On MUM awards, tale of two Anglican choirs
Good people, ‘mum’ stopped denoting ‘quietness’ the day local musicians formed a union.
Musicians Union of Malawi (MUM) talks generously and acts negligibly.
However, the wagging tongues safer keeping mum were back on song this week.
MUM Music Awards (Muma) will soon be back bigger and better, they say.
The gig ends here!
This cliched hullabaloo keeps haunting music lovers when MUM executives go distributing ‘awards’ to wrong hands.
They are not awards, but handouts.
The reggae handouts that went to misfits such as Symon and Kendall. Jah Rastafari!
The handouts that went to UK-trained Tiwonge Hango, the Best Up-and-Coming Artist who won the six-nation Music Crossroads Competition in 2006 with Tikhu Band. Grow up, pal!
The handouts that recognise one-hit wonders with no memorable album in 20 years as the very best of the best. Oldies are not hits.
The handouts that mirror MUM politics instead of conferring status on deserving musicians.
But the volunteers in MUM leaders love music.
In fact, Rev. Chimwemwe Mhango so loved it that he declined a transfer from Lilongwe to Mzimba partly because he heads the national body.
This love must translate into total intolerance to mediocrity, an unwavering return to standards for his stint in the beloved seat to be remembered as a game-changer.
Signs of favouritism and cluelessness at MUM aren’t tolerable.
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Ooops!
Good people, Ndirande Anglican Voices are trendsetters.
When they dropped the hit Ndasayina over 10 years ago, nearly all Anglican choirs started singing like them.
The latest sound-alike is Nawonso ndi Anthu, which breaks the silence on discriminatory killings of people with albinism.
The tune is trending on the social media, with some mistaking it for Ndirande Anglican Voices.
Forget the good ole Anglican tone.
Chiwamba urges artists must join in the war on evil attacks of people with albinism.
“Our friends with albinism are people like us. Surprisingly, the response to the bloody attacks has been lukewarm. Would we have kept quiet if the killings targeted you and I or our children?” he asked.
People with unique skin pigment are not different species.
Fortunately, it was easy for Chiwamba to rope in his brother Robert, a crowd-pulling poet since his days at Chancellor College in Zomba. Gospel singer Allan Chirwa weighed in too.
Just like that, the hitherto unknown choir from Balaka not only awakens the silent majority that seem to see nothing wrong with the targeted bloodletting.
It also offers a great lesson to loudmouths in the civil society on how to convince Malawians that ‘minority rights’ are no catchphrase for neutralising the heated debate over same sex marriages.
“Artists are influential voices of change. When they speak against evil, people do as they say. Let’s confront evil without looking at the colour of the victims’ skins,” Chiwamba implores.
You cannot put it better.n
