AS HUNGER HITS HOME, KALANDANYA MUSICAL ENSEMBLE GOES PRODIGAL – STARTS FOOLING BALLY THE WAY THEY FOOLED CHAGWA INTO THE LOSS TRENCH
Emmanuel Chilekwa
25 June, 2022
So musicians after all, don’t sing what they believe in but sing for the highest and best bidder who can aid them put food on the table? They don’t even mind whether you win or lose, they’ll always leave you nurse or lick your wounds as they criss over to the high table flowing with milk and honey – they are not part of the loss mourners.
When some of these musicians enjoyed Chagwa’s cash for artists, ECL was the man of the moment. They could not even sleep but innovate songs that even the deaf and dumb sand and danced to rhythmically.
But life is harsh. The harsh realities of life has been able to dislodge one from enjoying his birthright to ignoring even what the mind reminds them about. A hungry person is an angry man. There are no negotiations with a hungry man. There are no compromises or reasoning when one is hungry. “ Sebana wikute ” becomes a saving deed of survival.
Barely 10 months on, like many millions of Zambians who are experiencing hardships, the Kalandanya Music Promotions – KMP label has felt what it means to lose “eating privileges” from the high table of the crumbs of the ruling party. They have made a 360 degrees turnabout and swallowed their pride – they are now singing praises for Bally.
Whilst they enjoy the trappings of singing for cash-in-the-bank under Edgar Chagwa Lungu, they seem not to realize that Bally and ECL are not churned from the same needle, the two are totally different – it is water and oil, the two don’t mix because they have different viscosity characteristics.
Remember when the sun shone and they made hay, they were dishing out ama 25 pin donations to then embattled Mumba Yachi who had lost his assets as a result of a personal calamity he suffered losing his properties.
It was this record label which told the nation that to remove Lungu, you needed to come with a mazembe . They even went as far as saying “God had already picked on Lungu as winner” because he had worked developmental wonders – schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and so forth. They sang the scintillating danceable PF official song “ ALEBWELELAPO PA MUPANDO ” and that is how they fooled ECL and the looting and plundering ensemble.
Today, this same music label has started to fool the current ruling UPND party, they think UPND is the same as PF where they were being nursed and pampered with financial rewards.
Bally is another. He takes no nonsense of caderism, patronism and doesn’t have a long hand when it comes to dishing out moneys. When His Veep GBM was with him, caders enjoyed working for the party because GMD is a natural “Father Christmas”, samadya eka , he eats with people, and he eats with a smile.
The KMP music label has just found that Noah has already closed the economic redemption door. They have gone to Bally rather too late for salvation because they didn’t see that the Mazembe they talked about was in Southern Province amassing One millions tons of votes against ECL.
There were musicians who sang honestly and ardently for Bally’s success. And indeed, it is just good that the KMP should avoid going to Bally’s camp to cloud the entrance. Let those who plied their time and energy for Bally now start eating with Bally.
It would not be wrong to believe that our musicians are economic singers – they sing for money. They go where they can eat. They do not even believe in what they sing for… they have no shame to eat their words.
True, they say, insala kapondo. Well, even in the Bible, when hunger pangs ravaged, someone sold out his birthright over a bowl of soup.
Now in this Bally kamfulumende, not even a bowl of soup is available for people who just come from the green bushes to the red camp of starvation fire.
They have eyes but they cannot read. In UPND, even hardworking party officials are beging ama One pin from simple women in the diaspora. In UPND, money to dish out, theliz no.
If a musical ensemble thinks speaking and singing good of Bally TODAY will fool Bally to start smiling at them, sorry Shamwari, Bally is not interested and does not entertain such turn-coats.
I wonder why people fail to study their leaders. One thing you cannot take away from Bally is that he does not forget. Those who crossed his path, those who tortured him and those who kept him well in prison – he rewards them both: good or bad, it depends on what you did for him or against him.
Just yesterday, he was in Europe in the European Parliament. He still went to tell the white folks how terrible the past regime was, how he was incarcerated unjustly and so forth. You could see even his face was emitting the pain he went through.
Whilst he was in Europe talking about his 127 days treason torture, back home, his Information and media Minister Chushi Kasanda was at Mukobeko Maximum Prison donating beds to prisoners and she ensure she visited Cell 4 and inspected that that Cell had flushing toilet and a bed. She pointed out that at the time Bally was incarcerated, he and his co-accused were sleeping on cold floor, no mattresses, no blankets.
So, if KMP thinks that Bally has forgotten that this musical outfit never wanted him to rule, they are mistaken. These folks sang it is “Lungu na Luo” and if one argued, “ bakaimwena ”.
Hunger is not your play mate. It has knocked. Four more years, at this starvation level is no child’s play. It is that season of ‘sebana wikute’, forget the principles, after all, who ever eats or puts principles on a dinner table?