Stories of Kalingalinga - Muchemwa Sichone

Project 1:

Project 2:

In this project, I am attempting to tell a story about the people of Kalingalinga and their lifestyle. I have encountered locals in the compound who shared their sensitive and touching stories with me. The Stories of Kalingalinga Workshop has taught me how photography can create a visual story about a certain type of life and what it can do to society in small and large scales.

At first I had different reasons for wanting to be part of this project but days after attending the workshop and being in the meetings and conversations, I realised my reasons for wanting to be a part of it had changed, I then wanted to learn, to help and to gather detailed information and history about Kalingalinga to create my project. Throughout the workshop, my perspectives on how I look at photography changed. But more importantly, I learnt the way photography is not only about great images, but rather the way it influences the way people look at the world.

Stories of Kalingalinga - Dennis Mubanga

The Entrepreneurs

The Kalingalinga stories project was a great way and time of introspection for me in that it made me think and be able to add my creativity and emotion in the work. My project was inspired by people who 'hustle' to make their lives better despite being at a disadvantage in society, where the cost of living and doing business is high. However, still being able to manage and survive amidst the many hardships the community is facing. My main reason of doing this project was for me to showcase power, the power within the people to overcome and endure the hardships and still be able to pull up a genuine smile and still have hope for a brighter future.

This project has taught me that there's still hope for humanity in general. That it takes one person to bring change in an environment and that person can be me. What I choose to do with my gifting impacts the whole community and Nation at large.

I am a Zambian born photographer based in Lusaka. I pride myself to be a photographer who aims to portray people in their environment especially the rich and famous. I am a passionate photographer and I run a photography and video company called UMUBANGA Media.

Stories of Kalingalinga - Zenzele Chulu

Schematic Tantrums

At this breathtaking pace, Kalingalinga will become history in the few years to come, and the memory will linger on in the photographic narrative taken in this workshop. It is history in the making through images, and being part of it makes me proud to project my perspective by focusing on mobility found or existing in Kalinglinga.

My focus was drawn on the wheelbarrow found at the Charcoal market, near the main school ground. There are two wheelbarrows for the market, belonging to the collective of charcoal sellers used strictly for delivering charcoal around Kalingalinga. The wheelbarrows are mostly used early in the morning to do deliveries, but beyond deliveries, my interest drew me further to get close-ups of wheelbarrows to magnify details of its engineering and mechanism, this revealed another dimension to create images that made up new interpretations, also relating to my painting practice of schematic tantrums.

The close-ups are by-product of the whole process bringing a new body of work, celebrating schematic tantrums, expressing the same lines and dots found in my paintings, creating abstract expressions out of the realistic images. This was the best improvisation to come out of the shooting process, stumbling on the images that would happen at an opportune moment of shooting.

Stories of Kalingalinga - Zambian Daily Mail article

We made it in the National Newspaper Zambian Daily Mail. The Stories of Kalingalinga workshop was a resounding success. Published 3/5/2019

Chanda Mwenya talk - Photographing for State Owned Newspapers

Today's guest talk was by Chanda Mwenya. He gave us an insight into his well-established career as a photojournalist at the Zambian state-owned Daily Mail newspaper. He also showed his personal work. 

Chanda discussed the restrictions Zambian photojournalists are guided by when working for the state-owned press. These restrictions are often there to put the leading figures of government in the best light and don't allow critical reflections on the current administrations.

He also showed a number of images that he categorised as 'art' photographs, as they were shot with the sensitivity he had developed during his fine art degree. While they followed the photo-journalistic tradition, they were not aimed for publication in the state press.

Chanda Mwenya was trained at the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts in Norway. Until recently Chanda worked with Zambia Daily Mail. He now runs an Artist Residency in Matero and works as a freelance writer, photojournalist and artist.

Reflection by workshop participant 
Muchemwa Sichone:

To be honest, this workshop is really making me feel more active and alert, I feel more alive and I feel like am contributing a lot towards making it a success, am happy and I feel like all the people that are taking part are family, everybody is free and friendly, the challenging questions and topics that arise really get us all connected, am more free and awake whenever I get to the gallery, trust me, I now feel like am just doing 5% of photography, I should at least get to 25%.

Kalingalinga has made me a more social person, this project has just the best tools to ignite art and photography of everyday life, I am a proud photographer soon to be an everyday a
rtist of my own satisfaction.

Thank you VAC. 



Photography and video by Natalia González Acosta 

Parallel Photographic Histories

Today we discussed parallel photographic histories of the African continent, looking at photographers like George Rodger, Leni Riefenstahl, Bob Gosani and Peter Mugabane who all worked during the same period of time, but recorded very different African lives. We discussed the importance of audiences and how they influence the choice of subject.

Danny Chiyesu and Zenzele Chulu

We looked at Pieter Hugo's Hyena and Other Man, and how these images are read in different contexts. In the West, viewers were attracted to the exotic relationship between man and animal, while in the Africa Hyenas are associated with superstition. They, therefore, generate a different response. We discussed the importance of cultural awareness and the importance of reading images in their cultural context.
Critiquing Pieter Hugo's became an interesting debate about access to the art market by African photographers.

David Makala and Muchemwa Sichone 

Today's talk is making me question a  hotographer's intention before, during and after taking a picture as well as what they want to communicate. How do they want the message to reach their selected audience? How do they select the audience? It's making me question what they want to preserve and why they want to preserve it. What role does a photographer play in a period of time? Which is, in turn, making me question myself and my intentions and what role I play right now and what I would want to represent the world I see around me.

Edith Chiliboy


I am learning a lot, from a picture to a picture with a story. I now understand how each story is attached to an image and can impact each and every society with its power to speak different languages and based on what it was taken for. Images can also bring awareness to communities. I have learnt how to attach an image to its story, how to draw a line between images that have purposes and those that don’t. Kalingalinga has a lot of stories that really fascinated me.
This project should be of national importance. We should produce and question our nation through photography and how we can use it to change lives and living standards.


Muchemwa Sichone



Workshop participants presenting their work during yesterday's morning session:

Yande Yombwe

Yande Yombwe and Margaret Mumba

Margaret Mumba

Danny Chiyesu

Photography by Natalia González Acosta

Work in Progress - Part 2

 Work in Progress by Edith Chiliboy:

The workshop has opened my eyes to the possibilities of what photography can bring to one's eye. I passed through Kalingalinga many times before but I have never looked at it as I am looking at it now; the tiny details that seem normal to me are now being the most intriguing objects for my photography. My work in Progress is representing puzzle pieces of what I am trying to create. They form a story of what I see and what I would want the world to see Kalingalinga as.


Work in Progress by Danny Chisu:

So far so good. Have had time to survey Kalingalinga. So excited about life in the community despite the poor background and its history as an illegal settlement. Kalingalinga is under threat because of the latest construction and expansion of Lusaka. The poor compound is being squeezed on all fronts.



Work in Progress by Muchemwa Sichone:

So on Sunday, I did another shoot for the Stories of Kalingalinga Photography workshop. People of Kalingalinga have a lot to tell, I was interested in getting the story of Kalingalinga from years back, and well it’s quite a story that many would want to sit and listen to. I think I love Kalingalinga because it’s a home-related compound and its tears I feel too, it’s pain I feel too and finally, it’s a journey I experienced too.

Work in Progress - Part 1

Work in progress by Muchemwa Sichone:

 I think even though Kalingalinga is developing its infrastructure, the most important thing is that it’s people never let each other walk alone, even when things get tough, they still stand and build their families with full belief that things will get better, which is what we need in our society. 

Work in progress by Daut Makala:

Hear Daut speak about his work:

 Work in progress by Natalia Gonzalez Acosta:

Although I am photographing my project in analogue I can share some of the ladies I have been working with. I've been photographing along the long road in Kalingalinga where all of the market stalls are and have managed to collaborate with the group of market stall owners. Their businesses include vegetable stalls, tailors, coal sellers, barber shops and more


Work in progress by Kerstin Hacker:

This photograph speaks towards the social change about to happen in Kalingalinga. Beatrice and her fiance stand in front of their rented house. I am aiming to collect stories from the people who are living through this social change in their neighbourhood. 

Nkonko Malimba talk - Photography as Effective Communication Tool

Nkonko Malimba is a veteran journalist, who worked for a large number of Zambian media houses over his twenty-five year career as a journalist. He worked extensively in Zambia and internationally. He is now a lecturer and freelance writer, covering subjects like economy and politics.

His talk during the Stories of Kalingalinga workshop sparked a passionate debate about the role of art in society, the role of the artist in building a self-sustaining art community and the importance of embracing a wide range of approaches to engage local, national and international audiences in the growth of the art sector in Zambia.

Extract from Nkonko Malimba's talk:

"If we can identify which areas need sensitization and at what age we can start planting art in peoples minds.  We can begin to build the capacity of how people take and understand as well as see art."
Muchemwa Sichone, workshop participant

Extracts from the discussion: 

Photography and videos by Natalia González Acosta

Stories of Kalingalinga - First Impressions

So many impressions along Alick Nkata Road. It took me about an hour walking from Friday's Corner to Longacres. This will be an exciting workshop, I like the fact that people were really freely talking in the workshop in the morning. I am really looking forward to the discussion...
Daut Makala

The Stories of Kalingalinga photography workshop for professional Zambian photographers has created some very interesting discussions already on the importance of challenging your practice and embracing new experiences and developing your own terms of references and practices. We explored post post-coloniality and how a new generation of photographers and artist can contribute to defining the Zeitgeist.

I am taking part in the Stories of Kalingalinga photography workshop and it’s quite an experience that I want to be part of. I’ve been a photographer for 3 years and I haven’t seemed to pay much attention to detail but this workshop is igniting my skills to tell so many stories through photography. It’s giving me more knowledge about how certain areas can be given more capacity through my power and photography skill. That having been said, thank you so much VAC for giving me this chance to be part of this.

Muchemwa Sichone

Yofu Gallery 


All images by Natalia González Acosta