Fun-starved dead North living
Jah people, who said Mzuzu is the heart of a fun-starved Northern Region?
What pessimists call “the Dead North” did not succumb to entertainment scarcity yesterday—for it has a vibrant entertainment, arts and culture sector that often go unnoticed.
My return to the ever-green city has been an encounter with uncountable smiles, the sincere expression of joy certainly acquired from places loudly ignored by chroniclers of entertainment, arts and culture.
After this and that, I went around, I saw and I was conquered by ‘happenings’ in places filled by faces that are scarcely hungering for anything more than they already have. The circuit included a Friday night at the dimly-lit Sunbird Mzuzu’s New Choma Bar where the city’s finest deejays do what Linda Afro-pop star Marco Sadik used to do six years ago—giving the very best of disco hits.
On Saturday, the revellers literally flooded Villa Kagwentha for their favourite sips and jams—a weekly fixture that leaves no thirst unquenched, according to a rough guide by my art-loving escort, Nicholas Magaga Msowoya.
However, it was the Sunday afternoon at the Sunbird hotel’s Boma Park where Zambia’s Big Brother rep Sulu met Maskal in musical sund owner. Boma is a vast venue for live bands and traditional dance troupes that give the so-called fun-starved population glimpses of beats past and present.
Interestingly, the visitor waxed lyrical in praise of Malawian musicians’ thoughtful song words and denounced the weepy mood they embody just when party/love anthems from Zambia and Nigerians are going viral.
Let those who have ears here!
From the skimpy audience I realised that the ‘fun-starved’ society is infested by fun-starved entertainers, the rejected prophets who hardly get the crowds that follow Skeffa Chimoto, Mlaka Maliro and Maskal who are likely to feature in Sulu’s upcoming album.
Yet, some of the fan-starved acts have defied the odds to become international marvels—the likes of Wambali Mkandawire, Tikhu Vibrations and Body, Mind and Soul who have bagged various awards beyond the borders. And this Mzuzu, the endowed mystic, has the fun within.
