Critics’ body born, PAM lives on
Good people, exuberance remains the prevalent mood since the birth of a national association of theatre critics with a focus on offering greater and more methodical scrutiny of the things our talented kindred do in the name of art.
The newborn also accords the critics a platform to share global insights, trends and skills of the trade which does not only end at figuring out how far works of art comply with their basic norms.
Enlightened critics are a vital workforce in the arts because they preserve and insist on the core principles of the things artists do.
It is expected that the newly formed group, thanks to theatre guru Dr Mufunanji Magalasi of Chancellor College, will help sharpen critics often blamed for partly killing the arts with their lethal, haphazard criticism.
Yet, as the enforcers of essential standards are getting organised to do a better job, the artists themselves will do themselves a hell lot of good by making a corresponding move forward.
In Things Fall Apart, the continent’s legendary writer Chinua Achebe delivers a timeless fact of survival and success in the jungle of life: when hunters learn to shoot without missing, the birds learn to fly without perching.
Woe to Malawian theatre artists if they cling to the business-as-usual mentality, quite a low perch at a time the critics are striving to become faultless marksmen like their international counterpart.
–Off-stage–
Thumbs up Poetry Association of Malawi (PAM) for jolting its regional chapters to bring poetry shows to the North and the Centre.
Summarily, it appears gone are the days poetry was a Blantyre thing!
That is what PAM executives were elected to do, but hardly good enough to hide the fact that the current committee has overstayed its welcome. They were there in 2009. They are there now—2014! In these six years, the Reverend Chimwemwe Mhango has been elected Music Union president twice. PAM executives are the only life holders of public office in democratic Malawi. End wamuyaya syndrome! What happened to PAM constitution? What happened to periodic elections and succession? Power is a relay race. Pass on the button!
