Some bits about Malawi Music Industry I. Has any Malawian invented a Musical Genre?

Strange! One would exclaim. Strange because someone would just decides to call a genre Dub Reggae Poetry or Rhythm and Poetry shortened to RAP and bang! Everybody has no problem with it; others would even start understudying those practising it and start imitating it. San B will come up with his and call it Honjo and Atumwi will call theirs Sendeza. The African Representatives to the 2008 World Music Crossroads festival, the Boys from Mzuzu The Body, Mind and Soul will call theirs Voodoo jazz. Tay Grin, Nyau Music and no one will take them seriously. An internationally acclaimed music guru Alex Combs says prehistoric man started music when he was trying to imitate birds. With the development of writing, music became more refined and crafted instruments like pipes, flutes, basic stringed instruments, and similar tools aided this further as it helped in the creation of harmonies. Combs says the oldest known song is over 4000 years old, written in cuneiform, and uses the diatonic scale but he says further developments created more regional sound, as different technology discoveries in different areas led to unique instruments. He then looks at "classical music" which he says is generally assumed to be the sounds of composers like Bach or Beethoven, it actually refers to any music of this period when music was usually religiously inspired or supported, and usually taught formally as a skill rather than developed through experimentation. Then comes Folk music which he says is generally the sound of the unlearned classes, those that could not write or read and it wa learned orally and often portrayed the concerns of the illiterate class and was usually not supported, but tolerated, by the government and religious leadership.

May before we plunge into actual discussion of creation of music genres perhaps we can look at some kind or style of music that we have and what justification such has over our own locally created genres. There is one called Rhythm and Blues or R nB simply put as popular music with blues themes and a strong rhythm. Then there is Soul that originated from America, which is a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel and rock elements. Around 1950s there emerged Pop cut from popular and this is regarded as the worlds highly successful commercial music. Rock n Roll is another popular dance-music originating around the same period with a heavy beat and often a blues element and its cousin, which was dished loud and with a pounding rhythm settled for the name Rock. Then there is Reggae, which emerged from the West Indies, and it is usually described as a style of music with a strongly accented subsidiary beat; then you have ever heard of disco, which is merely popular dance music with a heavy bass rhythm. Jazz described as rhythmic syncopated or improvised music of Black Americans is another one. At least black people originated most of these but others would not forgive me if I do not mention Country-and-Western, a type of folk music originated by Whites in the southern US. Right here in Africa we have Rhumba from East Africa and Kwasakwasa and Soukous created in DR Congo although with big French influence. In Southern Africa we have Simanjemanje in South Africa and the Zimbabwe beat of the John Chibadura and company while in Zambia Chikokoshi was it and in Malawi lost our kwela to South Africa who now claim it is their genre.

If we are to look at all these genres, would we say they were created from without? I might challenge that no one can prove that these genres were invented independent of the other. This is the reason I will not talk about Hip-hop but would rather talk about the fusion of poetry with any of genres to create different genres. Talk of the creation or reggae instrumentation with poetry perfected by Jamaican based Mutabaruka who now hates his real name Alan Hope and the England based Linton Kwesi Johnson called Dub-Reggae-Poetry. Then there is the fusion of R nB which saw the birth of Rhythm and Poetry RAP. Do I think any of this has influence in the type of genres that out artists are claiming to have originated? Very much so I would commit. When Malawians musicians claim that they have come up with their own genre, are they fair to themselves? Ben Mankhamba has tried to do a fusion of traditional dances with western instruments and called it Beni, Mwinoghe, vimbudza while Lucious has tried to have an Ingoma beat in most of his albums. Wambali Mkandawire has never called what he plays anything else other than African Jazz whatever this means. However the questions that still bothers me is that are our artists truthful to themselves when they claim to own or to have originated a unique genre when there are elements of synthesisers, electric drums, keyboards or saxophones and name them in their music? After all what is African music when most of the worlds genres owe to their birth to African music influence? II. Cultural Void in Malawi Music

The Drumming Pen almost got broken by an academician of the Mzuzu University who felt the pen should have drummed out long time ago that Malawi music cannot make it on the international market unless, it looks at culture as its foundation. The mere mention of this sent my imaginations flying. The main reason this mortal holds this view is not far from anybodys grasp. Question: Why should someone declare that there is a dominance of Zambian music in our airwaves? Answer: It is because how deeply contemporary brothers and sisters across the border can get with their musical creation, it still will not need the wisdom of the late Ngwazi Dr. H Kamuzu Banda to realise it is Zambian music. The same would be said once music by John Chibadura and his compatriots reaches anyones earshot. You have heard or read of CD sleeves, names like that of Ishmael and expected to listen to some Arabic stuff only to be greeted by South African music. While the name may suggest something else, the mere listening to their music will tell you exactly their nationality. The same with Kofi Olomide, Pepe Kale, Kanda Bongoman, Franco Lwambo Makiyadi; these guys have had French compositions and even how French, in terms of quality of the words pronunciation and all, would make you believe they are pure French, but their music alone will betray them as we will easily identify them with DR Congo. Indeed so much has been said about music and those behind it in Malawi. Last time I argued that in the absence of all that constitutes a traditional dance like Vimbuza or Gule wa Mkulu, no contemporary musician can claim to have produced any kind of music that has to be called thus. However, what we are saying is that we are village people, most Africans is; perhaps people of the West as well. I know you have ever heard of a

word Urbanisation meaning the trekking of the people from their villages to subsist at an urban settlement. These people are always armed with a culture; and it is the culture that is reflected in all that they do, in the way they relate with others, marry, cry, speak, sing, die etc. In short, their life is immersed in a culture that speaks so much about them that one would not puzzle over who they are. A Tumbuka person amongst Chewa people will stand out and be known so. This is the case because unintentionally, his or her Tumbuka culture will be on display in the way she or he carries her/his self. Now with the demarcations that led to areas that we now call countries, the more people have lived together and the same people confined within such a particular boundary over a period of time , the more their different tribal, ethnic, religious and all cultures have integrated to form one common culture. If you go to South Africa, you will hear women there, saying they prefer Nyasa men to their own South African men. This shows that as Malawi the Tumbuka, Yao, Lhomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngonde, Senga, Manganja, Nyakyusa, Ngoni, Chewa cultures have blended into one big Malawi culture that has to be noticed whenever we go outside our Malawi boundary. Therefore, not only as people but our products as well once they leave our territory, there should not be any question where they are originating. While we have managed to fuse one Malawian culture in a number of aspects, we seem to have failed to come up with one Malawian music that should be engrossed in a Malawian culture; a music that once heard outside there will be no question where it is from. This is why I started by saying we can recognise the South African music by just listening to it, mind you, South Africa is called a rainbow nation because of diversion of cultures which nonetheless has fused one single South African culture.

The same will be said of DR Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, etc. Since we have not produced plenty players in the world of musical art, the pen keep on drumming out the very same names it once sounded out before. Dr. Daniel Kachamba earned his doctorate from Germany because he played music that spoke volume of Malawi culture, and then later own his brother MacDonald followed the same route. Wambali Mkandawire is one musical artist, a colleague of mine from London requested that I find his music and send it over to him because where they used to access it had run out. What Wambali does is not to call his music Mapenenga; but would fuse an element of the same in his music, every time he releases latest production to make it sound Malawian. If Malawi music has to take the music stage by storm, it needs to have music that has a Malawian cultural background. This music will sell because it will not be competing with any other music. However, if Lucious Banda for example will have a reggae piece Mabala and try to sell it outside Malawi, people will say, wait a minute! This reggae piece is substandard compared to Jamaican production. Do you read my sense? III. Investing in Music Entertainment I have the opportunity to visit Kenya and the words of the fallen first Malawian President Ngwazi Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda that Travelling is a form of education had a ring of resounding truth to me more than any time that I had heard them. More so with the spirit of investing in entertainment in general and music in particular that I have found fascinating here in East Africa.

For some time, the East African Breweries Limited has been carrying out competition for musicians in the Eastern African Region called Tusker Project Fame a reality Television competition, which was at a value of 1 billion Kenyan shillings which is an equivalent of 12.8 million US dollars which is about 1.92 billion kwacha. All this money invested in music, imagine! Now perhaps to give you a clue of what is done let me share with you what I stumbled on here in Nairobi. This East African Breweries Limited on the Sunday of June 26, 2011 launched Tusker All Stars reality Television competition. Now in this one they plan to woo consumers to their newly unveiled new-look Tusker Larger bottle. What this all stars involve is that they have now invited eight former winning participants of the Tusker Project Fame to battle it out in this one Tusker All Stars. These artists include Alpha Rwirangira of Rwanda; and from Kenya there is Davis Ntare, Patricia Kihoro and Ngangalito. Tanzania has also her four participants in Hemedy Suleiman, Peter Msechu, Amileena Mwenesi and Caroline Nabulime. The host of the show is none other than Gaetano Kagwa of the Big Brother Fame. My heart therefore bleeds when the private sector in Malawi always invest towards its marketing drive upside down. Football has been tried enough, but while I am not advocating for a stop in investing in stuff like football I am trying to make the private sector that they are failing to utilise one thing that can boost their products and services. In the case of the East African Breweries Limited, it posted more success than they imagined with the Project fame and they never hesitated after

unveiling the new Tusker brand to take the same musical route to sell the product and at the same time promote music and musicians. What fascinated me is that they never restricted participating artists to a particular genre neither were they compelled to sing about Tusker. Eventually the situation created is a win-win one where both the investor and the music industry and the musicians in particular do benefit tremendously. Business is about daring, sometimes even trading where angels fear to step and apparently music is one aspect of art that no man will tell you do not come in touch with. They might be faithful(s) of any religion or pagans, children or adults, men or women, old or young and even the deaf...cannot be without music. Unlike other areas of investment like in football, for example where other people have not heard of Edison Arantes do Nascimento the all famed Brazilian soccer legend a.k.a Pele no one would never tell you they have never listened to music. Its just so simple to deduce and it is mind boggling when the private sector looks the other way round in this aspect. Obviously, the CEO needs to realise that his or her market team is a sham. You can mention anything, be it a service or a product that you know, and see if it is not linked to music. Now since this is a TV show here it brings me the question of whether or not we are a serious country when political whims are making politicians to decide how many television stations we can have. This to an extent is killing the aspect of creativity and perhaps this is why we do not have project fame that other countries are enjoying. But even in a situation like ours where we only have MBCTV, we still need initiatives and an investing spirit from the private sector.

Try investing in music and ask me later if you would have missed the target.