Page 38 - Number 2 2021 Volume 74

26 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

idea came up in her head and she’d say…I want to interview so and so and then
she could produce an entire programme from that.
She worked hard but was not driven to win no matter what. By that I
mean she was naturally gifted and talented, but she strove to perfect these talents
too through sheer determination and hard work. She was not going to do whatever
was necessary to achieve; she was not going to trample someone or kow-tow to
them; she found those sorts of actions caused too much friction on what her core
beliefs were. I think she knew who she was and had a very strong moral compass
and always made choices that were not easy but were right in her mind. Lying,
cheating, conniving or manipulating, bending to rules or allowing herself to be
controlled were not her characteristics and I feel that perhaps some of these things
meant that she grated on some people. She abhorred chauvinism and sexual
discrimination. She believed that people ought to be remunerated equally based
on talent and experience not on who you know or your gender.
I feel she was disappointed that she had not released any of her own
music of which she had plenty. Mainly I believe she did not want to be perceived
as having failed or to release something that was substandard. I recall that when
she and I went away to the Lake for a long weekend in 2005, we listened to tape
recordings of music she’d recorded. She wanted the sound to be authentically
Malawian which it was. She never released the music. I do not know why.

Maria Chidzanja Nkhoma in concert.
She was a person in whom you could confide but she was also a person
who did bottle a lot of her emotions. Yet, she also had outbursts at which time if
she was very displeased you would know it. Her colleagues speak of her “telling
them off”. She was very particular. She did not tolerate bad manners or sloppy