Born in 1956 in Kalulushi, Zambia, Lawrence Yombwe is an accomplished painter and one of Zambia’s most prolific artists living in his time. He began his career as a self-taught artist, holding his first solo show at the Copperbelt Museum in 1979. He has since become a respected figure in the art world, known for his unique incorporation of Mbusa imagery in an idiosyncratic abstract style. He currently resides in Livingstone, Zambia, where he continues to create and inspire through his work together with his wife, fellow artist Agness Yombwe at the Wayi Wayi Art Studio & Gallery.
In this series, I AM THE NSHIMA OF LIFE, Yombwe seeks to confront the socioeconomic and political state of the country, centering his conversation around the high cost of living and scarcity of resources for typical Zambians to access the basic need of food. Specifically, the controversy of maize meal prices in the past few years.
As of May 2025, mealie meal prices in Zambia were effectively reduced by k50 to k130 across different provinces by manufacturers, ranging between K230 and K285 for a 25kg bag of breakfast meal. According to the Milling Association of Zambia & the Ministry of Home Affairs, the reduction can be attributed to improved supply of maize, sufficient rainfall, and in some cases, direct intervention or negotiations by the government. This follows much higher and unstable prices in previous years as high as k350 for a 25KG bag. To put it into perspective, as of January 1st, 2024, the minimum wage for a general worker in sectors such as mining, construction, and manufacturing was K1,487.00 for basic pay, with an average household size of 5 people according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of Zambia. For traders and marketeers with no guarantee of pay, it was difficult to maintain sustainable livelihoods.
Yombwe’s approach uses the specificity of the bag of Mealie Meal to interpolate this disparity. Creating metaphors and analogies that probe the idea of equality and quality of life. In one piece, ONE ZAMBIAN FAMILY, ONE BAG 1, he recreates the court of arms by collaging different cut outs from magazines, bank advertisements, charcoal fragments, with a bag of mealie meal replacing the shield on the original. Inspired by the periodic shortages of mealie meal, he also changes the phrase from “One Zambia, One Nation”, to “One Zambian Family, One Bag”, challenging the country’s notion of hard work and education being the foundation of our everyday life, and instead shifting the narrative to basic needs. Further underscoring a time when some families from high density areas could only access one bag of mealie meal per family from the depots such as those of the Zambia National Service.
In another piece, I AM THE NSHIMA OF LIFE, he likens the commodity to the ‘bread of life’, nailing the bag of mealie meal onto the cross in similar posture to Jesus Christ, almost suggesting that mealie meal itself could be the bread of most Zambian lives. This deliberate approach questions our moral and virtue as a Christian nation, interrogating biblical ideologies such as one piece of bread to feed the many, and rather insinuating that greed indeed corrupts the masses as it favors the higher ups. As Zambians prepare to take the polls in this election year, these works can serve as a call for reconsideration and consolidation of a collective consciousness.
This collection can inspire further community and inclusion within our society, lending to lower food and non-food prices and a stronger Kwacha to improve the outlook, and target band for 2026.
Text By Bruno Milambo
The Installation Catalogue can be purchased from LuCAC or Wayi-Wayi Studios & Gallery
Our Audience also got an exclusive visit to our artist-in-residence, Nyugen Smith’s studio, where he shared more about his practice and what he had been working on.
