Blog FoM 2 - Lake of Stars

17 October 2008

Greetings

One of the reasons to visit at this time of year was to experience the Lake Of Stars. The organisers bring together some of Malawi's best musical acts and musicians from a variety of other places. I heard about this event in December 07 and resolved to get my son Chimwemwe and his group, The National Parcs, over to play this October. In the meantime, the Conservative government has completely cut the funding for cultural travel and Chimwemwe and his wife are expecting their first child shortly after the end of October and it wasn’t possible to be away for an extended period so close to such an important moment. I have his promise that he will not plan any more babies right away so that he and his group can perform at Lake of Stars 2009.

So there I was at the old Grand Beach Hotel, now gussied up and owned by the Sunbird chain, probably out of South Africa and known as the Livingstonia Beach Hotel. I had spent many a weekend and even my second Xmas in Malawi in idyllic debauchery and camping at the old Grand Beach. This time, I am a dignified elderly gentleman and I went with my niece, Undeni, who is Yonah’s sister and attached myself to Zilanie Gondwe, the niece of my sister-in-law, Ivy Gondwe. Zilanie is a music agent and editor of the Entertainment section of the Weekend Guardian. When I asked her to help me meet artists for a documentary I wanted to do for Amandla, the radio show I do at the community radio station at McGill, she quickly and opportunistically asked me to save her having to write a column and snookered me into writing about what I was seeing and experiencing at the festival.

Zilanie had graciously helped me get interviews with Sally Nyundo, Malawi`s reggae supreme, Wendy Harawa, an energetic and entertaining dynamo and the elder statesman of the music scene, Lucius Banda. Just brilliant as the city kids here say.

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Lake of Stars – The Freedom Party
By Doug Miller

There is such a breath of freedom in the air as I walk the shore at Livingstonia Beach Hotel. The Lake of Stars Festival is happening and for me it is like the wind of change reflecting the state of democracy in my second home. Why would an old white guy want to attend a music festival on the shores of Lake Malawi? The answer is simple – because I can and because I am free to do so. I am no music critic and am not a skilled journalist but here is what I saw and what I think for what it is worth.

It wasn’t always this way. Democracy and its trappings, such as freedom of speech and all those other freedoms have moved Malawi’s music scene light years forward. A plethora of bands, empowered musicians, access to equipment and technology, and that touch of Malawian ingenuity and creativity have served to make music a dynamic and critically important element of the transformation from the dark days of political repression. I do not want to pretend that all is light and roses, and yes there is a lot more that can be done, but a weekend at Lake of Stars in Senga Bay showed me how far things have advanced as well as allowing me to listen to and talk with some of the most talented people in Malawi’s music industry.

Picture this - a tropical lake; a cooling onshore breeze in the evening refreshing the crowd after the intense heat of the afternoon. The Deputy Minister of Tourism takes the microphone and instead of a speech about how much the government is doing, he begins to sing. The Honourable Billy Kaunda belts out an upbeat song in an upbeat tempo and the words “The Warm Heart of Malawi” come to have real meaning. How many countries in the world can that happen? Not in Canada for sure. In fact, I never want to hear Canada’s Minister of Tourism sing – that would be a scary concept.

I am surrounded by people from all over the world and of course a very large contingent of Malawian fans. I share beer with a ChiCheŵa speaking Japanese teacher whose Malawi name is Nambewe. I am so used to being one of the only white guys in a crowd in Malawi but here I am with all shades from all over the world grooving to whatever the programme organisers have put together for the devotees who have come to this lakeside Woodstock.

The musicians do more than work the crowd like many North American acts. Instead, they interact with the fans and depend on their participation as though everyone is part of the set. I was really impressed by the artists as free people attempting to integrate their history into the present – to look at the traditional and update it and be relevant to their world. It was dynamic, creative, expressive, and varied.

I do not want to retell the story of the oppressive years under Kamuzu Banda, but its impact on the cultural life of the country was stultifying. Political repression and poverty marked the music scene when I came to Malawi as a teacher in 1968. Most bands could not afford the fancy western gear and because of the huge migration of workers to the south, the beat tended to be adopted from there. In addition, there were very few venues to put on a show. The musicians were talented and made good sounds, but simply couldn’t go anywhere creatively. You wake up in the morning, or late afternoon as many musicians do and you have a song in your head. You couldn’t dare perform it without the approval of the censorship board. Knowing how that august body thought and operated, most songs died still born. Much rich talent lay fallow or went to waste.

Now I stand on the shore of Lake Malawi, one of the world’s most stunning lakes as a backdrop, a crowd nicely mellowed with green on tap, listening to the cream of Malawi’s musical talent with die-hard Malawian fans and visitors eager to learn. They had backpacked and caravanned and flown in from all over the world.

What a show the talent gave us. I am sure they have to reinforce the stage when Wendy Harawa and her amazing, boneless dancer friend, Jane, start careening across it with Lulu. And pity the hapless male amateur from the audience who is suckered into trying to keep up with them. Wendy boldly sings of love and relationships emphatically reversing the stereotypes of the passive submissive Malawi woman. Tay Grin, the Nyao king, distorted my prejudices against rap by doing rants with Nyao drums and dancers backing him. I did say I was a very old guy and normally the rap style of shouting says nothing to me and seems totally unmusical. But here were those amazing drummers pounding out the multi-rhythms and toc-toc syncopations to move both the idioms of the gule wamkulu and rap forward in a unique and creative fashion. I only use two examples but there were many others.

I won’t go through the whole programme list but what I saw was fantastic, and as I mentioned earlier, the Malawian component of the crowd knew their artists and their work and were integrated into the music almost without exception. And over sitting under one of the young baobabs that dotted the scene was the musical elder of the Malawi music scene, Lucius Banda, graciously greeting the fans who approached him and chatting with his fellow musicians. No VIP loge at a musical festival not even for him, and no formality, but lots of dignity and a wonderful touch of class.

I tend to look at things through the eyes of a sociologist and an old political activist – I am a child of the sixties after all – so I am not pretending to write the definitive musical critique here. A review is supposed to be somewhat critical and there are always ways to improve so we move forward in a positive fashion. However, before I start this part I want to focus on the attitude of some of the visitors. I had no time for the whining of some snobby types. I still have a problem with racist arrogance whatever the accent. Any festival I have ever heard about or attended had organisational, logistical, service and cleanliness issues. In fact, Woodstock the famous mother of all festivals became known for the plethora of glitches and was an organisational nightmare from beginning to end. Forty years after my first arrival in Malawi it frustrates me to have to listen to these snobby types who ascribe such problems to some sort of Malawian inferiority. The freedoms that have been won here do not include the right to be racist.

That having been said there are things to do to build a better festival in the future. I have no solutions – this is not my field. It appeared to me that a lot of the imported talent were DJ’s and it was an excellent idea to give them their own stage far enough from the main stage that the two sounds did not interfere with each other. However, there was a lot of techno and house music (I use these words and am not even sure what they mean) on the main stage and only a couple of live imported acts. Seth was amazing on the fiddle and drew a very enthusiastic crowd and for that matter the DJs may have been top notch, but it was apparent to me that when they were on the Malawians generally gravitated to the bar and beach scene and left the white visitors on the floor to dance. However, as soon as a Malawian group came on, then like magic the dance floor was filled again with the home town fans and the visitors as well, because they are music fans and had come all the way to learn, so they stayed even when the language was not theirs and the idiom was unfamiliar. I can understand the complexity of putting together a festival that pleases all musical tastes and appeals to all generations, but there must be some Malawian DJ`s out there who can slip a taste of Africa into that genre.

A morning walk up the beach found bodies littering the coast like a marine disaster. But they represent a wonderful freedom to just lie where they fell. They had the right to party till they dropped and they did both party and drop. Four young Malawian gals in bikinis were frolicking unselfconsciously in the surf as they should be free to do so. Condoms were available for free on the bar counter and the rap guys sang about “infection is certain.” It was Malawi’s newest political movement, The Freedom Party.

As I watched the girls enjoying themselves, I think I heard a late member of the censorship board turning in his grave and maybe some others were uncomfortable too. But that’s life. We often do not get it until we are past our best before date, so move with the times or get out of the way. And to put the cherry on top of the ice cream, as the musical scene was unfolding, Malawi’s football team beat DRC. It just added to the radiance of the day. It may not be a perfect democracy but it has come a long way baby. The Freedom Party worked wonders on the weekend – democracy is here to stay.


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Doug’s bio: Doug taught at Mitundu Day Secondary School from 1968 to 1972. He married his fellow teacher, Nellie Saka from Kasungu and they have 4 children and 6.5 grandchildren. Doug has recently retired. They all live in Montreal, Quebec but have kept their links with Malawi alive over the years. Recently the Canadian based family established a little non-profit organisation, Makupo Development Group, to improve the quality of life and promote self-sufficiency in Nellie’s home village.

Submitted: 14 October 2008