Wambali’s demand for alertness

I am not here to contest that Mte. Wambali Mkandawire is a genius lyrist and composer. But I am here to discuss another dimension of the contents of his music. I happen to have travelled to the north a week ago and coincidentally I was listening to Wambali’s 2002 album Zani Muwone throughout my driving. What struck me was track number two of the album called Ulimbo Na Phula.

The opening instrumentation of the track pulls you down into an emotive corner and when he throws in the well thought of imagery to create a lyrical emotion and social and political construction it makes the track a powerful literature and political musical innovation.

Wambali uses personification of Karonga District to assign qualities of a person to the northern District that borders with Tanzania in order to give it life that describes political authority which if taken with little attention, it can escape the listener’s grasp and who can easily fail to understand it.

Karonga we (You Karonga)

Wadukumala mphaka Kumpoto (are sitting at the northern border)

Karonga we (You Karonga)

Wavungumala kumutu wacharo uko (You are squatting at the head of this country)

Wuli kuvwara zina la ufumu lakuzirwa (You are wearing the name of an important King)

Kweni mwana wako wachari kaporo wachari muzga (But your child is still a slave, still being ridiculed)

The imagery goes on to emphasize Wambali’s point to really help paint a picture in the mind of the listener when he further sings of how many admire Karonga’s wealthy as follows:

Wulikupika vinandi vyakulera wana wako (You have been given plenty, with which to raise your children)

Ng'ombe mchiwaya (Cattle in the ranch) ... zinyama ukutyaura (You eat a lot of meat) ... vyambiko (sower milk)

Kilombero wanunkhira tikuthuta mvuchi pera (The smell of Kilombero (rice) we can only breathe its steam)

Matochi na mijuwa nchipanga cha linga lako (Your walls are built with bananas and sugarcanes)

The song goes on to describe the corruption that happens with Karonga from the other side of the border and further explains what this is doing to the country:

Ndalama zakununa ndizo chawa chikhore wakuguliska wanangwa na ulimbo wakuvuma (Sweet money has become a bait for you to sell your freedom in exchange with birdlime from the East)

Vikwiza m’magaleta ghamarundi ghaulimbo (It comes in chariots with wheels made from birdlime)

Pakwiza vikulilima mumikwara yaphura (they come speeding in tared roads)

Wasoka niyura wakaguliska ulala nandozi ziswesi njala ydzuwa limodza (Woe to the one who sold his birth right for a day’s hunger).

When listening to this song, one is left with a bad aftertaste because it pretty much describes what is happening to this country. It talks of how for a short glory the country has sold its birth right through corruption and mis governance. It decries the falling systems by depicting a picture of Karonga as the whole national system. It is ingenious of Wambali to use personification of one of the country’s border district to describe the whole country. The only crime this particular district committed for it to be used in this imagery is because it took after the name of the King.

The other judiciously approach to this creativity is where he leaves you too much room to conjecture what he might have meant. This is the skill Wambali has used over the years, especially during the rule of the former dictator President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, when artists could be arrested for their work. 

It is therefore towards the end that Wambali throws you into this confusion when he laced the lyrics with religious sprinkles, leaving you guessing what it is all about; a religious or a political song.

He sings:

Mazgo gha kumapopa (Words from the wilderness)

Izani kuno kwafumu (Come to the King)

Pakuti mwenecho dzina wanyamuka wali munthowa (Because the owner of the name is on his way, coming)

Wanyamula lupanga wawuyi kosekose (He is carrying a doubled edged sword)

Wati wause na ndodo na  nthonga yachisuro(He will rule with a cane and an iron rod)

Ntheura nkhumuchenjezgani imwe mose wakaronga(Therefore I warn you all the rulers)

Imwe mukuweruzga charo mwamafumu nazinduna (You who judge the world, Kings and Ministers)

Teweterani mwawofi ndiposo nachitenthe (Serve with fear and apprehension)

Ndipo mupereke ntchindi kwa Karonga wa Karonga (Pay reverence to the King of Kings)

Yesu ndiyo Karonga waku wusa charu chose (Jesus is the King lording over the whole World).