After a brief stopover in Lilongwe on Friday night, we spent Saturday morning in the villages of the Mzimba district in north-central Malawi. Our guide, Gertrude Mkandawire, a Member of Parliament from the area, gave us an intimate look at the cultural traditions practiced in the region. As we arrived in the village, dancers and [...]
Archive for July, 2008
War, Exorcism & The Legend
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Challenges Facing Malawian Music
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another week of insider-interviews from Blantyre, all of which have highlighted important trends in Malawian music. During the colonial era, traditional musical instruments, songs, rhythms, and pedagogies were chronically marginalized. Colonial governments were concerned first and foremost with their territories being financially self-supporting, so administration was kept to a minimum. Thus, economic activity was left [...]
Gig at Gecko Lounge
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday morning we woke up early, rounded up Kenny’s old crew, the Sangalala (Happiness) Blues Band, and drove six hours to Chembe, a small village inside Lake Malawi National Park on Cape Maclear. Jutting out along the southern coast, the cape grants views of the sun rising over Mozambique and setting over Malawi. A string [...]
Back in Blantyre
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After filming, bush-camping, and traveling 1200km over the past five days, it felt great for us to settle back into our humble abode in Blantyre for the week. We’ve been busy promoting the film in the national press and television while making the rounds within Blantyre’s music scene.
Monday morning we met the The Nation and [...]
Inside Gule Wamkulu
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Ancestral spirits play an important role in present day Chewa culture by remaining in contact with the living world, primary through the dances of those belonging to the Nyau, Malawi’s secret societies. Gule Wamkulu, meaning “the big dance,” has become another title for these secret societies of traditional Chewa religious practices, and this weekend, [...]
Music is The Way
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The name Malawi is derived from the word Maravi, meaning ‘reflected light or bright haze,’ which refers to the beautiful sunsets and sunrises over Lake Malawi. Explorer David Livingstone described the lake as a Lake of Stars that mirrors the crystal skies above. We spent last night along the southern coast at the beautiful Gecko [...]
Deep Roots Hits the Ground Running
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Muli bwanji,
Malawi is a land of smiles, a culture attuned to human sensitivities, where, unlike any other place I’ve ever been, people are unable to ignore a person standing before them. Your average Malawian’s ability to immediately relate to a wide range of social contexts is uncanny—people matter here, and they understand one another. It’s [...]
Angolan Smugglers at 150mph
Posted in Interns - 2008 on July 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In my last hitchhiking adventure before leaving Namibia for Malawi, I got a ride from a pair of Angolan smugglers in their $150K BMW. While clinging to my life at over 150mph, I managed to gleam from my broken understanding of Portuguese that they illegally haul cheaply bought Angolan petroleum (less than $2 US/gallon in [...]
Swakopmund
Posted in Interns - 2008 on July 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Hello from the sandy shores of Swakop! We’ve spent the past week in a cute beach town. Although the weather does not encourage sun bathing and swimming, it’s been so nice to walk by the ocean and see sand dunes from the desert in the background.
The center is one of the largest we have [...]
Back in Beautiful Namibs
Posted in Interns - 2008 on July 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Family and friends,
More thoughts and stories to come later, but for now, I’m rushing to catch a flight, so here’s the abbreviated version of the past four weeks and my plans through the end of the year.
I’ve been back in Namibia for a month and have been loving life. David Fu and I spent the [...]
