The Legend: George Jobe, story teller extraordinaire

He was a story teller extraordinaire. His art of telling stories from a single sentence such as a proverb was stuff of legend.

It got to a point that in the early 90s, no mornings were complete without listening to Bonzo Matampa spin his yarn on MBC Radio.

He was the name on the lips of many Malawians and so was Dzunje Hill in Ntcheu.

He would start by announcing his arrival with his ceremonial Odi odi odi odi!

He would then remind people why they should not forget the treasure the ancestors left for them; proverbs. Bonzo Matampa would continue to tell them how other people had suffered because of failure to heed lessons in proverbs.

He would then introduce a proverb of the day as an example. From there, Bonzo Matampa would start sharing a story which occurred somewhere, where someone or people suffered, because of non-observance of proverbs. He advises people to always observe and follow lessons in proverbs.

Bonzo Matampa would then end his story with a long good bye as he returns to his village; Thambala at the foot of Dzunje Hill.

“Bonzo Matampa is an old village man who cherishes culture. It pains him when people ignore their cultural values and treasures. He likes to reflect on Malawian proverbs, appreciating the wisdom in them and establishing consequences if one ignores them. He does this by picking one local proverb and telling a story in which a person has suffered because of ignoring such a proverb,” George Jobe breaks it down in an interview.

Thambala is a river which runs along his home village in T/A’s Makwangwala’s area in Ntcheu. Dzunje Hill sits to the west of the village.

But how did it all begin?

“When I was in Standard 6 at Bunyenga Primary School in Ntcheu, I was made to join a school drama group by my teacher Mr Zingwe. I wrote a number of plays and acted a great deal. My acting introduced me to poetry because there was need for something to fill gaps in between the plays. Hence, I became a poet.

“When I went to Blantyre to start my Form One at Nyambadwe MCDE, I felt it was time to fulfil one of my ambitions to speak on radio. Starting from the time I was in Standard 6 my role model was Martin Chilimampunga, a radio news reader at MBC, although I have never told him this. Hence, in the first week of my arrival in Blantyre I visited MBC and met the producer of Nzeru Nkupangwa. Although I was young, I was welcomed by Matthias Manyeka. He auditioned and I passed,” he recalls.

However, two months of hearing nothing from MBC prompted the young Jobe to return to the Broadcasting House to seek answers.

This time around the programme was in the hands of David Kamkwamba who auditioned and passed him again.

“That was my breakthrough. I first acted on radio in December 1989. It felt good as it fulfilled my long-time dream. Thereafter, I became an actor on Nzeru Nkupangwa under the production of Manyeka and Kamkwamba for many years. I always remember these two former producers of MBC,” recollects the artist.

In 1990, Jobe started telling stories on Morning Basket, at that time the programme was being produced by the Late Daniel Phiri, Maria Chidzanja-Nkhoma and Owen Lupeska, the late Grecian Mwandira and Chaipa Hiwa.

However, his radio storytelling escapades were halted in the tracks.

In 1993 Jobe was told to stop contributing to Morning Basket by one of the producers who personally did not like his art.

Evokes Jobe: “He always found faults in my stories, recorded them and never used them. Therefore, I approached James Chimera so that my stories should be featured in Likaomba Otheratu. I still vividly remember an appointment he gave me to meet him one morning.

“On my way to MBC, I met the late Vincent Maideni at Southern Bottlers. Upon learning about the objective of my trip, he became so interested that he asked me to share my stories with him. He liked them and told me to accompany him to his office for a recording of 10 stories at Schools Broadcasting Unit (SBU) at the MCDE Headquarters where he was a producer for Midweek Magazine. He advised me to be a different character from the George Jobe of Morning Basket. Hence, we created a character under the name Bonzo Matampa and that is how I started associating my stories with proverbs.”

At that time, Jobe was a Form 4 student, but he had already set his eyes straight on art.

Initially the name did not have meaning, but within a year, he found one. Bonzo Matampa, he said, symbolises sustainable use, quality and preservation of our proverbs and culture.

“Bonzo is a borrowed word in Chichewa commonly used for a bone. There is a saying that ‘Chibale ndi pfupa sichiola’ literary translated as ‘a blood relationship is like a bone as it does not rot’. Our proverbs should not rot but should always stand tests of time as pfupa or bonzo. However, the weakness of bones/bonzo is that they rust or grow moss over time, which affects their quality. Hence, the same bone needs to be like ‘matampa’, which is a lid of a pot.

“A lid is made of stainless metal so that it does not rust even when it comes in contact with salts and other substances. Our proverbs and culture should have such stainless qualities in order to withstand test of time and be enjoyed by our grand children,” he says.

Bonzo Matampa was active from 1993 to around 2006.

He was featured in Tikambe, Kasakaniza, Morning Basket and Nzeru Nkupangwa on MBC Radio One, especially after the end of Midweek magazine.

He was also featured in Tikambe Programme on Malawi Television from 2004 to 2005.

But where is he now and what happened to him?

“Bonzo Matampa is around and based in Zomba. He continues to be featured in Nzeru Nkupangwa Programme but intermittently. This is so because of the nature of his work. However, he contemplates coming back on air in an active manner. I want to be back before the end of 2014 on one of the radio stations that I can strike a deal with,” explained Jobe.

Other than Jobe the story teller, it should also be noted that he has also another side of art that people know him of.

“After graduating from Chancellor College I worked as a practicing teacher at HHI Secondary School for three months. From there I was employed by the GABLE SMC Project as a Communication Coordinator in 1998.”

When GABLE SMC was coming to an end, the project team formed an NGO called Creative Centre for Community Mobilisation (Creccom) in 1999 where he is working as executive director.

He was part of a project which led to the birth of Mudziwathu Community Radio Station in Mchinji.He is also currently studying for a diploma in theology with Assemblies of God Bible School.

“I have always strongly felt called to God’s service. I have been ministering in one way or the other before but I strongly felt urged to learn theology and other managerial issues that go with ministering in God’s vineyard. So I am doing distant learning theological studies under the Assemblies of God. However, that will not kill the Bonzo Matampa character. Looking at what is happening in the world there is still need for more people to join the pastoral service,” he mused.

Born 44 years ago, Jobe married is to Elube and the couple have four children; Madalo, George II, Washington and Gospel. He comes from Chinseu Village, in Senior T/A Makwangwala in Ntcheu.