MBC lifts Lucius’ ban
In the past two weeks, MBC radios and TV station have been playing Banda’s Wokondedwa Wanga and Ntamande, partly answering the Soldier of the Poor’s agenda for artists and President Joyce Banda’s prayer for the institution to extend the microphone even to critical voices.
Soon after Mutharika’s death on April 5, the Soldier asked the incumbent to open up the airwaves and respect the ideals of democracy and human rights to avoid such bans, censorship and other repressive strategies.
In an interview on Sunday, Soldier said the “senseless” ban of his songs and advertisements on MBC, spanning 2008, nearly killed his career as the oldest media house commands a countrywide audience.
He said: “I feel relieved because it’s too long government has been using MBC as the mouthpiece of the ruling party, not a public broadcaster. This tendency of giving artists blackouts because of one or two songs that are deemed anti-government takes away the audience. However, some people go back because MBC is the only broadcaster they have grown up tuning to”.
Looking backwards, he lamented the politically orchestrated ban that saw some government and private firms shunning his music and band, Zembani, in an effort to appear politically correct in the eyes of the ruling party.
Looking forward, he calls on government to pursue close ties with artists before artworks are banned or censored.
“Even Kamuzu, who is said to be the worst dictator in our history, did not attempt to do what Bingu’s regime did to me.
“When I released Mabala in 1993, they only called me and politely requested me to remove the phrase nyali yawala tambala wathawa because it was perceived to be in support of nyali [a lamp and poll symbol for multiparty] at the expense of tambala [cock for one-party system]. They did not ban the song or all my productions.”
