The name
Dorothy Shonga rings no bell to music followers in this country. It is because
unlike Kell Kay, Tay Grin, Macelba, Janta, Suffix and Boy Hidden, there is
nothing musical attached to it.
However, this
lady has responded in proactive manner than Government officials by funding a
musical production project to a tune of more than K3million to produce a song
against havoc causing Coronavirus which has encouraging message to the people,
currently in distraught.
With her
generosity, she has managed to pool together all those artists mentioned above
to come up with a tune they are calling Tigonjetse Corona which was
released this week.
For long, I
have written on these pages to try to interest government with music.
I have shouted myself
hoarse just to at least convince Government to introduce music entrepreneurial courses
into our technical colleges through Teveta. Apparently, everyone in this country
is busy with politicking. Its sad that be it those involved with Tevet system or
music leaders are busy licking political boots while those doing politics are
busy lining up their pockets at the expense of the need.
It is the same
case with the efforts to fight the Coronavirus. There is too much politics that
even the managing of the pandemic has been overtaken by political buffoonery
where the Health Minister Jappie Mhango, ICT Minister Mark Botomani and
Homeland Security Minister Nicholas Dausi now think it is a political show-off
oral treatise that leaves Malawians with more questions than answers.
It is because
of Malawi’s political clowning that the crucial players in these efforts to
fight Coronavirus using other effecting means have been left out.
The Government
is busy bribing the Malawi Defence Force and the Malawi Police with money
within the very political stratagem clearly exposing ulterior motives other
than effecting the cause to a just fight against the pandemic, leaving out the
most important aspects of the whole scheme against Covid-19.
This is why
they have left out the musical artists. At least local Hip-hop artists Phyzix
funded his own project to do a Coronavirus song, and so is Unicef which
supported dancehall artist Sangie to do one.
I cannot
emphasise enough on the importance of embarking on a mission to support several
musicians to produce songs that will carry Coronavirus messages.
I know the
politicians think drama is the best, but one thing with Covid-19 is that it is
discouraging social proximity, which means those acting would have already
defeated the aspect of social distance.
With music it
would be a totally different case. It is possible to enter the studio, one
person at a time to record a collaborative song, carrying important messages on
the pandemic like the said track supported by Dorothy Shonga that I talked
about.
One drawback
though is that the video for the track, shows that the artists were very close
and failed to observe social distance during the studio session. But this
should not take us off the subject matter.
For once, I
hope the ministry of sports and culture, that looks after the music artists, would
really ensure that it also plays a role in the fight against Coronavirus by
ensuring that it avails resources that can be used to produce audio and video
pieces that can help in this war against Covid-19.
The good thing
is that the fact that one of the crucial messages is encouraging people to stay
at home, what it means is that if they are not glued to their radios then their
eyes cannot be taken off their screens. What a better way of encouraging them
to listen and watch artists they are familiar with.
If these Government
officials have a hindsight in being proactive, they would by now, have crammed
the airwaves with such music that even calling for a lockdown would have been a
stroll in the park.
For once, can
those that are serving us in government stop the political buffoonery and work
for the better of the lives of the people?
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