Emotion is the enemy of wise music craft

The first time I heard the saying in ciBemba that "Bakolwe basekana ifipato," I thoguht it was restricted to our arboreal cousins.


I grew up in a komboni on the Copperbelt. I did not choose that seedy neighborhood for my nursery. This is the one time when I unknowingly ceded responsibility to the hands of other people and say, "the decision was made for me." I have not regrets though. Most importantly I worked hard to change things. As I say, "Every devastating blow carries with it the seed of strength." You can see, I lived to talk about it.

Others did, too. But most of those that I grew up with have passed on. This piece, however, is not about me. Rather it is about those that are coming on my heels. Those who are suffering the same belittlement as the komboni kids always do by the kids from ku mayadi. At the time I thought they were snobs. But in retrospect, I think they did not have much of a choice either.

I am not quite sure but entertainer Dandy Krazy could be one of those coming on my heels. In Krazy's view, the Award things are not working well for him. They fall short of meeting his expectations - whatever those expectations were. And using the best means available to him, he lashes out at them all!

I was about to label Krazy's outbursts as irrational when I noticed some other dude who sounded like a kid from ku mayadi decided to reduce Krazy to a mere caricature of a performer. As you will soon notice, Krazy did not mention a name. Instead, he, in no uncertain terms, indicated that he had an axe to grind with the organizations. But the dude who sounded like a kid from ku mayadi personalized the whole issue. He went for Krazy's jugular and tore the poor Komboni young man apart. This is not an attempt to stand in solidarity with fellow Komboni survivor, but to highlight the poverty of thought in some of our young men. This lack of tolerance for one another and patience to try and understand first before acting is a blight that is likely to be carried through to public office should these young men decide to run for office.

One can argue that the fussing and fighting we are forced to witness in public figures is rubbing off to the young generation. Those aspiring to and holding public office of any magnitude ought to realize that emotion is the enemy of wise statecraft.

I have highlighted with blue what I thought were incendiary comments and inserted my comments in brown.
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Kondowe urges ZAM to discipline Dandy

By Lovely Kayombo Fri 21 Jan. 2011, 18:00

Dandy Krazy

FOLLOWING Dandy Krazy’s outbursts against the Ngoma and Born and Bred awards at a performance held at Breakpoint in Lusaka recently, the Zambia One Comedy outfit have expressed their disappointment with the singer’s behaviour and charged that he is ignorant over how much the organisers put in to come up with the awards.

In an interview with the Weekend Post, Zambia One director of productions Derrick Kondowe said the behaviour exhibited by Dandy Krazy is unacceptable. Having read the comments in yesterday's paper and assuming they were true, I will agree with Kondowe.

“First and foremost, I want to appeal to the executive of Zambia Association of Musicians to discipline the boy for embarrassing the entire music association. I am wondering who really is an ignoramus here. But I will let you be the judge. I should mention however that his term, boy, does tend to carry derogatory connotations when used in the context that he did. We need to educate these artistes before they go on issuing useless comments about the local awards because they have misunderstood the essence of the awards,“ Kondowe said.What kind of education would that be ba Kondowe, if I may ask?
He said the awards are meant to recognise artistes' efforts in order to motivate them to do more in their careers.

“Coming to Born N' Bred, an initiative by Innocent Kalaluka the producer of Smooth Talk, it came about to encourage musicians to produce videos that are internationally accepted. There seems to be this insatiable desire to please the 'international.' What manner of beast is this thing called 'international' that wants to be fed at the expense of the local Zambians? Born N' Bred was made out of personal sacrifice by Kalaluka and maybe they make money out of advertisements. And for them to even offer K1m prize money it should be commended. I would appreciate if this came from seasoned artistes like Danny ‘Kaya’ Siulapwa or the Sakala Brothers because these play live music on stage, not some chaps who board a Marco Polo bus to Lusaka with a scratched disc to come and play here in Lusaka and make disparaging remarks against the local awards,” he said. Up until this point, I was thinking Kondowe was concerned about the nature of the comments and not the the status and economic condition of the person who uttered them. Should it matter what mode of transportation Krazy used to travel? It is beginning to crystallize in my mind that Kondowe may not after all be a kid from ku mayadi. 

I am beginning to suspect Kondowe is one of those kids we called "fuzi." The term, Fuzi, was used to describe a Seyfert who was always a step behind somebody but was always in the frontline protecting the image and the body of he that they envied. I love Danny and I think he cranks out some unique tunes all the time, but he does not always play live music while the Salaka bothers do. But be that as it may, not all musicians are going to have the luck of leading a band. There will always be somebody struggling on the fringes who would fit the description of a "starving musician." But it may not be by choice. Not every one was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Some are born na mabula ya nkonde mukanwa. 

Kondowe appeal to Dandy Krazy to apologise to the organisers of the Born N' Bred and Ngoma awards.
“ZAM is of the musicians’ organisations that can hold one of the most prestigious awards in the country but for one of the artistes to come and insult the existing award(s) is an insult to all the artistes, including myself. He (Dandy) should focus on improving his poor musical and video works rather than insulting the awards,” Kondowe said.

He said currently the music videos being shown on local television channels could not match or compete at international level.

“Our brother Jordan Katembula (JK) has improved on his works, therefore Dandy should emulate him because JK can attract corporate organisations to sponsor his music because he has made us proud.  In all fairness, Kondowe should speak for himself. Some people feel JK does not not really measure up. Therefore, Dandy Krazy should not get excited over nothing when he performs in these bars and make bad comments, he only rubbishes ZAM…Let him behave like a role model because many people are looking up to him. Even the organisation that is sponsoring him cannot like to be associated with insults. What he is simply telling us is that when you drink the same sachet of ‘Krazy Berry’ he was advertising at Breakpoint, you become violent and begin to insult other people,” said Kondowe. So, Krazy has a corporate sponsor! And Kondowe knows there are people looking up to him? Kondowe is contradicting himself here.

At a performance at Breakpoint a fortnight ago, Dandy Krazy said he did not believe in the Ngoma and Born N' Bred awards because the prize monies they offered to winning artistes was insufficient and only belittled artistes.

He described the Born N' Bred Awards as useless and the Ngoma Awards rubbish.

Final Note: Let's learn to listen well, think rationally, and speak right. And most of all, let's learn to be tolerant of one another. We must not always push each other under the bus in a bid to please a foreigner. All foreigners have imyabo, no kubwekela balabwekela. Imyesu is you me and every Zambian looking out for each other.