Soldier ‘digs’ his Ngoni roots

Veteran musician Lucius ‘Soldier’ Banda has released a song titled Chingoni Cha Makolo dedicated to this year’s Umhlangano Wa Maseko Ngoni Cultural festival scheduled to take place this Saturday in Ntcheu.

The song captures ngoni celebratory moments, where merry making is the core business. The song’s instrumentation is inspired by typical ngoni traditional dance, ingoma and the lyrics mention some of the tribe’s undertakings such as eating meat and drinking beer.  

The artist says the song has been inspired by tales that his late father Chidampamba, who was originally from Mpanyira in Mozambique where most ngoni are believed to have migrated from, shared with him as he grew up.

“I learnt that from my father’s side we are ngonis who came from Mpanyira and settled in Sosola, Balaka. My father told me a lot of things about the ngoni culture such as the names and how they are used. I am very proud to be associated with ngonis and I decided to celebrate my father in this song,” he said.

This is not the first time ‘Soldier’ has taken his art on the ngoni route. His compositions such as Kupupuluma, Ngodya, Melenia and Ngodya za Ngoni are adorned with ngoni cultural connotations.

The artist admitted that his cultural background has had an influence on his career.

Banda said he will not attend the festival because he is booked for the North Beach Festival which is taking place in Nkhata Bay. 

He said: “I have handed over the song to the organisers. If they can find a way to use it at the event, it will be fine.”

On his part, Umhlangano Festival organising committee chairperson Inkosi Makwangwala hailed Banda for the song.

“The song is probably one of the highlights of this year’s event. As a musician, he would have opted to sing about anything, but he chose to dedicate the song to the event,” he said, adding that they are set to enjoy the festival. 

The song was recorded by Dj Sley, Dan Sibale played the saxophone, Bright Chilombo did the bass and Sylvia Sulu did the backing vocals.