Page 42 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

34 The Society of Malawi Journal

As did other lyrical memes from the asilikali tradition, this one too found
expression in later political lyrics, such as one denouncing by name some early
nationalist leaders who had fallen out with President Banda:

Fire, fire is ablaze
Fire is ablaze! Fire is ablaze!
Malawians?
Malawians don't want:
45
Chipembere, Kanyama

In that same vein, League of Malawi Women singers - whose members were, from
their founding “to be seen walking along the roads in formation and singing the
46
songs in praise of Dr Banda” - were later co-opted by Kamuzu, who referred to
them as his mbumba. And it was not long until their lyrics denounced the
President’s perceived enemies using a similar reference and, in turn, singing his
praises:

They will burn, they will burn
Those who play with Ngwazi, the fire!
The Ngwazi is a hero
47
He is a saviour in Malawi.

Even during his final political campaign, as Banda’s Malawi Congress Party was
trying to prevail in the first multiparty elections since self-government polling
took place in 1953, one of the lyrics often heard replayed that same meme which
had its asilikali precedents:

Ngwazi fire
We don’t want Bakili (Muluzi)
He could steal from us
48
Our wealth

As did other elements of the asilikali lyrical tradition, such references were also
burned into Malawian popular culture over the past century.
♪ ♫ ♪

45 Song recorded by Wiseman C. Chirwa, “Dancing Toward Dictatorship,” 7.
46 Lucy Mair, The Nyasaland Elections of 1961 (London: Athlone Press, 1962):
33.
47 Song recorded by Wiseman C. Chirwa, “Dancing Toward Dictatorship,” 10.
Similar lyrics became “an essential component of every rally organized” in
support of Kamuzu Banda’s rule; Peter G. Forster, “Culture, Nationalism, and the
Invention of Tradition in Malawi,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 32,
3(1994), 491.
48 Song recorded by Lisa Gilman, Dance of Politics, 82-3.