Pamthunzi Arts born
A new group known as Pamthunzi Arts spearheaded by veteran actress Dipolathu Katimba and actor Yangairo Yangairo is born in Lilongwe.
Dipo who has travelled places with theatre said on Saturday that Pamthunzi Arts is here to stay and is aimed at executing different arts projects and that it will be engaging different artists.
“Of course I have a background of theatre but Pamthunzi Arts is looking at working with all artists be it musicians, poets and visual artists in different projects. We want to bridge the gap and we will be working with different organisations to use art in disseminating information to the public,” said the actress, who has starred in several of Nanzikambe Arts productions.
Yangairo Yangairo said he partnered with Dipo after noticing that they were staying idle.
“Dipo and I met in Lilongwe and that is where we came up with the idea of forming Pamthunzi Arts. We have been involved in theatre whilst we were in Blantyre but there was that inactiveness in Lilongwe so we decided to come up with Pamthunzi Arts,” he said.
With several other artistic groups dying a natural death due to inadequate funding and lack of vision, Yangairo said Pamthunzi Arts is here to stay and that they are writing different proposals to organisations.
“We will be on our toes and we are serious in all this. We are happy that we have already started attracting interest from various organisations,” he said.
And true to his words, Pamthunzi Arts on Saturday debuted by holding a theatrical performance at Mulanje Secondary School disseminating information on Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (Tevet) formal apprenticeship programme spearheaded by Teveta.
Having said that the group will be using artists from different groups, Pamthunzi Arts played a fast one bringing into their cast renowned actors among them Mphundu Mjumira, Misheck Mzumara, Thlupego Chisiza, Flora Suya and Fikisa crew of Saidi and Selemani Yusuf.
The group proved that art plays an important role in disseminating information by presenting the information in a crisp and articulate way to the students and interacted with them throughout their performance.
They zeroed in on several Teveta programmes urging students to make their decisions now and aim at enrolling in programmes like carpentry and joinery, automobile mechanics, electrical installation, painting and decoration and look beyond employing others.
Their use of the Fikisa brothers of Saidi and Selemani was on point as the two provided sound through their drums and added colour to the piece. The duo even reminded the audience of the past exploits when they dished out the popular hit ‘Akamwile.’
Actress Flora Suya, who starred in Shemu Joyah’s films Seasons of a Life and The Last Fishing Boat and is currently directing her own movie, was the toast of attraction with some female students shouting whilst she was on stage that “she was their role model.”
The group has shown it is up to task to use art in spreading information although the piece has all the room for improvement.
Teveta Executive Director Ndione Chauluka said they have engaged artists so as to reach out to people on their programmes.
“Our mandate as Tevet Authority is to ensure quality delivery of the training programmes in technical colleges. We want more people to learn these programmes because this is the only solution to developing our country, we need to change our mindset over these programmes and embrace them,” he said.
During the event Teveta also engaged the students in a career talk.
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