Nairobi — Harsh economic times have led a group of young men in Malawi to earn a living by using animal horns and old toilet pipes as music instruments to entertain patrons during social gatherings.
Imagine yourself attending a wedding in a rural village. During a reception after the couple had been blessed at the church, you come across a group of young men, wearing rags and different types of hats, and carrying animal horns and old toilet pipes. The members of the group have no shoes on their feet but walk barefoot. The group then starts blowing the horns and the toilet pipes to entertain the patrons attending the wedding celebrations.
A group of young men is surviving on animal horns and old toilet pipes. The group, Kabambe Two village, in Traditional Authority Nchilamwela in Thyolo District, 30 kilometres from the commercial city of Blantyre in Malawi is a singing and dancing group. According to the 23 year-old leader of the group, Alfred Namphuwa, the group was formed in 1990. It is composed of eight young men. The youngest is 16-years-old and the eldest of all is 23 years old. Some of the young men are married and others are not. Two of the young men work in one of the tea estates as labourers in macadamia nuts fields.
The group, popularly known as "Kabambe Two" sings and dances during weddings, initiation rites and healing sessions. During each of these functions, the group sings and dances. Their only equipment remains animal horns and old toilet pipes. The old toilet pipes are used as saxophone. The saxophone is one of the instruments needed most by the group.
For each performance, the group charges about $10. This charge covers performances during the night vigil and also performances during the following day. In addition to the charge, the person hiring the group must provide the group with food and drink during the time the group will stay at the place of performance. Furthermore, when the group is performing, it should be given money. "People have to throw money to the group, whether coins or paper money", says one of the people who has been to their performances several times.
A teacher from Loti Primary School in Thyolo District a Mr. Nthalika says, "Even if there is a hire fee, you still have to feed them and throw coins at them as a sign of your appreciation and heartfelt gratitude and satisfaction at their performances."
If the group is accompanying a newly married couple to a reception hall from a house where the couple was taking a meal, the group moves slowly. It sings and then moves a little bit. It then stops again to sing more. The group moves from one point to the next after money has been thrown to the group. The group keeps on singing and dancing until they reach the reception hall. All this is part of their survival strategies. As the group sings, older women and young people surround them and dance to tunes coming from the blowing of animal horns and old toilet pipes.
According to some villagers, the group is a well-known. Whenever there is a function, the group is used to invite people. Where they are performing, people come from all walks of life from the surrounding areas. While in urban centres music entertainment is provided by artists who use modern equipment, people in the rural areas of Thyolo find enjoying themselves dancing to the tune of these boys who use animal horns and old toilet pipes as their musical instruments.
The group faces competition from other groups who also use horns and groups that uses modern equipments. But Namphuwa says: "Although there is competition, it is not a serious threat. Ours is a special group." He further says, "People like us because we have maintained tradition."
From Friday to Sunday, these young men are never at home. They go for performances to as far places as Mulanje District - a district which borders Mozambique in the south east of Malawi. So far the group has performed in three districts of the south namely Phalombe, Mulanje and Thyolo. While some hire them during weddings because they cannot afford to hire bands which use modern equipment at a price of about $120 per three hour performance, others hire them because of the traditional blend they bring to the whole function. In some weddings, the group performs alongside modern bands.
The group says one cannot miss them. Namphuwa says, "If you want us, come to Kabambe Two and you will find us. Everyone knows us. Just ask for the boys who carry animal horns." They are nicknamed "Boys of the Horns". The key challenge for the group, according to the group leader is how to get old toilet pipes, which are only found in towns and in a few people's homes at the Boma (district offices). Namphuwa pleads: "If you have an old toilet pipe with a bend, send it to us and we shall turn it into a useful saxophone."
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Like the majority of Malawians, the group has to be creative to survive. In their case, the group has managed to compose songs for weddings, initiation rites and healing sessions. The group is even more famous during weddings.
All these things are happening when Malawi is in deep economic crisis. Poverty in Malawi is so deep. With about $1.50 one can buy a pair of trousers and a shirt from second hand clothes market. Yet a lot more people still put on torn shirts. It is this same poverty that has driven these young men from Kabambe in Thyolo to use animal horns and old toilet pipes in order to survive. The only words that Malawians have accepted to keep in their daily litanies are survival and sacrifice. The young men have indeed sacrificed to the extent of using old toilet pipes for survival. And this survival is at the rate of about $1 per performance.
AFRICANEWS News & Views on Africa from Africa Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya email: amani@iol.it
