Crimes of Lucius Banda

The 19th Album of Lucius Banda is reminiscent of an artist who genuinely stood for the people and ended up branding himself the soldier of the poor until Bakili Muluzi happened.

Rightly called ‘Crimes’ this is where he is taking Government to task exactly the same way he used to do with the Government of the first multiparty President Bakili Muluzi. While everyone was clapping hands for Lucius for speaking on their behalf, like a bolt from the blues, he made a U-turn and befriended Muluzi after a special invitation to the kingly walls.

From there onwards, the masses never recognized their soldier anymore. He was reduced to a hand clapper for Muluzi and even went ahead to compose a track Yellow which helped to usher in Muluzi’s successor Bingu wa Mutharika.

As Mutharika dumped Muluzi so Lucius showed his loyalty by standing beside him, something that led to his imprisonment.

As things are at the moment, while his political party, the United Democratic Front decided to become the ruling Democratic Progressive Party bed fellow, Lucius never joined the band wagon and has realized the true colour of politicians, although he is a politician himself.

At the risk of causing debate I would argue that Crimes is an album packed with Lucius Banda’s undertones and frustrations over what has not become of his political career.

And listening to Crimes, it is a typical Lucius Banda album which has a predictable structure. The title tracks for his albums are always a Jamaican modelled dub-reggae poetry beat which he transforms into spoken word production over a Nyambinghi rhythm.

Kulila kwa amphawi just like Chako is a political outcry indeed speaking for the people as was the case then. And there is also Zithumwa which he presents in form of a letter to his uncle which is a sequel to the last two letters the other one collaborated with Thomas Chibade.

Then there are always wedding songs these days. People hire him to produce songs for their weddings and these ones lately find their way into his albums. In this particular project there are two; Andimvetsa Sugar and Tiye.

Whereas in the last albums which he produced when Muluzi was his hero the tracks carried messages of hero worship, now in Crimes, just like the Lucius of the old, there are tracks with implicit messages like Chida cha mtendere.

He however clearly direct his attacks on the leadership in the track Chako where he equates the current national scenario to a Biblical story of King Solomon.

This is when two women were fighting over a living child after one had lost hers and wanted King Solomon to decide the real mother. As the story goes the king proposed to cut the baby in halves where the real mother protested while the one who apparently had lost her child wanted the baby to indeed be cut into two.

In reflection Lucius thinks the leadership is not patriotic enough because they do not belong to Malawi and are behaving like that bad woman. They are on the course to destroy the country because they are set to leave to their respective countries once everything has been damaged since some have green cards.

Remember his promise to be producing tracks like Zulu woman I think in Kuyenda ngati nkhunda, which is a traditional Champweteka chimanga beat which is produced by an expert of such beat Sonyezo, Lucius has ably just killed it.

Like has been the norm Limbikila mwanawe is a piece of advice to his child and this and the rest of the tracks in Crimes have been complement by two Gospel tracks Nkokoma  and Siliva ndi golide to complete a model of Lucius Banda’s album.

The only difference in this album’s structure is the track Touch Me which is a sexual track that would require parental guidance if played within the earshot of those below 18.

At the end of the day, it’s not up to me to judge Crimes as holding a genuine sway over the followers of Lucius as was the case before. I am talking about this in terms of Lucius’ sincerity. But if you ask me I would only say: Once bitten, twice shy!