Unofficially confused, officially thankful
Good people, it is almost official that everything around us has been unofficial since May 20 tripartite polls.
Whatever they are tallying at Comesa Hall in Blantyre, it is unofficially ruining the budgets and love stories of new couples who pre-booked the venue for their weddings, the long-awaited knot Kanye West and Kim Kardashian tied in Italy recently.
It is also unofficial that the continuing electoral farce has also drastically affected makers and lovers of gospel music who consider Comesa Hall a land of pilgrimage when it comes to Sunday afternoon payday concerts—the people whose livelihood, leisure and spirituality hinges on arts, entertainment and cultural events at the vast venue.
Officially misty, the long wait for official results is also lengthening unofficial mental torture facing Joseph Tembo, Billy Kaunda and other artists who have unofficially lost parliamentary elections in constituencies they officially won five years ago. To Parliament they went, saw, snored and hardly ever bothered about the policy and regulatory reforms the creative sector needs. N’zosiyilana! Auze Mbuje!
And almost official is news that this wait is killing the hype and delaying the sound-check as the likes of musicians Lucius Banda and Allan Ngumuya have unofficially made it to the honourable house where the creative industry is sometimes slurred as masewera.
It is no longer unofficial that our country is going to the dogs.
But despite the unofficial murmurs from the tally centre, it is purely praiseworthy seeing the official results of the priceless contribution countless well-wishers made to Princess Chitsulo’s medical trip to South Africa. After weeks of expert treatment, the once frail gospel songbird was seen singing, cat-walking in high heels, swaggering with energy and recounting her blessings on arrival at Chileka Airport on Monday. Thumbs up, good people, for refusing to sit aside and look while another creative mind was officially going down the gutters clasping a begging bowl.
