For long, Malawians have been held under the illusion that they do not appreciate local talent.
This notion is spread across many spheres such that other service providers don’t count on the Malawian market when producing their services.
Malawians have in the past been blamed for their love of foreign music, movies, cultures, lifestyle and even clothing. Whether that thinking had a basis or not, the situation at the moment talks of something different.
I have gone through some experiences in the past. One afternoon I was glued to the radio listening to MBC 2FM’s Lunch Time Listening programme. Over the years, I have known the programme to be a catalogue of foreign R ‘n’ B ballads by artists such as Dru Hills, Boyz 2 Men, Toni Braxton and others.
But on this particular day, the host of the programme James Gumbwa pleasantly surprised me when he finished the one-hour programme just playing local music. Yes! It was strictly slow Malawian jams throughout.
And it did not feel any different from what we had been conditioned to believe the programme is all about. I believe Gumbwa did not get any reprisals from either listeners or his superiors for the manner he approached the show on this particular day.
Again, during one event at Scallas’ Café, DJ Mighty Virus featured an all Malawian music list. And boy, did he set the house on fire with the relatable local vibes! The audience did not have any qualms about it. They just seemed to enjoy the moment even more.
For long, one thing that has bewildered movie fanatics is how accessible was so limited for our local productions. If one misses the premiere events, you would be assured it will take you years before watching that movie or sometimes even never.
All people could hear is that movie A has won an award in Nigeria, movie B will be screened at a festival in Tanzania and all that. That became the norm.
That is why there was hysteria when a clip about Mustafa and Abiti from the movie The Last Fishing Boat surfaced online three years ago, years after the movie was released.
People got so obsessed with it as they wondered where it came from. Some believed it was from some recent movie. But, by the time this clip became an online sensation, the film was probably seven years old.
That just illustrates how narrow the distribution and promotion patterns of the local movie productions were at the time.
Thankfully, with time new trends appear to settle in and are being normalized. On a lazy day, one can go on the Internet and search for any local film of their choice and watch without any hustles.
With that, more and more local productions have gained popularity among local movie fanatics with some hitting as high as one million views.
It was little surprising that the recently released film Welcome to Maula Prison hit one million views in 48 hours. That new record speaks of how much effort the local movie players have invested and also the consumption patterns of local productions by Malawians.
The local film producers should no longer operate under some unfounded fear when it comes to distributing their works. The benefits that lie in wait once a lot of people are accessing their work outweigh the fears they hold.
We appreciate they always want to recoup the production costs, which is a valid position, but keeping the movies under wraps forever also does not serve any purpose. There should be a balance.
The numbers that the local productions are attracting will surely one day soon translate into tangible rewards. If they won’t dare this market, they may stay in this cocoon forever and that will also mean killing their professional dreams and subsequently the industry.
