All roads led to Mzimba at the foot of Hora Mountain on Friday night where Malawi’s indisputably leading reggae outfit, The Black Missionaries performed for the first time during this year’s Umtheto Cultural Festival and left an indelible mark.
Their performance was so energetic and superb that it added flavour to the festival that run from Thursday, 10 August and climaxed on Saturday.
During this year’s festival, they were all there: academicians, cabinet ministers, musicians, journalists and business captains.
They all came to celebrate with the Ngonis in their territory.
Ingoma and Beni dancers from both Malawi and Zambia mesmerised the crowds with their perfect dance moves and The Black Missionaries Band crowned it all.
There were lovely scenes during the night The Black Missionaries staged their maiden show at Hora Heritage Centre and they successfully set the tone for the main event.
Being first time ever to see Ma Blacks (as the band if fondly called) perform at the centre, fans were overexcited.
“For some of us who rarely go to Mzuzu to dance to their music during live shows, this (Umtheto) was an opportune time to see and dance to the reggae sounds of Ma Blacks,” said Isiah Mlongwe from Chanthomba in Mzimba who had travelled 42 kilometres to be part of the Umtheto at Hora.
Maxwell Banda, businessman based at Jenda Trading Centre was also one of the people who travelled to Hora for this year’s Umtheto.
“Together with my colleagues from Jenda, we hired a vehicle which brought us here. We particularly came for the Blacks show. We could not risk missing this opportunity to dance our problems away. We also had time to drink and eat free meat and nsima,” Banda said.
Black Missionaries Band arrived at Hora Heritage Centre around 10 pm and dished reggae vibes till Saturday morning.
People had freedom to request songs and the Band led by Anjiru Fumulani on vocals, did as fans requested.,
The Band dished out Rasta Man’s Wife, Timba, Reggae Music High, Olakwa Ndani, among others.
In a post-show interview, Fumulani said they were overwhelmed by the reception accorded in Mzimba.
‘We did not imagine people had so much hunger for our music. We enjoyed performing to fans. Looking at the huge gathering of fans we had to do the best to impress,” said Fumulani.
On Saturday after the Blacks had left, the grounds paved way for traditional dances such as Ingoma, Beni and Malipenga and others.
“I travelled all the way from Lilongwe because I could not afford to miss these Ngoni dances. I get mesmerised every time I see them dancing Ingoma,” said Daudi Mwangomba originally from Karonga but a resident of Lilongwe.
Mzimba Heritage Association General Secretary, Kingsley Jere said the aim of hiring Black Missionaries was to create hype and entertain their fans.
“With the electric performance of Black Missionaries we accomplished our mission of creating hype for the festival. This was the first time we had Black Missionaries or any other band at Umtheto. Fans came and enjoyed themselves,” said Jere.
Reported By Joel Phiri
