The Malawian Court of Public Opinion

 It is yet another Friday and once again we are treated with an article. I must say that putting this piece has been something that I have had to force myself to do as I am forcing a headache. I am not saying that to buy your sympathy, though. I am just hoping that this whole headache thing will not be reflected in the subsequent paragraphs.

There have been two issues that have dominated social media conversations this week. Well. Maybe three of four but I will talk about two of them. You probably wouldn’t expect me to talk about Dr Laz and Made See in one article, but I am the Richie of Richie Online and I can combine any two things in any sort of proportions without being questioned. Sounding cocky? That’s the headache.

A week ago Malawian music websites uploaded what they called a leaked version of a Made See track titled Complaining. The track won the hearts of many who showered praise on the young artists for his talent and for doing what were praised as lyrically mature songs than the likes of Charisma and Tsar Leo. Some of the people in the Richie Online community posted screenshots of the song playing. One good friend of mine changed his Facebook Profile picture to the official artwork of the supposedly leaked song. The masses were in full support of the young artist and looking at the overwhelming support he got after releasing, one would wonder if it was the same people who had been stoning Made See for being an uncultured brat. I know that some of you do not follow Malawian urban music so I will put this in context.

Made See, real name Medson Kapeni  is a 16 year old artist who happened to have been “signed” by Namadingo’s (Ine za Dr Namadingo sindipanga nawo because I am not from the University of South Africa) Namartists label. In a deal that was sponsored by FDH Bank, Made See was to get school fees and money for recording an album. In what we have learnt as the conditions of the deal, the kiddo was supposed to unlock the music money by proving himself on the academic turf. Somehow, it seems like things did not end well in class and the young artist did not access the money for recording his album. The reaction? In what was an informal video interview gone viral, Made See was seen complaining about how Namartists did not fulfil their end of the bargain. Young man went on to say how Namadingo used to film him while talking about the package Made See was getting; while failing to give him even a K200 note.

Before we continue, I should say here that this article is not about what happened but rather how people reacted to it.

I will continue.

When the video went viral, the masses descended on Made See calling him an ungrateful kid. Prophets of doom went on to say that the kid had no future in music because of his lack of character. The negative noise was too much and that prompted Made See to apologize in another interview. That did not do much to quench the anger of the people who still castigated Made See and labelled him a misguided young man. Now that is the only thing I agreed with from the whole array of negative reactions. Being young, Made See did not know how best to react to the situation and how much to say in the clips. In the midst of the condemnation rose another group of people that faulted Namadingo’s record label for prioritizing school when what Made See needed was support in music. Like I said, we are not talking about that happened so I will let us debate this in a virtual pub talk  at 10 pm. What I saw in the whole situation was a reflection of Malawi’s music industry in which artists and managers hardly have carefully drafted contracts explaining who gets what. Made See and Namartists contradicted each other on the presence of a signed contract. Again, chat for another time. For now we are talking about how the very people who had castigated Made See were won over and even started calling for fundraisers after listening to what I think was a purposefully leaked song. I will park this for now.

The following Sunday, our leader was on the podium to address the nation following the release of the K6.2 billion audit report. The visibly angry pastor turned president spat fire and told us how he had unleashed law enforcement agencies on those who had looted public coffers. The highlight of the day? He fired a senior cabinet minister for an irregularity in the expenditure of COVID-19 funds at the Ministry of Labor (or something of that sort). Following the speech, the president received a lot of praise from the impressed masses. The interesting bit? Those were the same people who had expressed regret for voting for regime change when the report of the K6.2 billion had come out. These were the same people who had talked the President down for not having the cajones to control the looting.

As I mentioned, I am not here to write about what happened but rather about how people reacted to it but I will talk more about what happened in an attempt to make you understand why I was not impressed with el presidente’s rhetoric like the normal Malawian. As you remember, the audit was commissioned after the president, in his attempt to be transparent presented an expenditure report that was full of cooked round figures before ordering an immediate release of another sum of K17 billion for the same COVID-19. Then there was the track record of giving speeches with little or no accompanying action. That was on him, but you know what else is interesting? Instructing the Police to arrest people. Now that is nice but here in Malawi we hardly get any convictions and people to return the money. Being the difficult to please person I am, I decided that I will be impressed when more big kahunas in the OPC and law enforcement were brought to book on this one. For now, I will sit back and refuse to be impressed by the mubweza rhetoric. That’s just me. But we are not talking about me here. We are talking about your reaction and how you were impressed a couple of days after making t shirts with a message of how Chakwera needed to go for mismanaging your 6.2 bita.

There we are with Made See and Dr Chakwera; two people who were hated for things that went viral in the social media and instantly won the hearts of the people back with the sounds they made days later. One fell out with the masses because of a video clip and another because of an audit report. One won us back because of a song and another used his oratory prowess to have the country rally behind him. Has anything changed about the two? Probably not. If no intervention is done on Made See, we may see a potentially career-killing incident that is not unlike the one we witnessed recently with the Namartists scandal. I would like to believe that it will be all action and few words from the president and the government in general but if not, we will continue to move in the same lazy circles in which we get mad at the president on one day and he gets to quench our anger with another Sean Kampondeni masterpiece.

Allow me to sign out by expressing something about the court of public opinion. When something big happens in the country, people react. In the olden days, we would be mad and express our issues in our offices, ku bawo and everywhere else but the social media age has given us cyber tools through which we can express our issues. With the digital age, a new profession of social commentary has arisen and there are people whose Facebook posts are quoted by the Malawian version of tabloids. It has come to the place where some people really do not know how to feel about something before they cross check with Onjezani Kenani or Henry Kachaje’s reaction. People are unable to form an opinion independent of the social media. The result? Opinions waver and you will find people who had their guns pointed at a 16-year old switching lanes after the release of a poorly produced song in which l’s were mixed up with r’s in pronunciations. Reason? Someone hyped it all up. We have people who will switch from running the president down to praising him because how others have reacted to his speech. That is the Malawian court of public opinion for you: some unstable combining of nyusensi basi. One day they will be for you and the other day they will be against you.

The year is still young and I cannot wait to see how we will react to the scandals that 2021 has for us. I will let you relate this article with what happened with issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine and the contentious issue of teachers’ risk allowances.

Now that you have read this, you can start calling me a Made See hater and a DPP sympathizer.

 

 

Chinga