17 years serving students with beer

New faces enroll at the University of Malawi’s Polytechnic every year, to graduate after four or five years, depending on their programme of study.

But Nixon Nyambo has been at the campus for 17 years. He is neither a student nor a lecturer, his purpose lies in the business that takes place in a small building located between hostels and classrooms.

This small building usually plays loud music and the students that patronise it also make noise. It is the students’ bottle store, popularly known as Students Common Room among the students community. And Nyambo works there as a barman.

Among the students in the common room, Nyambo is fondly called Kanu because, the students say, he resembles Nigerian footballer Nwakwo Kanu.

He joined the Polytechnic as a barman in 1996.

“At that time, I was working at Club Soul City at Mapanga along the Limbe-Zomba Road. One day, Polytechnic students were returning from a trip to Zomba. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for me, their bus broke down just close to the club I was working as barman,” explains Nyambo.

He says the stranded students invaded the bottlestore to buy beer and dance to some music.

According to Nyambo, among the students who entered the pub were two ladies.

“These two female students asked me if I would be interested to work at the Polytechnic as a barman in the students’ common room. The two had just won a tender to run the bottlestore and were looking for a barman,” he recalls.

At the Polytechnic, the bottle store, hair salon, tuck shop and barbershop are run by students who go through a bidding process handled by the Polytechnic Students Union (PSU).

Nyambo did not hesitate but to say yes to the ladies’ offer. A week later, he arrived at the Polytechnic campus to start serving the students with beer. He recalls that at that time, the common room was using radio cassettes to play music.

“I have served many students who have graduated and some of them are now well-known in society. I am proud to identify such people when I read about them in the newspapers, people like Dr Matthews Mtumbuka who graduated while I was here,” he says.

The bar tender, who comes from Hawuya Village, Traditional Authority Phambala in Ntcheu, says his first experience at Polytechnic was not all rosy. He says drunken students would threaten him and sometimes even beat him up as they demanded free beer.

“I had a hard time with unruly students. Some beat me and went away with beer,” Nyambo recalls.

He says one thing that he found interesting was that the students were responsible in terms of managing their time.

“At first, I was wondering why a school has a bottle store because my understanding was that students are prohibited from drinking beer as is the case with secondary schools.

“However, I realised that many university students here are good at time management. They usually patronise the pub when they are free. When they are under academic pressure, you hardly see them drinking,” he says.

However, Nyambo laments that the students’ pub is not gender receptive.

“Very few female students patronise this place. But every student is allowed to come and enjoy beer here regardless of gender. I think many ladies are shy and afraid to drink here because they fear they can be sexually harassed by men. As such, most ladies would rather drink in their hostels,” says Nyambo.

When he started the job, Nyambo was single. But now he is married and has four children. He says through his job, he is able to look after his family.

Asked on the difference between students in those early years and now, Nyambo says the current crop of students rarely buys beer.

“In the past, most students had a lot of money. I do not know whether their parents gave them too much pocket money or if it was the university allowances. But students these days do not seem to have much money to spend on beer,” he says.

On his future plans, Nyambo eyes the day he will have his own bottlestore.

“Over the years that I have been serving as a bartender, I have gained enough experience to run a pub. But the problem is that I don’t have the capital to start off my own business,” says Nyambo.