Well! After months without gracing this space it almost feels like forever since I last dropped an entry to an extent that it is hard to figure out where to start from.
I know many ardent followers of this column who were left wondering why the weekly musings under This and That were no longer featuring. The temporal departure was sudden and unannounced.
No explaination was provided and I will not attempt to slide back with one. When your move is not permanent, there is no need to say bye to your neighbours. In a similar fashion, I knew one day soon I will make another date with readers of this column.
Questions must have been lingering in many people’s heads whether my pen had run dry, if I had lost my muse and if indeed I no longer care about the happenings in the country’s arts sector and the issues within it.
None of the above is true. I still hold the same passion about the creative industry. Admiring the efforts that many people are investing in trying to develop the industry is a motivation big enough to keep one hooked to the game.
It is not by design that my return to this space has coincided with the return to office of the landlady Edith Mkwaila-Gondwe. Of course, noting the absence of the column, she lashed a few whips and slaps on me. I just had to come back. Welcome back landlady!
And then…
One issue that has dragged on and on is about the rehabilitation of the once popular entertainment venue Blantyre Cultural Centre (BCC), formerly French Cultural Centre. The issue about the renovation of the facility has become a song that is no longer danceable.
For years, there have been plenty false starts and commitments to rework the place which have vanished as quick as they land on people’s ears.
Politicians and ministers have taken turns in visiting the facility where serious sounding rhetoric has been the order of the day. The contractors working on site have been publicly dressed down by authorities by all those antics have amounted to almost nothing.
Efforts to resuscitate the historical entertainment venue have remained stuck at a snail’s pace much to the agitation of many stakeholders, especially artists who are dying to have the space functioning.
The frustration due to the lack of progress in rehabilitating BCC has apparently boiled over for the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) who this week sought government’s approval to take over the renovations and management of the facility.
The Cosoma board has laid out its blueprint for the facility and according to their word, if they get the nod to take over, the facility should be up and running within a few months. That is the gospel according to Cosoma board chairperson Bishop Chimwemwe Mhango.
The development is interesting and it presents the government with a window to relieve itself from an extra burden in managing the venue. Ever since government took over running the facility from the French Embassy, things went south.
It is out of the same lukewarm handling that has seen BCC deteriorate to the sad levels it finds itself in now. One is tempted to think that the facility can indeed be better off under the management of another entity which will dedicate maximum attention.
It is refreshing that from the initial approach, government has shown willingness to let go of BCC. Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo-Banda, who was present when the Cosoma board toured the venue on Tuesday, said they will sit down to explore how the proposal can be implemented.
The local creative industry needs a functioning BCC. If the coming in of Cosoma presents our best chance to have the facility up and running once again, then let us go for it. Under the right arrangement, both Cosoma and government can share the responsibility of managing the venue.
The first step is to have BCC refurbished. The ruins that greet visitors are a huge mockery of the contribution the space has made in shaping plenty careers and artistic narratives in Malawi. The history it has made is huge. Let us strive not to make BCC history itself!
