Kind-hearted viewers, welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. Today, we will travel to the beautiful African nation of Malawi and have a glimpse of her traditional village life.

The Republic of Malawi is located in southeast Africa, bordering Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. The famous Lake Malawi extends north to south through two-thirds of the country. The nation’s Lake Malawi National Park and the Chongoni Rock Art Area are listed as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites.

Malawi is also celebrated for her indigenous dance, wood carving, and oil paintings. For centuries, people in Malawi’s countryside lived in harmony with nature. In an effort to revive this sustainable tradition, a culture center has been established in Lilongwe. Let’s meet our wonderful local host, Mr. Shombi Banda, who will introduce to us the everyday life of traditional Malawians.

Hi, I’m Shombi Banda from Malawi, the village manager here. If you look around here, you can see that there’s a big forest here, and the village has been designed in a different way. This is how Malawi was looking like a hundred of years ago. And what we are trying to remind the Malawians, that in those days, all the people, they were living a simple life, but it was a nice life. They were living a happy and enjoyable life; it’s natural.

We are trying to keep our culture in place. So that’s why we are trying to put everything in the place, so that our kids can come here and see what it was like here. It was nice here. Deep-rooted in Malawian custom is their respect for nature. Whether it is a piece of wood, or a handful of soil, everything is greatly cherished and minimally disturbed. Our main reason here is to conserve the natural resources. So one of them is the trees.

The scientists say that whenever you want to have good rains, you have to have more trees. So if you can look around here, we didn’t cut any tree here. We built houses wherever there was a space for them to build the houses. We just cut the grass short, leave the trees alive, so that the weather here, you can differentiate from the town to here, it’s cool here, just because we have got a lot of natural resources around us here.

If you can see, our house has been built with trees. All of it was dead trees; we didn’t cut a live tree, no. We used the grass to thatch the roof. And even the wall is made from the reeds. If you can go inside there, it’s cool and warm. This is how Malawi hundred years [ago] was like.

So from here you can see that even the cupboard is made from the reeds. Even the wall is made from the reeds and the bamboos. The floor, there is no cement; it’s a floor made from mud coming from the river. So Malawians can build nice houses from the resources which they have nearby their homes.

The sweeping area is less than the area whereby we are dumping the leaves. It’s like we are trying to leave the nature helping its own. When the leaves fall down, they’re making manure for these trees. The great enlightened sage Master Lao Tzu once said, “Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” Indeed, a simple and natural life is full of satisfaction and happiness.

In those days people had different types of houses. That house was made from reeds, and this one is made from the mud. These are the bricks made from the mud. Simple, we just take the soil, put it into the molding frame, take out the brick, and we build this. We didn’t travel anywhere to buy this, we made it from here. And we didn’t damage anything, we made it from natural resources. And you can see that that house is a four corner one, this one is a round one.

In those days, people in the village, especially the old, old people like grandma, grandpa, they used to sleep in a round house like this one. And there was always a fire in the middle. Older people, they used to chat with the kids during night, so they were sitting around the wall, putting the fire in the middle, telling them nice stories, folk tales, sharing ideas, doing this, doing that. That’s the reason they got the round houses.

After these messages, we’ll continue our tour of the culture center in Malawi’s Lilongwe. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. Let’s conserve our culture, let’s conserve our natural resources so that in the future they can earn a good living like what our parents were doing. Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television as Mr. Shombi Banda from the culture center at Lilongwe continues his introduction to Malawi’s traditional village life.

So in our traditional local village, you can find there is pottery, there are carvings, there are buildings and there are weavings. Everything was there; that’s why there was barter. It was exchanging of goods to goods. So then I’ll show you around.

In those days, most of the time during night there was drumming, clapping of hands, singing beautiful songs, dancing beautiful dances. So you can see that we are separating the accommodation and the industrial area. Most of the times, there is more noise here. So we are separating the industrial area to the accommodation to give a chance for the children to sleep well there, not to hear more noise.

This is our gallery shop. As I said earlier on, a village in those days, it’s people living together, so they didn’t need someone to do something for them. Among them there were some painters, potters, carvers. So we are trying to continue that type of habit, saying that they don’t need to travel long distance looking for something. They always find something around them.

So this is our gallery. These pictures are made from different artists. During Sundays, small children are being given lessons to learn how to paint these things, so that we can continue what our parents were doing, to be creative. This is the weaving shop. And here we are doing also the very same thing, during Sundays, we give children lessons how to make the tables, how to make the baskets, how to weave the elephant, doing that and that.

So this is our carving shop. We are bringing different artists from different areas to do their things here, so that our children can see them. Mr. Gomez, who is the owner of this shop, can explain more about this shop.

Indeed, we do wood carvings here. Carving is something that started way back in Malawi, and it’s an inherited career; there is no actual school for carving, but children, people learn from one another to do the work of art. Art is a part of Malawian culture to demonstrate what Malawians and Africans do. They express what they see, what they know, and what is happening out there through art like wood carving. That’s why you may see some carvings women pounding, some beating drums; so actually we carve what we see out there.

This is our pottery shop. This is a machine where they make the pots; you can see there is a pot on top there, which they have just made. So after making the pots like this, they let them dry for about 7 days. After drying, there is a big oven, whereby they put inside all the pots, close the door, and put the fire to burn them to make them hard. They made monkeys, people, pots – small pots, big pots, of different sizes and of different designs. Some of these pots, like these pots, you can see them here, they do work like fridges. You can keep your water in here, it will be cool even during October. October here is too hot. But they can still be cool in here.

So you can see, they made everything from the clay, even the plates. In those days, our old people, they don’t go to the shops to buy plates, no. They were making everything, from around here, from their local resources, like this.

Malawian arts and handicrafts reflect a harmonious cultural heritage in which the pure-hearted people of the nation take great pride. To Mr. Banda, Malawi is a gift from Heaven, and the Malawians are working hard to conserve it for their future generations. The tradition of Malawi is so rich.

Malawi is so beautiful and so rich in cultural things, environment, trees, lakes, mountains, and even, you can see the sky, it’s blue here, that means we are blessed. I’m telling you we are blessed. In Malawi, we believe in discussing things and if there’s something wrong, we always sit down and discuss things. Malawians are peace lovers and we have never seen Malawians fighting.

The future of Malawi is so bright. Now we are conserving the forest. We now know the importance of trees, the importance of practicing good methods of agriculture. Lots of things are changing, that means Malawi has got a bright future. Malawi is nice.

Malawi is a small country, with only 13 million people but beautiful, lovely, peace lovers. You can breathe the natural air. And I am appealing to you, all people from outside Malawi, to come and visit us, and we are going to bring you love. We are peace lovers. Yes. Please visit us. We are waiting for you. Thank you.

Our sincere appreciation, Mr. Shombi Banda, for your heartfelt introduction to the Malawi culture, your inspirational optimism for the future, and your gracious invitation. May the world’s sustainable traditions be cherished as humans take responsible stewardship of our one and only God-given earthly home.

Beauty-loving viewers, thank you for being with us today on A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. May your life be guided by your inner divinity.