When Chaponda enlists Nkasa

If Joseph Nkasa was sent by former Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda to douse fires currently burning down his political career, then his decision to take the offer has aggravated his dying musical vocation.

Conversely, if Joseph Nkasa decided to make money by singing about Chaponda’s predicament without his acquiescence then he needs to immeasurably apologise to the politician because this has done him more harm than good.

To keep you in the loop, Joseph Nkasa, the once-upon-a time befitting ‘Phungu’ has produced a song that intends to spruce up the image of Chaponda who has been embroidered in maize transactions that have been bedeviled by claims of corruption.

In the song, Nkasa equates Chaponda to Joseph, one of the 12 sons of the Biblical Jacob who became a de facto ruler in Egypt after being sold there by his brothers due to his closeness to their father.

He further claims that Chaponda is paying for his mercifulness to help the hunger-stricken and that people are trying to make him lose ‘his ministry’.

Nkasa declares in the song that the stones that have been thrown at Chaponda with will accumulate to his advantage as he will use them to build a house which will make him the landlord.

In all this, the meaning is that Chaponda will use the ridicule currently peddled about his involvement in the maize saga to become the leader of this country.

Anyway, my intentions are not to get the meaning out of this song, but to describe the artist Nkasa who has been dubbed as the master lyricist who ingeniously uses metaphors and innuendos to craft his songs.

Of course, Nkasa came on the musical scene in the late 90 but it was in the early-to-mid 2000 that he hogged the limelight with the production of his Wayenda Wapenga toils.

When he materialised again with an album that had tracks like Zosayina-sayina the acceptance of lyrical packed songs was overwhelming that apart from huge sales in 2003 he got over K1 million in Mechanical, Public Performance and Broadcasting Royalties from the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma).

This was a huge amount of money at the time and it made him go bananas as he went on a spending spree buying property including cars.

By the time he got another cheque from Cosoma in 2009 which was close to K600 thousand, he had still not learnt a lesson on how best to manage resources.

To show that his popularity has waned, in the December 29 2009 Cosoma pay out, it was Lawrence Mbenjere who set a new record when he became the first musician to cart home money in excess of over K2.5 million in royalties.

Nkasa’s hunt for money has led him to many places. But all this has not brought as much money as he wants.

In between though, he started toying with politicians.

He did a track for the president late Bingu wa Mutharika called Mose wa lero.

Nkasa has always claimed never to have received ‘enough’ money with the hit single. But this remains disputable because he has now gone to bed with different politicians for the sake of money.

While I can neither accuse Nkasa for his lack of ethical sense nor the politicians for taking any routes to seek vain glory, one thing that is clearly standing out is that Joseph Nkasa does not believe in what he sings.

It is, therefore, very difficult for Malawians to even believe in whatever messages his tracks contain; otherwise his message remains a mockery to voters. Imagine if one listens to both the Katsonga tracks and the JB song, would they really make a position based on Nkasa’s position? n