Mafunyeta’s life, music celebrated

Urban musicians on Sunday came together to stage a memorable 10th anniversary show for departed reggae dancehall star Mafunyeta, real name Patrick Magalasi at the Memorial Tower in Lilongwe.

Young people from surrounding areas such as Kawale, Chilinde, areas 49, 18 and 25 patronised the show organised by Mabilinganya Empire, a group which the late Mafunyeta founded.

Initially scheduled to start at 10am, the event only started around 3pm with artists such as Kellie Devine jumping on stage.

Rapper Mwanache jumped on stage around 4.30pm and he did not disappoint. He did songs such as Zaulendo Uno, Ndiwe Mzanga which he collaborated with Afro pop star Lulu, who also later performed at the show.

Host Annie Matumbi kept the show lively as he constantly engaged the audience with his freestyle.

Other artists who took to the stage included Gwamba, Don Tarz, Wikise and the Mabilinganya Empire crew.

One of the organising team members Dalitso Kachigamba, whose stage name is Dotolo,  in an interview thanked people for supporting the show.

“As Mabilinganya Empire, we are impressed with how things turned out today. We have been staging these shows since Mafunyeta’s death, but this year’s event will go down in history as probably one of the best shows we have ever staged. Everything was just on point, from the artists’ performances, security to patronage. For all that, we say thank you,” he said.

On his part, Mwanache said it was an honour to perform at the Mafunyeta Memorial Show.

“Mafunyeta might be long gone, but his legacy lives on. Performing at this show felt so good as I personally was one of the artists that closely worked with the late Mafunyeta. He inspired me to do music,” he said.

This year’s show was organised under the theme ‘It is ok to talk. Suicide is not a solution’ to encourage young people to talk to each other whenever they are going through difficult times in life.

Mafunyeta died on August 11 2013 after suffering an asthma attack.