Anna Msowoya-Keys was one of the women I photographed for the Women of Rockland project. Anna is from Malawi, and goes back and forth between Africa, where her roots are, to Valley Cottage, New York where her immediate family resides. In her words, “I am a Malawian woman, happy to be in America. But as much as I love life here, I have not forgotten my roots, the small village where I come from in northern Malawi. The closeness of family and the importance of community I experienced in Malawi sustains me to this day. I now live in two worlds. One is not better than the other. They’re just different. Don’t ask me to chose, but do give me the space to live fully in both.”
Anna is a wife, mother, friend, sister, development activist, and founder of Maloto, an organization devoted to improving the lives of women and children in northern Malawi. Last year, I was able to travel with Anna to Malawi and see first hand the incredible work she is doing there. I can honestly say she is one of the most extraordinary women I have ever met. With complete dedication, fierce determination and relentless drive, she has helped create the Kwithu Women’s Group which, since 2004, has acquired eight acres of land for agriculture and served over 25,050 meals to local orphans and children; and the Mzuzu Academy, the first internationally accredited secondary boarding school in northern Malawi.
Anna is a woman that went after her dreams and with much hard work is seeing them come to fruition. She is a beautiful picture of strength, fullness of life, warmth and joy. Without a doubt she is a goddess on earth.
