‘Atcheya’ cries foul over payments
Renowned mimicker, playwright and actor Frank Naligonje, who is popularly known as ‘Atcheya’ has hit at some organisers of events in the country for failing to adhere to contracts during payments.
Naligonje, who has been in the limelight trading as ‘Atcheya’ as he mimics the country’s former president Bakili Muluzi in speech, said some event organisers have been playing hide and seek when it comes to payment.
“You may have noticed that I have my own brand as Atcheya and as a mimicker, I do not only restrict myself to speech, there is a lot that I do and that entails involving more people. And so in using more people it means I have to pay them but organisers of events, especially fellow artists, do not give us what we agree on paper,” he said.
Naligonje said this development has left him with no choice but to reduce the number of people he works with.
“I want to be as creative as possible during my performances but with what is happening, I have decided to put my foot down and reduce the number of people because I am failing to pay them. In fact I am even contemplating of taking a short break until organisers adhere to contracts,” he said.
Naligonje could not be drawn to name some of the event organisers who are failing to stick to contracts.
The mimicker uses different styles during his performance and in some instances imitating what Muluzi used to do, he distributes K50s to people.
“This is what is killing creativity, there are artists out there who have the talent but instead of lifting them up you end up pulling them down. So as I said with this mentality where you just want to abuse us, the best is to stay away until things improve,” said Naligonje.
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