What OG Issa did to Malawi Music?

OG Issa is the name that is synonymous with music in Malawi. Either our musicians became so rich or so poor because of this name.

At the time that music produced and marketed in Malawi started coming out, is also the same time that this name made headlines all over.

If it was not in the newspapers then it was on radio stations, if not newspapers, in minibuses, churches and even in songs that musicians used to sing.

Both good and bad stories came through with OG Issa running as the sole music distributor.

Some musicians said OG Issa was an exploitative element in the Malawi music industry albeit with no grounds to substantiate such claims. Others said OG Issa needs to get a sky-scraping recognition for making Malawi music what it has become.

Around 1993-94 when they started operating to now 2012 when they have closed their biggest outlet in Limbe we are roughly talking of about 17 to 18 years in assisting musicians in the country on one hand and boosting his business on the other.

Over the years I have discussed about ‘Greedy and Exploitation in the Music Industry’ on these pages as well as how ‘Distributors Steal from Musicians’.

My argument then as is the case now is that Music is supposed to be the most sellable commodity in Malawi but in the case of the local industry those that are reaping the fruits are not musicians themselves.

Before distributors and marketers were the only beneficiaries in the industry, enjoying the fruits which they played little or no part at all to produce.

They took advantage of the talented and poverty stricken musicians who would bring hot music but had no idea how they could profit out of it and instead what musicians have profited out of such venture is a mere fleeting fame.

Based on my assessment, the 95 percent lion’s share the distributor used to get out of an artist’s music and since there were devoid of bargaining power, they just accepted to be milked without protest.

Now if you look at this kind of share and how much music marketing dealers used to flock to OG Issa you can tell how much money one can make in a period of 18 years.

Unlike government, investors have a time frame within which they are going to operate by investing, market the investment, make profits and head elsewhere, perforated and hissing out smell of money.

If government which has tried to surrender some such businesses by way of privatisation can put in place regulatory means, there is no way someone would just come from the blues, use a bait and throw in a line and once he catches the kind of fish desired, they leave and go.

OG Issa used to be a major music distributor in the country especially at its Limbe shop, which used to carter for the rural areas where local dealers would come and buy music in large numbers.

The reasons that owner Salim Sattar gave in necessitating closure still does not make sense. This is perhaps the case because out of music, Sattar has created many business ventures and because he now cared less about the fate of industry, what he had reaped had satisfied him and what happened to the musician out there never bore any interest in his world of profit making.

This is why along the way it became to be known as ‘OG Issa Group of Companies' and the music section was now referred to as ‘Afri Music Distributors’.

Music gurus are saying distributors are now failing to make obscene profits they have enjoyed over the years because artists have resorted to selling their own music as they are desperately trying to deal with issues piracy which has robbed of their would have been wealth.

O.G Issa has had a share of controversies, remember when Lawrence Mbenjere stopped selling his music through Afri Music after being tipped that the company was allegedly swindling local artists' money through the selling of more tape covers than those initially agreed upon.

This was also the case with late Evison Matafale who was so angry that he broke the counter at the Limbe Shop.

The company acknowledged of bad blood with Mbenjere and at the height of their bitter working relationship it returned to Mbenjere stock of tape covers for his 11 albums amounting to 25 485 copies, a figure that translated to a sum of K637 125.

This only changed when the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOC) to resume distributing and selling of his music.

Afri Music's manager Staneck Kulemero told the media at the time that everything would be conducted in a very transparent manner where every detail of their deals will be perfectly documented using a high-tech computer system that will be tallying the tape covers artists bring to the distributor against those that are sold before they can order more from him.

But before this came into effect OG Issa closed. What happened?

Unwarranted attacks on Kuimba 11

There seems to be people in this country who just love to hate. And if there is one grouping that has grown thick skin because of endless attacks on their works then it is the reggae outfit from Chileka, the Black Missionaries.

The past few weeks we have seen people from all callings including some from the media and even from the music industry picking on the four tracks that the Black Missionaries, fondly called Mablacks, has released in readiness of their ultimate issuing of Kuimba 11 album.

The tracks released on Friday April 20, 2018 include Zofuna Mtima Wanga, Umboni, Special Lover and Mbusa and like is the case every time they are about to release an album the noise is always deafening.

Several reasons could explain the source of such noise. One is because people in this country are always envious of those that they think are doing well. Be it in politics, business, religion, soccer and even witchcraft those that excel will be called names.

Come to think of it, before everyone has been trying to compare the current Black Missionaries of Anjiru, Chizondi and Peter to the one led by Evison, and Musamude. The comparison has always favoured the fallen band members.

And yet what is funny is that even when Evison Matafale and Musamude Fumulani were there, the three were around as well. In fact most of the tracks that we think were the best then, were composed by the very same people we now vilify.

If you ask me, even when Evison or Musamude were to be around, the same people who claim that the current Mablacks is failing, would still have faulted them.

You know why I know so? It is happening to Lucius Banda who has been there long before the Black Missionaries. Every other time Lucius releases an album people condemn it saying Son of the Poor Man was the best.

Our challenge as a people is always to think that what we are familiar with from our past is the best. You can just hear old ones boasting that they had the best childhood unlike the current youth who are corrupted by the video games and smart phones.

What is funny though is that how could they compare themselves to the current youth when all their playtime was dominated by imitating a hyena or creating cray car toys?

The same is happening to music. These old-cray-toy-car-making-youths cannot like the same kind of music that the present smartphone youth root for.

People ought to live with the fact that times are changing and therefore even music won’t remain static; it will keep being transform to suit the modern ear.

I am saying all this if the argument is that Mablacks are no longer sounding like before. I however strongly believe that this would be a lie because Mablacks have not changed their mission. Their music would still make Matafale and Musamude proud, knowing that they are indeed perpetuating the mission.

Hello! Please give it to the Blacks. We are talking of eleventh album. May be you are not aware, Matafale only managed Kuimba 2 with the Black Missionaries having done Kuimba 1 with the Wailing Brothers. Mablacks have then gone ahead to release nine more albums on their own.

When Musamude was passing on, he had just finished recording Kuimba 6 with his younger brothers and they are now doing a fifth album after his demise.

How many bands have died for various reasons? The question should be what has made the Black Missionaries tick and continue releasing one album after the other not to mention their hard work on the road when others have fallen by the wayside?

There are many factors before one has to consider before attacking the band.

They have selflessly tried their best to serve this country musically.

It’s also our choice as consumers to go for those that we think are doing the best music that pleases us. The least we can do if we do not like the Black Missionaries is to keep quiet and let them be.

Is Wailing Brothers already wobbling?

Granted, I might be jumping the gun. But I dare conclude that the reggae band, the Wailing Brothers, is already wobbling just a few months after its revival.

The promise looked full when siblings, drummer and lead guitarist Paul and Takudziwani Chokani respectively, left yet another reggae group Black Missionaries to breathe life into a Wailing Brothers that dripped into comatose immediately after its pioneer the siblings elder brother Elias passed on.

The band, which started long before The Blacks, tried to copy what bands with clout and most considered successful going by round the clock, round the year countrywide shows do. But it looks like Wailing Brothers has run out of steam long before they even started in earnest what their competitors have done for years.

The bands that quickly come to mind are of course The Blacks, Lucius Banda’s Zembani Band, Alleluya Band etc. Zembani has also reduced its live performances ever since boss Lucius Banda went back to parliament.

Without studying the ‘travelogue’ used by these bands it was all clear that not even the single album in the bag would save the situation for Wailing Brothers.

Not that the album is bad and could not carry them through, but perhaps there is a better explanation to explicate their absence.

Listening to Wailing Brothers’ maiden album rightly named – ‘Unfinished Project’ you realise that it doesn’t even waste time to get down to business with the opening track ‘Mwatero ndi Inu’ which I describe as a loaded dice. It’s so allegorical, reminiscent of compositions of their first known leader Evison Matafale – not that I am disregarding the fact that the band was started by Elias.

This tracks leaves you with so many questions whose answers are in the chorus – ‘It is as you say’. 

This particular track, like the rest that have been led on vocals by Chikumbutso Simbi, is a revelation of more than one thing; the sibling band leadership of the Chokani brothers has realised their deficiencies in delivering vocal output. I might speculate that this is perhaps the reason they had Matafale in the initial stages.

My observation is not without proof as it has been rightly represented in the tracks that Taku is on vocals which clearly show that God did not provide him with the gift of voice when He bequeathed him with the skilful manner he puts on display when given a lead guitar.

In the track ‘Afritune’ the band has been very naughty with experiment where they play African drums that have been well intertwined with reggae elements coming up with a piece of work oozing refined creativity.  There could never have been any better way to pay their tribute to their fallen brothers and cousins in Elias and Luis, Gift and Musamude Fumulani and of course Matafale, than in the ‘Afritune’.  

The track does not demand stringent vocal levels that separate the novice from the elite. It has therefore suited the voices of its lead vocalists Taku and Paul.

‘Levi’ is a track which like ‘Mwatero ndi Inu’ is serious minded reggae track. This is the album’s other best, done by Chiku on the vocals and also inclined towards religious, or is it spiritual foundation. The flair with which the works of ‘Unfinished Project’ has been appropriated is easily noticed in these tracks.

Those who faulted the revival of Wailing Brothers missed it. I still maintain that we really needed a different voice of reggae in the industry.

This is a superlative variety; I would hate to call it an alternative to productions by Black Missionaries because to do so will be playing into the hands of those who are chanting that music is a mission and not competition in reference to the departure from the Blacks by Paul and Taku to reawaken Wailing Brothers.

“Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’, the highly promoted track in the album is a mixture of the complicated and the simple and not so complicated vocal pitch arrangement. 

Of course the mistake has come about with the inclusion of this complicated vocal counter which clearly shows that it does not suit Taku’s natural vocal strength. Even the best instrumentation that goes with this track is failing to conceal this vocal inadequacy. When you have the opportunity to listen to the track especially when being performed live, you will get the perfect opportunity to appreciate my observation.

But the vocals on the ‘I Love My Guitar’ piece have progression that tells us all but one thing; that there is still need of a great deal of improvement. The title of the track is in a way a telling testament that Taku better show his love for the guitar by somehow sticking to it more than his attempt on lead vocals.

Those that are true lovers of music in general, and ardent reggae listeners in particular, will doff their hats off for this particular album.

This is one of the few best reggae albums in Malawi but nevertheless it tells us that Wailing Brothers music mission is an incomplete project that needs to be perpetuated not finished.

But with their disappearance, will they indeed perpetuate the project?

Evison Matafale: 12 Years Later

Malawi’s controversial reggae maestro Evison Matafale died on November 27 in 2002. On Friday next week it will be exactly 12 years after he passed on to our ancestors.

Just like in his life, Matafale has lived up to his billing in death as an enigma that still leaves you with many unanswered questions.

Before he came on the musical scene, Malawians never took anyone playing reggae seriously. But when the Rasta musician came on the scene with his first Album KUIMBA 1 in 1998 people started paying attention.

Fate only allowed him a second album, Kuimba 2 that epitomized his Rasta mission and whose voluminous potency each and every single Malawian talked about, and to rightly cap it, he did it with a band he called The Black Missionaries.

Now all you need to do is patronise any Black Missionaries show and you will appreciate the kind of influence that Matafale left behind. His legacy still remains unparalleled because when his music is still played everyone stops a bit, to pay attention. 

So far, Matafale is the only musician in Malawi to achieve a considerable stature by using a type of reggae whose fibrous lyrical content and vocal output has been so appearing to any normal conscience.

His mysterious death in the wee hours of Nov 27 2002 at the age of 33 found that he had established himself already as a fastidious equal rights fighter, who like another Jamaican reggae legend Peter Tosh, had a personality and songs whose lyrical contents carried unquenchable sense of fury, cynicism, irony and of both a poetic and direct nature.

Like before on the very pages, I still say that Malawi government claims Matafale died of natural causes, when he passed on to our progenitors while under the police custody; He was arrested for penning down a letter to the then state President Bakili Muluzi which the government described treasonous, defamatory and a tirade.

Popular pressure left government no space and the president was forced to institute investigations, which were to be carried out by a Human Rights Commission besides another presidential commission.

Strangely, five months later, the two commissions came out with two identical reports, claiming Matafale died a natural death despite the fact that the autopsy showed he was badly beaten and clubbed while in police custody.

The pathologist described his death as having been caused by ‘traumatic injuries’. One of the then famous local Newspaper columnists the late JIKA NKOLOKOSA described the out-come of both inquiries as having been concluded from a bizarre logic.

The columnist wrote in one of his Malawi News column and I quote. “Both inquiries concluded that he (Matafale) died of natural causes. In short, Matafale was ill when the police arrested him and anything they did to him in custody could not be blamed for his death; he was ill and was going to die anyway.

On the strength of this bizarre logic, the police cannot be held responsible for Matafale’s death. Consequently, nobody should take the rap of his death.” End of quote.

The dust seem to have settled, in the hearts of the masses, a belief still lingers, rumour is still milling that the government killed Matafale, but clouded and in the process hidden the truth, which 12 years down the road is yet to be unveiled.

To prove that he had more than a musical and spiritual prodigy Matafale, released a track just five day after the 11^th September American ferocious disaster in which he described it as fulfilment of the prophecy. He called this track ‘TIME MARK’.

In his ‘Time Mark’ he refers to the terrorists as a ‘Whip’ used by God to punish the world. And there is no way a whip can claim victory and overtake the authority of the one using it.

In part the ‘Time Mark’ goes; “It’s everybody’s concern, just by the name of building World Trade centre; more over who will tell me, which Nation on earth does not have its people in America.

Now hear Rasta word, despise it buy hey! Devine piece of advice, This mysterious fall was long dreamt already by King Nebuchadnezzar and I am Rasta Daniel, And I am only here to finish up the revelation, The World of Today, Made up of Iron and Clay, this Kingdom is never to last.”

Commenting on the radio chart show regarding the abundance of his talents and composing skills, Matafale played it modesty again, saying he never sat down and composed songs but believed God just used to give him, he said it was the reason he never denied when people called him a prophet.

“This talent is God’s work…I do not think I sit down and compose music, I just receive it, as of now I’ve got too much of it to sing…” he seemed wrongly envisioning before recollecting it prophetically “If God gives me this lot of work, yet the world system is to record an album, may be ten songs every year; that’s why we say Rasta will live forever, because we shall always sing this music which God want us to sing; even in the new kingdom we gonna be singing.”

Now for twelve years Matafale is still singing in Zion.