2017 not a bad year—Musicians Union of Malawi
Musicians Union of Malawi (Mum) President, Reverend Chimwemwe Mhango, said yesterday that the year 2017 was not bad as they have managed to succeed with some programmes.
Mhango said, among the successes, they managed to implement two key projects, one funded by the Swedish Music Fund (SMF) and another by Hivos.
“We did not manage to do that in past years but we are glad that this was possible in the year 2017. These projects helped us a lot because we managed to hold a lot of trainings and workshops as well as campaign for recruitment of new members,” Mhango said.
He said all chapters benefitted from the two projects.
However, some musicians complained recently that they were being sidelined from trainings while others accused the Mum leader of leaning more towards gospel musicians than secular.
But Mhango said, since he took over the mantle, he has strived to work with every musician.
“I have been open and have worked with all musicians, be it gospel or secular. Those, who have been saying that I am biased don’t know what they are talking about. Since I took over, we have seen musicians getting united and the body is becoming more attractive and stronger,” he said.
Mhango acknowledged that they have more to do to propel the music industry.
“We cannot afford to relax because we still have more work to do and all we want is to have all musicians as members so that we can be speaking with one voice,” he said.
Mhango also noted that they did not do enough on practical programmes.
“We actually had hoped that we would organise one big festival but we failed. [Organisation of] awards has also been a challenge but we are looking forward to become even stronger next year,” he said.
Mum on Monday petitioned the Copyright Society of Malawi where musicians indicated that they are engulfed in a myriad problems, ranging from piracy to inefficient and lack of transparency in the way royalties are handled.
Mum yesterday also held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lilongwe, where 77 members drawn from all the chapters were in attendance.
The music body will next year hold elections.
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