Rudo, Matumbi offer unifying political voice

Seasoned musicians Rudo Mkukupa Chakwera and Anne Matumbi have joined forces to offer a reminder to all Malawians that minus all the political differences, they [Malawians] need to remain united in the elections period.

The duo has jointly produced a single Malawi Must Be Saved which was released late last week in which the two are imploring on all Malawians to remain level-headed as Malawi goes to the polls on May 21.

Matumbi is a known Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) follower who also wanted to contest as member of Parliament for the party and Chakwera a member of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) member and daughter-in-law to MCP president Lazarus Chakwera.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Rudo said the song, produced by San Mag, attempts to address how differences in political views have wrongly been used as a dividing factor among people of opposing parties.

“Music is a universal language, that is why we came together to show everyone that peace, joy, and acceptance should still reign. We realised this can only be done by not encouraging songs which sow contempt and divisions among the masses,” she said.

Rudo said she is encouraged by the response that the song has received as it is enjoying airplay from different local radio and television stations which she said is a sign that the intended purpose has been served.

Speaking in a separate interview, Matumbi said they wanted to make the song as unifying as possible only that their search for musicians from the other parties was not yielding results hence their decision to record the song as a duet.

“Everyone knows our party affiliations and for people to be seeing us together in the video we knew it would send a strong message. Beyond these elections we will still have to have our Malawi intact. We therefore have a duty to act responsibly,” he said.

In the video, the two were clad in their respective party regalia and they also featured members of other parties such as United Democratic Front (UDF) and UTM who were also donning their party colours.