places,” said Mac Maida, a health surveillance assistant in the area.
Maida added that people only have fish for relish and that the absence of fruits and vegetables denies them balanced diet. This leaves many of them – including children – malnourished.
The absence of photographers in Nsombi is just anecdotal evidence in a multitude of socio-economic problems haunting this place. Many locals, including Masharubu, feel that the plight in Nsombi is often lost from the eyes of authorities in the mainland.
“The only time this place attracts the attention of the country is when there is an outbreak of cholera or bilharzia. That’s when you see official help coming to this place. Maybe what we need is a frequent outbreaks of these diseases,” Masharubu said with a chuckle
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