Of Jealousy and Hatred

 

It is another wonderful Friday and unfortunately for me I have to write after one Venomous Hope whose beautiful piece you got to enjoy last week. I could not have said what he said better and having heard his representative views it is time to get a chill pill. In this you have an emerging type of a Richie Online article; a comment on comments.

The past few days have been news-packed and we had things to quench our insatiable appetite for gossip and trivial issues. It was a lovely week, wasn’t it? Let’s dissect it.

We start in South Africa. You do not need to be an ardent follower of current affairs for you to know that there are violent protests punctuated by looting and destruction of property in the rainbow nation. The demonstrations started when a group of Jacob Zuma supporters ganged up to voice their views against the incarceration of the former president. In no time things escalated and the country was in smoke. In times like these, I refrain from watching the news in a bid to wean myself of the negativity but meme lords and ladies took it upon themselves to show us the clips in their status posts. That is how I knew that the military had been deployed and that there was a bit of control to an extent. It is inevitable that the unrest will affect Malawians living in South Africa. Perhaps it might be time to say a few words of prayer for the country and our brothers who are living the rainbow nation if you believe in a higher power.

Perhaps we should rewind the wheels of time and go back to the year 2020 when one son of Malawi miraculously left South Africa for home to escape persecution and prosecution. When asked how he eluded authorities, he claimed that he was not even sure as to how he managed to cross the borders and find himself. Rumour has it that in the months that he has been here, he has been to South Africa, the very nation that froze his assets and is pushing for his extradition. I digressed.

A couple of weeks ago, the charismatic prophet joined the likes of Dr. George Chaponda, Dr. Patricia Kaliati to launch a book. A lot of people have been launching books lately and it was no surprise that we saw the man of the collar follow suit. I did not follow the event, as I normally would but one thing I know is that Dan Lu and Tay Grin were invited. I saw the pictures and one (if not both) of them was in one of those funny “sindidzakula” hairstyles. A couple of days ago, a publicist announced that the book by the good man had sold over 4 million copies, making the man some few billions in a space of two weeks. Did you hear about this? You did not. Perhaps you are just like the South African looters who looted the whole mall but left a bookshop untouched. Zocheza and that is a story for another time. The number of books that were sold generated mixed reactions.

On one end were the positive humans who went on to congratulate their compatriot for pulling such an amazing feat. They went on to give us the “never give up in hardships” motivational message and praised the prophet for showing resilience. Then there was my gin-drinking friend whose name I will not mention. Skeptical about the numbers, he wondered whether we should trust the man that faked the miracle of walking on air (mind you, I am directly quoting my friend here; ine komwe amayenda m’malereko kunalibeko) and other miracles when he tells us he has sold so many books. That got me thinking. If he pulled the miracle of evading authorities and managed to move out of South Africa to Malawi, why should we not trust him when he says he has sold 4 million books? On the more logical side, others wondered how a man who has no prior hit publication would sell so many books in such a short time and the response they would get is that he is popular and he has a huge following thus potential customer base. I will let the two sides argue it out but he one question that is bothering me is this. Why would anyone lie about the number of books sold? To impress? Perhaps the reason some of us are questioning the 4 million copies number is that we are envious of the man.

Talking of the issue of jealousy, we had a scene in the country earlier this week when we lost a man who is arguably one of the best musicians of all time in Malawi to our neighboring Zambia. Some of you are not savvy with the social media side of Malawi so let me tell you what happened. On Monday, Patience Namadingo of the Mtendere fame (or Dr Namadingo as fans call him nowadays) posted that he was leaving Malawi for good because he was hated for being number one in this country. The text was posted as a caption to a picture of him on a plane. A bit of context. For some time, the artist has been maintaining two homes; one in Blantyre Malawi and another in Lusaka Zambia. He has since then referring to himself as a Malambian; a person who is both Malawian and Zambian.

The issue of being hated. I am not too sure as to whether that came from the toxic comments on his Facebook page. Most have said that the feeling of hatred came in after the good artist lost a poll on the Mikozi Facebook page. The poll? Who is better between Onesimus (Armstrong) and Doc (Namadingo)? Of course the former won with a landslide victory and some of the comments threw shade at Namadingo who I should admit not to have been kind to in my previous posts (he probably deserved it, though).

Now, my fellow doc’s post about leaving attracted a lot of negative reactions. Some people wondered why he was claiming the number one spot and asked him to provide proof of it. I stand with my fellow doc so I will put out achievements for your attention. That guy is the only Malawian artist who has multiple videos with over a million views on YouTube. He is the guy who filled up both BICC and COMESA Hall in his All New Namadingo Tour. His charity works have been like no other artist and it is safe to say that he has held the number one point at some point. And not once. On the other hand, there are others that wanted him to provide proof that he was hated in his home country. Now these ones I agree with.

There is a certain sort of toxicity that comes with fame and it is more prevalent on social media where a lot of keyboard warriors do not care about what others feel. As a big artist, one needs to learn how to handle such so that it does not get to them and affect their craft. Easier said than done, you would say, but I submit to you that it is doable and artists need to put in some effort in blocking out certain aspects of the social media. The beauty of it all is that the whole situation gave us plenty of fun screenshots of people’s comments on doc’s departure. You probably saw a load of those. Richie Online will give you a quote from the same internet on this issue. “Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.” I don’t know who said that, but he had a point.

Looking at our good prophet who returned from the rainbow nation where he enjoyed a higher level of influence and wealth, I am left with the same questions I have when I look at the artist we lost. Is home really the best? Are our public figures really hated as they claim? What is hate? Is it wrong for people to use different social platforms to question the public figures and celebrities who we hold so dear? Or does that count to hatred? Kapena mwina timaonjezatu? Maybe it is high time that  we stopped hating. It is also high time we stopped taking criticism as hatred.

As one good friend of mine posted, public figures need to learn how to handle fame. Perhaps he was sending the message to all of us because he also pointed out that in Malawi it is possible to wake up a nobody and go to bed a celebrity (Wazakena?). We need to learn how to handle the toxicity that comes with fame and success. On the other hand, we all need to learn to appreciate people and not throw all their achievements into the bin when they do one wrong thing. 

I would have gone on to talk about our shocked president but I think he deserves a break from Richie Online after the Venomous Hope punched holes in his leadership style last week. Social media has already sorted Medson Kapeni aka Med C so I will leave him alone.

Have a blessed weekend.

This article is dedicated to the married Mr. Gracious Mulinga also known as the Daydreamer. He has been a keen follower of the Richie Online blog and has given us three articles as a Guest Writer. Happy birthday!