The highland plateau of Mozambique’s remote northern Niassa province serves up dramatic skies, in endless configurations, as you drive north out of the provincial capital Lichinga.
If you stay on this road, it takes you all the way to Tanzania. Red-brick thatched houses – the colour of the earth – cluster along the edge. Translucent bags of sunflower oil hang outside for sale, glistening from bamboo sticks. A pair of soaked cyclists trundle by, loaded down with sacks of charcoal. The heavy rains are petering out; maize, bananas and a first crop of beans will soon be ready for harvest. But until then, these are the hunger months, January to March, when farmers give children more water to drink, and have to buy back food at twice the price they sold it for at harvest time. Here 45 per cent of children under five are malnourished.
