I saw this lovely 86 year old man in outpatients yesterday, the brother of the chap who had the tirade about condoms the other week. It turns out he is one of Livingstonia’s VIPs:
The history of Malawi cannot be complete if the story of John Chilembwe is left out. He even graces the latest K500 note as one of Malawi’s freedom fighters. And every year, on Chilembwe Day, the Chilembwe song is sang. Kunali John Chilembwe Muboma la Chiradzulo, anali mbusa wa mphamvu…, goes the song. But who is the man behind this song, Albert Sharra tracked down the composer Mjura Mkandawire in Rumphi.
Mjura Mkandawire is the man and you cannot go wrong to describe him as a versatile artist. He is a teacher, musician and radio producer by profession. His legacy in music composition and recording rests on his two productions Chilembwe and Poka Wanangwa songs.
These are two popular recordings of the 1960s and are still liked by many people because of the creativity that was exposed in the compositions apart from the purpose they were done for.
The Chilembwe track was done to honour the late Chilembwe for his job that finally saw Malawi becoming an independent nation after years of being ruled by the British people while Poka Wanangwa is a political track done in Tumbuka that talks about the abuses Malawian people faced during the Colonial rule.
Born on September 17, 1926, Mkandawire wears the success story beneath Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). He is one of the first four black men to work at the Federal government radio station which is now MBC. The first president of the country, the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, trusted him among the people to operate the radio without any help of the white people.
According to him, in 1963, when the Federal government was ending, Dr Banda wanted to have control of everything and he never trusted any white person. He wanted his own people to work at the radio station. He picked Mkandawire, who was a teacher then at Blantyre Secondary School, and three other men to go to London to study broadcasting, announcing and radio programming under the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). They came back late in 1963 and started working at the station.
Ambitious Mkandawire was not satisfied with the training and he wanted something more than just broadcasting. He knew as a qualified teacher from the then only teachers training college in the North at Nsonya and a trained broadcaster, he could do better if he went for music training. He was granted an opportunity to go to Northern Ireland to study music in 1964. He graduated with a certificate and came back the following year to join MBC as a broadcaster.
He says he had his own section at the station as music director and he stayed for 17 years. He is also the first employee of the station to introduce and read Tumbuka news. It was during this time when he composed both songs. The first one was Poka Wanangwa in 1965 and the Chilembwe song followed in 1966.
"Between 1965 and 1970 was the period when I concentrated in music composition and broadcasting. I wanted something really exceptional and relevant to the times. Stories of John Chilembwe were big then and I knew a song about him would be loved most by people and that is why I decided to compose it. I took my time and without any influence or pressure, I did it and it was liked most by people. I still feel honoured that the song is still valued up to date" he says, adding that he has done many songs and some success stories of his music are shared in his just-released biography.
He adds that he composed most of the songs that are used by both the Army and police bands.
He left MBC in 1981 through retirement. But because he was poached from the teaching career to join broadcasting without resigning, he wrote a letter to government describing how he left his teaching career to join MBC. He told them that he wanted to go back and start teaching. He says, he was allowed to do so considering that he had certificates in education obtained at Adams College (1948) in South Africa and that he had taught at various schools in Zimbabwe between 1952 and 1959. So, he was posted to teach music at the Blantyre Teachers Training College the same year. He stayed there for six years before retiring to go for private work at Phwezi Secondary School in 1988.
He says he did not stay long because he was having difficulties with sight. He is now at his home village in Livingstonia in Rumphi with his wife Donas and has difficulties in walking, sight and hearing.
Mkandawire did both his primary and secondary education at Livingstonia Mission in Rumphi. He has been recognised at various functions, but according to him, the major recognition he has received is the recent one which was made by the University of Jerusalem of India that offered him an honorary degree in Arts in December last year.
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