Neno, a district where nothing happens
Nothing happens in Neno. This may sound like a sweeping statement, but it fairly sums up the mood of this forlon district.
After a long week’s work, we all seek entertainment. Weekends and holidays are the special days that people flock to entertainment venues; they are just days of kuzipepesa.
On these days, local musicians go into cities and districts where they perform to multitudes of grateful fans. This is the time to showcase to the masses the talent they possess.
In districts such as Zomba, Mzuzu, Mwanza, Dedza and Kasungu, the gravy train that brings a horde of entertainers for the weekend’s fixture is not a strange sight.
But in Neno, the story is different. On weekends, the district is dead. There is no place where one can go and be entertained.
What constitutes entertainment in Neno is watching football at the community stadium.
Spending a day in Neno, one cannot differentiate between a weekend and working days; it is all the same.
Even gospel musicians who claim to preach the gospel of God have not dared to venture to the district to perform.
Ganizani Mkwate, who works at Neno District Hospital, told Chill that is has been ages since he last saw Lucius Banda and other musicians performing in the district.
“I remember it was last year when [the then President] Joyce Banda came here for a rally. Lucius Banda and other musicians accompanied her. It was the first time for us to see him performing live,” said Mkwate, who has lived in the district for six years.
“The time I came here I thought like there was a funeral, the district was too quiet. We wonder why people do not come here to perform, we have all the facilities like a community hall,” he says.
Going around the district on a Saturday at around 4pm, what one instantly observes are boys and girls chatting on the streets while the elderly spend their time drinking away at Mabogi.
Situated behind Neno Trading Centre, the joint gathers together revellers for local beer such as kachasu, senga and mtonjani.
And travelling to Donda Village, located close to Neno Market, one finds kids competition in a game of nguli.
“We entertain ourselves by playing nguli; even old people sometimes come here to watch us play,” one of the kids narrated.
John Mayendo, who plies a bicycle taxi business from Donda Village in T/A Chekucheku, says if there is no football match in the district, the other alternative form of entertainment is the gulewamkulu dance.
“Twice a month we have a gulewamkulu ceremony where the dancers they just come into the village to entertain people; on a good day, you can even watch them performing at the trading centre. That is the only thing we get entertained with otherwise the district is just quiet as you have observed,” says Mayendo.
As a district, Neno was born after Mwanza was split into two in 2003 under the decentralisation programme.
