Tim Cowley is originally from the United States but lived in Malawi from 2003-2008 and has been in Mozambique since 2008. He lives among the Yao people and has spent extensive time researching the culture and language of the Yao people.

As a photographer, videographer, writer and website developer (including the creation of Chiyao.org / Ciyawo.org, aka "The I Am Yawo Project"), he has extensive knowledge, though very limited as a cultural outsider, to historically and culturally significant aspects of Malawian and Mozambican life as it relates mainly to the Yao Muslim peoples.