Tobacco farm in Malawi: the families toiling in the fields
Life as tenant farmers in Kasungu, northern Malawi, can be a struggle for families trapped in poverty, who feel forced to rely on their children’s help, impacting schooling. Photography by David Levene
-
A tobacco field at a farm in Kasungu region, Malawi. Tobacco is the country’s most important export crop, with tobacco leaf from Malawi filling cigarettes found all over the world
-
Sewing tobacco leaves in preparation for drying
-
The leaves are sorted
-
Tiyamike Phiri, an orphaned child labourer, left, at work on a tobacco plot belonging to her brother’s family. The 14-year-old says she left school because she had no materials with which to study so she opted to work in the fields
-
-
Tiyamike Phiri hopes to become a nurse because she wants to travel the country and help others
-
The tobacco farm and village. Workers live in straw huts for 10 months while they work on the farm. The tobacco firms say they are doing all they can to stop exploitative child labour in their supply chains
-
Residents of the village construct a barn to dry tobacco
-
Tenant farmers and their families
-
-
Dionetsetse Dickson (left), 14, and brother John Kennedy Dickson, 16, who have been working on the farm full-time for the past year
-
A child outside a home in the village
-
The villagePhotograph: David Levene for the Guardian
-
The tobacco farm
-
-
Tobacco drying
-
Thokozani Chakwanila (left), 11, and Misozi Chakwanila, eight, help in the fields. Toiling to help their families can impact their schooling
-
A former tea room with bags of fertiliser on sale outside
-
Jackson, two, with his mother Esther Phiri, 16. Jackson has a miniature hoe, fashioned by his father, Lazaro, because he cried every time he saw his parents set off for the fields carrying tools and wanted one for himselfPhotograph: David Levene for the Guardian
-
-
Children play in the village
