Stories of Kalingalinga - Kerstin Hacker

Mary makes a living off selling empty bottles. She gets 1 Kwatcha for 2 bottles. She is a single mum and has 1 girl and 2 boys. She is living with her mother. She finds rent and electricity payments very expensive. She would like to move away to a plot near Great East Road where rent is cheaper. She would like to sell live chickens.

Margret Mulenga is 23 and has lived in Kalingalinga for 15 years. She was in school for 9 years.  She had a son who passed away. She is selling Chitenge cloth for a living. She finds life in Kalingaling too difficult. “Here is nothing I can do to help myself”. She would like to have a wholesale business for Chitenge materials.

Kalingalinga is rapidly changing on the edges with modern buildings sprawling along the main road, but behind the scenes, the same people still live in makeshift buildings. Kalingalinga is an illegal settlement in the middle of town and provides much of the workforce that drives Lusaka’s development. Amongst the settlers are many who survive day by day with odd jobs, as permanent jobs are hard to come by. The land that their homes are built on is often owned by landowners, who live in other parts of town and are making a tidy profit of the land. Rents are high, and wages are low.

Many of the women I photographed dream of moving away, to a place where they can afford life a little bit more easily. But being in the middle of town is also attractive to others, who see the opportunities that the new development brings.

I photographed a series of women who will have to make a decision soon, on what turn their life will take. I will be back to see what life has in stall for them.

Reflections on the Stories of Kalingalinga workshop by Geoffrey Phiri

The potential or rather the ability to tell our own stories is very much the essence of the "Stories of Kalingalinga" workshop. These images tell our tale. From where I have been sitting in the workshop, it was interesting to observe that there has been a lot of enthusiasm from the participants. Some are professionals in their own right and some very enthusiastic up and coming artists. There is definitely no doubt that we are headed in the right direction, we are building a network that will be active long after the workshop. The energy that the participants have continued to exhibit outside the workshop is another positive that needs commendation. My hope is that other institutions will come on board and thus the visual stories of Kalingalinga and Zambia will continue to develop.

Stories of Kalingalinga - Scotty

Link to Scotty's video

It was with great passion and pleasure to be a part of the workshop that enabled me to tell my story about Kalingalinga.

I always felt that people from this particular part of the capital, where I live, has always been miscategorised  and labelled poor and futureless because of the societal gap in social standing.

 My main focus was to show that people from Kalingalinga are not only as human as everyone else but are happy and are giving back to their community.

To be able to also capture the children play and have lots of fun was for me fulfilling.

I couldn't be happier to have made my contribution to this project.