Laughing at Msati Mseke

Patience Namadingo has once again proven that he is the master of creativity with his latest ‘Msati Mseke’. 

The video and audio of the track is top notch especially in the way he fused the Gulewamkulu, Beni and Malipenga dances.

Most of the musicians and poets that we have in this country will try to rhyme just to fulfill the assonance requirement but when you hear Namadingo give you words that end the same like matope, nkhope, atope, alape, afupe, pampope in the verse he is depicting the Nyau dancers, you realise he took his time.

And to prove that the first same sounding verse is not a fluke he does the same in the other two subsequent verses like one where Beni dancers exhibit the dance’s trademark steps by stitching words like asilikali, phuli-phuli, cham’mbali, liri-liri, mliri, ambiri.

When Namadingo first appeared on the music scene, the gospel music scene to be specific, he was just like any other gospel artist save for his unique voice. 

But in his latest offering, it appears that Namadingo has dug deep into his creative bank to dish out something different. The gospel in his music is nicely woven in stark creativeness and entertainment.

Of course the track says we should not laugh at the performers but the shooting of the video is exactly eliciting this aspect of making one laugh at the production.

Why should one pretend to dance with the Nyau dancers while strumming the guitar. If indeed he wanted to be part of the act he should have done better.

The quality picture, production in general and even the dancing by the performers of the three traditional dancers that are captured in the video clearly shows that this is something that was planned well ahead of the production.

But when you start seeing something like this then you start thinking about the way we plan for our video productions. It goes down to concept development and how involved the producers of the same, are attuned to the production work in hand.

Sometimes a whole beautiful work that has been done 95 percent with perfection can lose its standing because of a small mistake that has been created because of poor production planning.

Otherwise, much as everyone else is talking about the Msati Mseke video because of its uniqueness in innovation and class that aspect has robbed its credit.

Not that what I am demanding is to have it redone but just to point what I think should be done.