It’s your turn: evaluate, rate our journtainment
This year, 2022; this month, March; this column turns 10 years.
To celebrate this month, we are asking you to evaluate us and rate us. Your candid rubbishing and flattering comments, evaluations, and ratings will be put together for next week’s edition. And they might spill over to the following week’s edition.
To access past editions, kindly go to Bottom Up https://www.mwnation.com/author/levi-zeleza-manda/ and Bottom up Extra http://levimanda.blogspot.com/.
Since 2012 is a long time ago, we are pleased to give a brief history of Bottom Up.
We were challenged by the editors of the Weekend Nation in 2012 to come up with something that would be hilarious, educative, informative, and journalistic in 500 to 700 words, basi. Tough assignment. Yes?
So, we came up with the idea of a historico-ecotourism narrative entertainment journalism output. We had to form a team. An expedition. A delegation. And a leadership structure.
That is how Al Hajj Jean-Philippe LePoisson, SC and Malawi’s only Mohashoi were born. The latter became the leader of delegation by default because he knew the country well.
On our travels, we recruited Innocett Mawayawaya from Facebookland; Native Authority Mandela and Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66 from the now-closed “Monkey Bay PTC”; and Nganga Maigwaigwa from Cartoonland. Abiti Joyce Befu is now the leader of delegation and her official titles are: Genuine Prof. Dr Joyce Befu, MG 66, MEGA-1, Unimpeachable and Indefatigable Leader of Delegation.
Bottom Up wanted readers to laugh about the “truths” and facts we found as we travelled all over Malawi. And we found many. We were puzzled how people could steal tractors and maize shellers! We could understand the stealing of money. But tractors and maize shellers? That qualified our estate for entry into the Guinness Book of Records. And we run a campaign that forced parliament to force government, through the Ombudsman, to investigate what happened. The report is damning but not punishing enough.
We mingled with locals in Lilongwe to find out what they felt about Cashgate. The answer? ‘At least money flowed even to us the poor’. In short, the pipo thought Cashgate was good because the Cashgatists shared their loot with the underprivileged while the other ‘gatists’ ate alone.
We later travelled to the United States of Mulanje and Thyolo, the National Archives in the Republic Gymnkhana, and in a foreign country called Internet Online. We stayed there and learned that actually our revered John Chilembwe was not killed by White colonialists.
It was Kaduya and others that shot him as he attempted to run away into present-day Mozambique. Kaduya and his team sacrificed John Chilembwe for 20 British Pounds (of 2015). The figure looks small today, but in purchasing power, Kaduya and his team pocketed about £12 294.64 or K13 million. How many of us would not betray a national for that money? Our forthright, honest leader of delegation, says we would accept the money. After all, money is scarce while leaders are easy to replace.
After identifying Chilembwe’s body in the court in Mulanje, Kaduya and his team forgot to even follow up on the disposal of Chilembwe’s body. All that because of 20 pieces of silver. Nobody to date knows where John Chilembwe was buried.
We once travelled to the Republic of Utonga where we learned that while British Massacre of locals protesting the detention of their political leaders was correct, their burial place had no bodies, or remains of bodies. Where were the murdered protesters buried?
This idea of people laughing at journalistically written facts was termed journtainment. The precursors to our journtainment genre include education and entertainment (edutainment), information and entertainment (infotainment), politics and entertainment (politainment), and funtainment (funeral and entertainment)? The way pastors conduct the services at funerals is fun. Isn’t it?
Should we change course? Should change content? Should we change writing style? Should we stop altogether? A vous de proposer.
