Entertainment from nothing

I was unreservedly impressed with the spirit of Ndirande youth who last Sunday organised what they called Reggae Summer Jam. This was a free musical show that took place at the Ndirande Hall, right in the heart of Ndirande's trading expanse within the premises of the area's health facility.

Of course the whole arrangement could not be described as flawless. There were challenges with punctuality as well as the sound quality which kept on bogging down progress.

For long we have always thought we need a great deal of money to package and deliver entertainment. But last Sunday it showed us that many factors that are usually struck out as not important can sometimes make things happen.

I know that when bands or musicians are about to stage some musical performances the talk always revolves around money - money in and money out.

This could be the case as there are different levels of class and standard that also tell a story about the kind of organisation we are talking about.

It goes down to the issue of quality which means heavy investment or vigorous marketing that should involve many corporate firms. This in the past has shown that it helps things to happen and avoids the maxim 'garbage in, garbage out!'

There is something that also happens with free shows. One would say quality is always compromised as at the back of the minds of the organisers, the word 'free' rings piercingly loud.

However with the Ndirande youth, the sound output was okay on larger scale save for misbehaving cords and microphones that had to be replaced time and again.

Now the reason I was impressed with the will to achieve something by the young ones is something that lacks and consequently comes short to achieving greatness in the industry.

With this spirit, the music industry can manage to put together the structures that that have eluded it for long. The reason has always been that there is no money.

The Ndirande Youth showed that where there is a will there is a way. At the moment the music industry is stagnating because the players are expecting a miracle to happen.

No one is pushing so that things can take a motion towards somewhere that will become profitable for all the players.

At the moment, there is no market for the Malawi music. There is no royalty system that should put something in the pocket of musicians even at a time when they are down and the flow of income has stopped.

There is no music label of meaningful effect that can be able to translate the sweat of musicians into sweet. Those that are running the show at the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) and the Musicians Union of Malawi (MUM) will pat themselves at their backs that they are doing a great deal for the arts and music industry in the country.

On the other hand musicians keep on crying that there is nothing that is happening on the ground. To drive their point home, they will show you how they are being stripped off the little they hoped to gain from their toils in form of piracy.

Now my point is, the Ndirande youths that I am talking about, did not wait for someone to tell them to organise a kind of show that they put out last Sunday.

Their will drove them to take those gigantic steps and it happened. 

Performances went on up to around to 7PM.

Now the disgruntlement that is being expressed all the time by the local musicians that things are continuously going south when they should have been at par with some markets on the international stage where musicians are respected due to what their output accrues, should stop.

Musicians in Malawi have to put together the structure by themselves only if they will to do so.