University honorary degrees, a missing link in arts
Imagine. Musician Lucius Banda is a Doctor of Music in Malawi. The honorary degree was conferred upon him by the University of Jerusalem in 2011. But he has kept it under wraps all these years.
“I thought it unnecessary to brag about this because I have a lot of other titles already. It is only my family who knew about this,” says Lucius, who answers to other titles such as ‘Soldier’ and ‘Sir’.
the pair was awarded for their contribution to Alleluya Band
“It was Professor Gadama, the university’s representative in Malawi, who submitted my name. Upon their research, they deemed it fit to honour me with the degree,” he explains.
The 1994 Son of The Poor Man hit-maker was recognised alongside Cecelia Kadzamira, Brown Chimphamba and John Tembo, among others.
Locally, no university has reciprocated the gesture of awarding artists as local universities are preoccupied with honouring politicians.
Take Mzuzu University (Mzuni), for instance.
In 2003, the university conferred upon the then First Lady Shanil Muluzi an honorary degree of Doctor in Philosophy, Honoris Causa, for her charity work.
Apart from Shanil, former president Bingu wa Mutharika and multiparty hero Chakufwa Chihana were also honoured with doctorate degrees, which some analysts described as “political patronage”.
Does this mean then that Malawi does not have deserving artists worth the honour? If yes, why should a foreign university honour them then?
If no, does it have to take a foreign university to lead in honouring our artists?
Francis Mwakalenga, a graduate from Mzuni, argues that Lucius and other veteran musicians such as Wambali Mkandawire and Giddes Chalamanda deserve to be honoured for their contribution to the arts.
“Listen to Lucius’ song Mabala to appreciate what creativity is all about. The song says mabala akupweteka and yet the artist was criticising government satirically just as the way Jack Mapanje did in his poems.
“That was creativity at its best. But have they been honoured? No. What do our universities do instead?
“They honour individuals for mere political appeasement. As institutions of higher learning they should have been in forefront promoting arts for development,” he argues.
True. Lucius and the other veteran musicians deserve to be honoured.
He has played host to several popular musicians, helping to launch the careers of Mlaka Maliro, Billy Kaunda, Paul Chaphuka, Dan Lu and Anthony Makondetsa.
At 45 and with 18 albums under his belt, Lucius is still soldiering on.
In music circles, music promoter Jai Banda nicknamed him ‘Soldier’ for his early songs that were against political oppression in Malawi.
“It is the same Jai who conferred upon me the title ‘Sir’ after noticing the remarkable achievements I have done in the music industry,” Lucius says, while disclosing that he has close to 40 awards in his cabinet.
But the local universities are mum on him.
“I know they will honour me when I am dead,” he says. “We need to accept as well that, in Malawi, people are jealous.”
He says it is because of this jealousy that universities have kept veteran musicians at par in the development of music in Malawi.
“We have universities, but all they breed are employees not employers. Chanco [Chancellor College] has a music course. But show me a musician they have produced.
“The problem is that they do not want to put into their curriculum music done by Wambali and other veterans. Instead, they stick to books. Do you expect such people to honour us? The answer is no because they have failed to produce musicians. As a result, they are jealous of us musicians without papers,” says the Balaka North parliamentarian.
Mzuni vice-chancellor Robert Ridley says his university is in the process of establishing a committee to look into such issues.
“By end of this year, we should have a committee to make recommendations for those to be honoured. We will be honouring people from all walks of life—in arts, business, politics and others,” he says.
He says the university will be conferring the degrees to both local and international individuals.
“Of course, Lucius is a very worthy recipient, but it needs to be noted that we can’t honour everybody and degrees will be conferred once in a while,” he says.
University of Malawi (Unima) was not immediately available for comment.
Unima pro vice-chancellor Alfred Mtenje referred the matter to the registrar Benedicto Okomaatani Malunga who did not pick up his phone.
