$Unique_ID{COW02302} $Pretitle{372} $Title{Malawi Chapter 7C. Visual Arts and Crafts} $Subtitle{} $Author{Harold D. Nelson, Maragita Dobert, Gordon C. McDonald, James McLaughlin, Barbara Marvin, Doanld P. Whitaker} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{malawi dance government dances foreign published radio 1970s broadcasting mbc} $Date{1973} $Log{Table 6.*0230201.tab } Country: Malawi Book: Malawi, A Country Study Author: Harold D. Nelson, Maragita Dobert, Gordon C. McDonald, James McLaughlin, Barbara Marvin, Doanld P. Whitaker Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1973 Chapter 7C. Visual Arts and Crafts The carving of wood or stone figures appears to have been of little importance to the various ethnic groups that now populate Malawi. The use of wood or stone was utilitarian, and the aesthetic possibilities received scant attention in the working of those materials for everyday purposes. Pipe stems and bowls, knife scabbards, and the handles of various other articles were frequently carved, but the work was generally rough. An exception was in the making of wood masks for various ceremonial and ritual dances. The talent for carving existed, however, and was soon employed after the arrival of the Europeans in the late 1800s to fashion for sale elaborate walking sticks, dolls, and figures of birds and animals. In 1974 human figures and other objects were carved from wood, ivory, and stone; the main purpose seemed to be for the tourist trade. The carvings showed high aesthetic qualities, but Malawian sculptors and their works remained little known in the West, and no sculptor had as yet attained international repute. Rock paintings occur at numerous sites, particularly in the central and northern parts of the country. They are found on rock faces, in rock shelters, and also in shallow caves. Those believed of earlier dates are naturalistic, whereas later paintings are mainly schematic, consisting of circles, line combinations, and various other abstract motifs. Colors are usually shades of red and white, and in many cases a time sequence is evident, red colors often being older, although the color used apparently depended to some extent upon available local materials. The paintings all show close affinities to similar ones found in Zambia. They are believed to have had primarily a ritualistic or magical purpose, contrasting strongly in this and in their style with the decorative Bushman art found south of the Zambezi River. Age estimates of extant paintings placed the earliest abott the time of the Maravi migration to the region (see ch. 2). Present-day oral history attributes them to the pygmoid Kafula who inhabited the area at that time. There was little evidence of the painting or pictorial ornamentation of objects or of huts and other structures by the Bantu-speaking ethnic groups that entered Malawi in historic times. In the 1970s the emphasis on practical studies appeared to leave little room for art education, but some Malawians have presumably acquired a knowledge of Western painting techniques-evening art classes, for instance, were offered at an expatriate secondary school in Blantyre-and paintings were reportedly on sale to tourists. Traditional handicrafts, including baskets, mats, gourds, and pottery, continued to be fabricated for daily use. Decorated forms and ornaments such as bead necklaces were produced for the tourist trade. Bark cloth, which in ordinary use has long been superseded by cotton materials, was also made for the same purpose. Music and Dance As in many African societies, Malawi has a wide variety of traditional dances and of songs, which invariably accompany dancing. Such songs are usually characterized by improvisation. Originally limited to particular ethnic groups, certain traditional dances have become nationally known. They regularly form part of the program at celebrations and events of national significance, when they are performed by dance troupes from the different areas of the country. The earlier functional association of some dances has disappeared with changing external conditions, for instance the ingoma (war dance) of the Ngoni, which has become purely a vehicle for enjoyment. In other cases, as that of the vinyao (initiation ceremonies of Chewa boys), a dance may continue to be used for its traditional purpose as well as for mass entertainment (see ch. 5). Dancers of the northern Ngoni ingoma are attired in battle regalia of skins and feathered headgear and carry the Ngoni shield and spear as well as war club. Particularly notable is the precision and unison of the dance, which is performed without drums and is accompanied only by the rhythmic singing and handclapping of the women. The modern entertainment version of the vinyao, also known as the gule wa mkulu (big dance), evolved from dances at initiation rites (still carried out in the 1970s), funeral ceremonies, and the installation of Chewa chiefs. The dance was originally practiced in secret to hide the identity of the dancers, and to some extent this practice continued in the public performances. A grotesque mask and feathered headgear are worn, the body is daubed with mud or ash, and the torso is usually covered in varying degrees by bark or skin raiments. To further protect identity, disguised voices are used both in singing and speaking. Movement is very energetic and involves acrobatic feats and the use of much physical exertion. At one stage a group of dancers enters disguised as animals. Their outfits of woven grass and reeds are highly artistic, and the performers mime the actual movement of the animal represented. Drums and handclapping set the rhythm, and performers may dance individually or in groups. One leads the singing, and the audience responds as a chorus. Traditionally, younger persons were not permitted in the vinyao, and new members were put through strenuous tests before being given the group's password. This secrecy was a major element causing a belief in a connection between the dancer and the spirits. This same belief existed in the case of the vimbuza or masawe dance of the Northern Region's Tumbuka and Tonga and the Chewa of the Central Region, which was danced to expel evil spirits causing hallucinations and other psychological disturbances. As a result these dances were particularly castigated as sinful by the early Christian missionaries. Two of Malawi's most popular traditional dances, both in the local and national context, originated only in the 1900s. These were the malipenga (gourd trumpets) dance performed by men and the chiwoda, danced usually by women. The malipenga was developed in the Nkhata Bay area after World War I by returning members of the King's African Rifles and spread from there to many other parts of the country. It is performed by a regularly organized group known as a boma, divided into three main sections. One section (the officers) carries walking sticks, and the other two consist of bass and tenor gourd trumpets, respectively. A large military-band-style drum accompanied by two smaller ones provides the rhythmic cadence. A characteristic of the dance is its smartness and precision. In the 1970s malipenga dancing was highly competitive, and contests were held from time to time involving as many as ten or more boma. The chiwoda appears to have evolved from the male malipenga dance and, like the latter, also has the organized boma structure. It was considerably influenced initially in its development, however, by older traditional dances for women. Subsequently modifications in steps were introduced from Western dances, such as the twist, and the outfits worn have changed as women's styles changed. Frequently females from six years to middle age or older were arbitrarily made members of the village dance boma, and failure to participate might have undesirable repercussions. The dance performances were used during the 1950s and 1960s to arouse political consciousness through new nationalistic songs and topical themes. In the 1970s there continued to be a political theme in the songs of praise for the incumbent government and the deriding of the opposition. The dance boma, like those of the malipenga, have become very competitive, but in addition the chiwoda has remained in the village purely a source of entertainment, especially for young girls and for boys, who also participated. At one time educated girls reportedly looked down on the chiwoda as rustic and unsophisticated, but developing nationalism in the 1960s and early 1970s has brought the dance respectability. Other traditional dances of some note were the urumba, or hunter's dance, of the Tumbuka of northern Malawi; the njelelo, a Chewa dance for women that resembled the vinyao; and the nkwenda, one of the few dances in which both men and women participated. The nkwenda, performed in the Ncheu District of the Central Region, was originally a mourning dance. No drums are used, and the accompaniment to the singing are sounds produced by rubbing sticks against grooves cut into a piece of bamboo. Modern dancing was popular in hotels and nightclubs and at various social functions in Blantyre and other larger urban centers. The music played generally followed or was a version of Congolese and South African styles. In mid-1974 Blantyre's leading Western bands sported such names as the True Tones, the Dynamic Revivals, and the Passion Wagon. Drums play a major role in musicmaking and dancing and are found in many sizes, shapes, and tones. Often they are used in combination and in some cases form large drum orchestras. When used in the latter context, the drums are carefully tuned by weighting the head with a paste made from the castor bean. In appearance drums range from barrel shape, like the nthiki (or nthikura) and mvema used by the Chewa, to goblet-shaped kamango, bowl-shaped murumbo, and the cylindrical khunto. Large oil drums and such things as paint cans and other containers of metal may be converted into drums. Popular among wind instruments are horns made from gourds, in particular the so-called singing horn (the Chewa lipenga, and Tumbuka nkhombo), whose sound is magnified and modified by the use of a membrane. Often played in groups, singing horns constitute important elements in certain dances. Other wind instruments are flutes, of which an ordinary kind is the chakwana, a side-blown form having two finger holes; there are also end-blown pipes. String instruments include the bango (in Chichewa), a kind of zither that has usually about seven strings stretched over a board and uses gourds as resonators. A number of lutes are widely used, including the one-string karigo played with a bow and the thangara, also one-stringed and bowed, which has an attached gourd resonator. Among other instruments are a number of xylophones. The most common consists usually of ten wooden keys laid across two freshly cut banana stalks. Used for rhythmic accompaniment are long gourds filled with seeds. Metal bells, glass bottles, and pieces of iron are also employed for the same purpose. Another percussive instrument is the nkwendo, which consists of a notched section of bamboo upon which a smaller stick is rubbed, producing a rasping sound. Mass Communication Despite the considerable number of children who have attended primary school and efforts to expand literacy through special classes, the country's general literacy rate in the early 1970s indicated that, except for the educated elite, the printed media constituted only a limited direct source of information for a large part of the population. Radio as a source of information was important in urban areas according to a listenership survey conducted in 1970 by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). The survey found, however, that 93 percent of the country's predominantly rural households did not listen to radio and that overall only 9 percent of all households used a radio. The principal mode of transmission of information continued, therefore, to be word of mouth (see Education, this ch.). The Printed Media The printed media included fewer than ten publications appearing on a regular basis (see table 6). Among them were two general circulation newspapers, the official government gazette, several mission-sponsored publications, and a number of government-published periodicals. [See Table 6.: Principal Newspapers and Periodicals in Malawi, 1973] The country's first newspaper, the Nyasaland Times, predecessor of the current Daily Times, began publication in 1895. In 1974 the Daily Times, in English, appeared Monday through Friday. Published in Blantyre, it was of tabloid size and usually consisted of sixteen pages, although special issues ran up to thirty-two pages. News carried was largely foreign; it contained only scattered articles on Malawi. Regular features were film schedules and radio programs and a crossword puzzle. There was a short editorial and a section containing classified advertisements, and the last two pages of the newspaper were regularly devoted to sports. The Daily Times was privately owned, by longtime British interests, but it was reported in 1974 that Canadian interests had acquired some share of control. The other main newspaper was the Malawi News, published in Blantyre on Saturday in a mixture of mostly English and some Chichewa. The newspaper, founded in 1959, was the official organ of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). It was of standard newspaper size and usually of twelve pages; special issues might run to twenty-four pages. News articles dealt ordinarily with domestic topics, and foreign news was usually restricted to one page, although on occasion part of the opposite page, which contained the feature "Round Africa in Brief," also carried some foreign items. Regular features included a radio program guide, a listing of church services in Blantyre, and sports on the last page. There was a classified advertisement section, and on occasion the newspaper carried a woman's page. News emphasis was on development activities and accomplishments, government and party association with them, and party affairs, although general news articles also received considerable space. The emphasis on Malawi was evident in international sport news; events were covered only when there was Malawian participation. The Malawi Government Gazette carried details on laws, government regulations, appointments, and the like. It was published weekly in English. Two other regular government publications were the monthly magazine This is Malawi and the quarterly Vision of Malawi, both in English. They were intended primarily for circulation outside the country. The first regular publication in a vernacular language was Makani, which was begun in 1906 by the missionary Overtoun Institution of the Free Church of Scotland but ceased appearing about two years later. In 1974 mission-backed periodicals issued regularly included two Roman Catholic publications, The African and Moni in Chichewa and English. Kuunika, in Chichewa, was published by the Presbyterian Church of Central Africa. Foreign newspapers and magazines were obtainable at local bookstores in Blantyre. Those from nearby Zambia and Southern Rhodesia were usually available within a short time after publication. Books and Publishing The only books known to have been published in Malawi during the early 1970s consisted of government publications and school textbooks, although some religious books may also have been printed there. Statistical data on the annual production of such publications were unavailable. Government publications were issued by the Government Printer in Zomba, which also published a few textbooks. Other textbooks were published by the Hetherwick Press, an organ of the Presbyterian Church of Central Africa, and by the Montfort Press, operated by Roman Catholic missionaries. In 1972, however, most textbooks were published outside Malawi under contract. Radio Radio broadcasting was the prerogative of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) an autonomous statutory body that became functional at the beginning of 1964. Radio broadcasting earlier was provided by the Nyasaland Service of the Federal Broadcasting Corporation, established in 1958, from studios in Blantyre. When it began operations, MBC had one mediumwave transmitter, whose broadcasts covered only the Blantyre-Limbe area, and one shortwave transmitter broadcasting with mixed reception to the rest of Malawi. Following independence in 1964, considerable foreign assistance was given toward construction of an adequate transmission network and modern studio facilities. This included an initial donation of a mediumwave and a shortwave transmitter by the United States and the provision of new control and studio equipment by West Germany. In 1974 MBC operated seven mediumwave transmitters (located at Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mangoche, Karonga, Bangula, Nkhota Kota, and Mzimba) and two shortwave transmitters-one during daylight hours, the other at night-which carried the same program and afforded high-quality reception in areas outside mediumwave range. Frequency modulation (FM) service was provided in the Blantyre-Limbe area. In mid-1974 MBC was broadcasting eighteen hours a day in Chichewa and English. When it started in 1964 MBC also broadcast in Chitumbuka, but use of that language was discontinued in 1968. Programs were designed to provide entertainment, information, and also education. The latter included school programs during the school year, and throughout the year general instructional material, particularly in agriculture. Entertainment included women's programs, music, drama, and the like. Informative programs frequently had development activities as their topic, for example a self-help school construction project or a report of progress on the new capital-designate of Lilongwe. Short news broadcasts were made almost hourly and longer ones at certain times. Regular educational programs were also aimed at students taking courses in the Malawi Correspondence College. In January 1971 MBC began using a new 100-kilowatt shortwave transmitter (one of the two shortwave transmitters in operation in 1974) that was provided by West Germany under its aid program. This not only improved reception in Malawi but also made the domestic broadcast receivable in neighboring countries. In 1974 the entire program from 6:00 P.M. to shutdown shortly after midnight was made available via shortwave to interested individuals in surrounding countries. In addition to MBC programs the listening public had available broadcasts of various foreign countries directed at east and southern Africa. Most such broadcasts were in English, the most extensive being British Broadcasting Corporation programs, which continued almost around the clock. The Voice of America program covered about twelve hours daily. Several African countries broadcast in Chichewa, including South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, and Egypt. Mozambique also broadcast in Chisena. Malawi's Asian population had access to programs in Gujarati from both India and Pakistan. There was no information on the extent to which external broadcasts were tuned in. Estimates of the number of radio sets varied widely. In 1970 a government survey showed some 103,000 receivers. In 1974 the total was probably about 110,000, an average of roughly one receiver for every forty-five people. There was no television and no indication of plans to introduce it. During the mid-1960s listeners' licenses both for residential and motor vehicle radio sets were required. They were later discontinued, and no license fees were charged in 1974. Financing of MBC operations was partly through commercial advertising and partly through an annual government subsidy. Films In the early 1970s no feature length films designed to be shown commercially in motion picture theaters were produced in Malawi. Those films exhibited were chiefly of British, Indian, and United States origin. Occasionally, short documentary and tourist films were produced; the directors were usually non-Malawians. In 1971 most of the thirteen film theaters reported in operation were located in Blantyre. Blantyre also had one outdoor drive-in theater having a capacity of 350 cars. The total number of indoor theater seats throughout the country was estimated at 5,000, and attendance figures were unavailable. Censorship Officially Malawian and foreign correspondents and MBC radio program producers were free to write and air material as they pleased. In fact, however, there were unwritten restrictions, violation of which might, and in the early 1970s did, result in detention in the case of Malawians and deportation where foreigners were concerned. The restrictions related to President Banda's belief that the domestic press should support the government and that articles critical of Malawi in any way, written by either Malawian or foreign correspondents, were harmful to the country and should be prevented. In part, Dr. Banda's attitude and the reported punitive actions were apparently based on concern that such articles could produce an adverse reaction in countries on which Malawi was dependent for economic aid, possibly causing a reduction in that aid. The Prohibited Publications Act, in force in the early 1970s, permitted the government to ban any publication that published information it considered false or distorted or critical of Malawi. On occasion, in this respect, issues of foreign publications were ordered withdrawn from sale. Longer term banning also occurred; for instance, the Rhodesia Herald was permanently banned in June 1972, in part for reporting that Mozambican guerrillas had bases in Malawi and were being aided by the Malawi Young Pioneers. The government banning statement accused the newspaper of having worked against Malawian interests since the federal period. The banning order made it clear that both Malawian and foreign correspondents were prohibited thenceforth from providing any material to the newspaper; if foreign journalists in Malawi did so, they would be deported. From time to time the government published lists of books, periodicals, and films whose importation was prohibited. The available government sources did not give reasons, but the actions in certain cases appeared related to a belief that the publication or film would be detrimental to public morals or good order or would introduce harmful ideas. For instance, among fifteen books banned in May 1973, the American novel of gangster violence The Godfather was included, and a later list proscribed the horror film The Return of Count Yorga. The latter list also banned Awake, a periodical published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses), with whose followers the government and the MCP had long been at odds (see ch. 14). In an apparent move to bring the mass media more directly under his control, President Banda dissolved the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in August 1973. The ministry's functions were divided between the Office of the President and Cabinet and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Tourism. The president's office assumed responsibility for policy on all mass media activities, for briefings and liaison, for broadcasting, and for the programming of public events. The mechanics of mass media operations, such as design, layout, photography, distribution, and maintenance, were assigned to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Tourism. The latter was also given responsibility for the Malawi News Agency, the government's official news distribution organ.