We need a new art. An art that addresses the Malawian situation, an art that addresses politics in a personal way. The personal is political and the arts need to reflect that. We need to enetertain as well as educate, and we need to do that in a thoroughly political way. Elections are coming, our national wealth is being stolen, and politicians are lying like there is a premium for it (probably there is, looking at Cashgate). We need to connect the personal to the political. Mr Chitsulo explained what matters on the ground (mwnation/seriously-matters-malawi/) The arts that reach most pople, and thius are politically most relevant are going through the radio, as radio penetration reaches even remote villages. That means music, and radio drama. They are excellent vehicles for our messages: the lyrics of the music, and the content of the drama is easily understandable. We can be very explicit like Ben Mankhamba in “Cashgate”, but the strongest messages are implicit. As Mr Chitsulo outlined the 6 most important issues for the population are • Food security • Health care • Access to portable water • Quality education • Jobs • Security It is not difficult to come up with stories that address these issues implicitly and in a dramatic way. Some ideas for songs off the cuff: Food security: I take my skinny body to the rally. The politician is fat. He/she dishes out bags of maize. Where does the maize come from? I just hope I can get a bag in the scramble. I get hurt, but I get one. When the bag is finished, where is the politican? I hear on the radio she/he hauls his/her fat body in a private jet, while I am thinkingwhat to eat tomorrow as I cook the last portion of maize. Health care: My fathers body lies to rot. The hospital has no coolers. He died for a lack of medicine. The minister blames incompetent bureaucrats. Who appointed the bureaucrats? Access to portable water: the borehole committee meets, because the borehole is broken. Where is the money I put in? The treasurer does not tell us. Education: I go to school, but there is no teacher. I go find the teacher. He is in his garden. I ask him to teach. She says she needs to grow food to eat. But she gets a salary, she can buy food? No, the salary is too low and it always is late. Better to have maize in storage. But how am I going to learn? When the teacher is finished in the garden I may learn. Jobs: The neighbour has a job. I don’t. I hope the garden brings in food this year. How did he get a job? He is no better than me? He is connected, that’s why. It’s connections, not work. It’s connections that get you a job. The ideas just took me a half hour, making good lyrics takes much longer, but that’s the job of the musician. Come up with personal stories that connect, and the public gets entertained and educated at the same time. Implicit messages are stronger than explicit ones (vote wisely! Does not help anybody, it gives no food for thought)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 08:52:50 +0000