Killing imfa sithawika?

I love it when people come together to revise their ways of doing things.

So, from two weeks ago, I always make time to go through posts on one Facebook site where people discuss fashion dos and don’ts.

Fashion is art and art makes life beautiful.

Now, over the weekend, people touched on house décor—the art of making homes more homely!

It made my day to learn how people ‘have come of age’ on things such as wall hangings of the Imfa Sithawika family.

Many Malawians over 25 have it, somewhere in their memory, that such art was at some point a must-have in our lives.

Imfa Sithawika was king among other crude paintings that carried equally raw messages such as Ndangosauka Siine Mfiti, Kupata kwa Ana Akulu Sakondwera, Bwererani Kucheza Osati Miseche and Banja ndi Anthu Awiri Wachitatu Ngosokoneza.

It was also around the very same time our fathers would ‘decorate’ their car interiors or living rooms with zidoiro (doilies).   

But as reality seems to show us, times have changed and we too may have to modify our sense of art.

With this mentality, it may be not so easy to come across Imfa Sithawika and its art cousins in the next five years.

A whole different generation of art—most of it foreign, I bet—will have kicked out old art from the Malawian home.

This will have its bad side. Malawian art philosophies and culture will go to the grave together with such art.

But what is wrong with the Imfa Sithawika generation of art? Is it the message or its raw artistic style?

Is it not redeemable?

There is a whole rich cultural foundation behind this generation of art. It is our history, our pride—a well-heeled perspective to the world before us.

I think the best would be to work on such art’s shortfalls, not killing it as a whole.