In the spirit of #16DaysActivism, I present to you Lawrence Mbenjere.

One aspect that often goes unnoticed about Mbenjere, and which I deeply appreciate, is his consistent portrayal of the persona of a woman in the majority of his songs. He serves as a vessel, embodying the experiences and narratives of women navigating patriarchy.

Take Chiwede, for instance, a song that heartrendingly captures the resilience of a woman in rural Malawi and how she navigates intersectional exploitation and abuse. This song is not of a victim. While we are introduced to this woman who on first glance, you would regard as someone who feels defeated (by various structural inequalities), Mbenjere shows us that she is a survivor who has been fighting against the empire. Mbenjere never position the Malawian woman as a passive victim. Rather, as an active agent – a soldier!

The song, in the typical spirit of popular culture, also touches on other themes like poverty and a liberalised economy that goes back to the Bretton Woods’ structural adjustment programs that Mbenjere explores in depth in songs like Ku Malikete – which serves as another glue connecting nearly all songs by Mbenjere. That its not my focus today.

In the opening lines, Mbenjere introduces the central theme of the woman’s resilience and agency, challenging the mostly accepted position of the man as the breadwinner as her lamentation as a victim of abuse and exploitation (is this a lamentation or a warning?).

In Chiwede, she is the breadwinner, the provider who has been exploited countless times.

Tatede! Tatehe! Tateee!

Tate-nu! Tate! Tate!

 

Wamuna nchidakwa (hiii toto!)

Wamuna nchimwa mowa (ayi toto!)

Kukhalira kupilira za zako(?) toto

Kupilira n’dayamba kale ine aye Chiwede

Kwamakolo n’dapilira kale poti makolo’ooh

Ku tchalitchi ndikapilirenso, mwina n’kalowe ine

 

Chiwede! Chiwede’we nzipita’ne

 

N’khalire khumakhuma ngati nkhuku ya Chitopa? (Mhhu Mhuuu)

N’khalire khumakhuma ngati nkhuku ya Chitopa?

 

The verse that follows is where the woman declares that she’s done, unveiling the power she possesses and her reasons for calling it quits. While doing so, she also lays bare another sense of pressure that we have seen in Mbenjere’s other songs which is placed on women regarding fertility – a topic for another day.

In the second verse, she acknowledges that, although it’s taken her this long, it is better for her to walk that last mile alone without Chiwede – the husband. What remains fascinating is there refusal to the normalisation of banja nkupilira that only applies to women, urging them to embrace their abuse and exploitation by living with an abusive husband – as long as people see that she is married; marriage is everything; the rest is secondary noise. No!! She refuses to have that as her story.

The second verse is her deep reflection of her prolonged survival, asserting that leaving or divorcing her husband won’t be a new struggle, given her life’s history of deprivation, violence, and abuse as a story of survival – therefore leaving is not going to be a new struggle; even the social struggle that she will be regarded as a ntchembere of 3 children who is unlikely to remarry – a reality she accepts in the second last line in this verse saying she is going back not to remarry but for her amai azikaona pofera. With this lines she rebukes the ‘here comes that woman who dumped her husband’ from people who don’t know her story. With what she has been subjected to, she accepts this as the small price she will have to pay – remember, from the first verse, she has already told us Kupilira n’dayamba kale ine aye Chiwede.

She is off – but she won’t be khumakhuma – or silenced to stay because banja nkupilira!

Kodi n’dalankwanji? N’dalakwa’ ine n’dalakwa’ne!

Kodi n’dalankwanji? N’dalakwanji, n’dalakwa’ne!

Ukamatha mwenzi telo munyumba ine anzanga/Kalanga(?)

Akayela manja kubwera ndi mawa (toto ine)

Ana atatu kumativutatu kudyetsa

Pomwe anzathu atha masing’anga kuyenda

Ndipite ku mudzi nkapume kaye ine toto

Ndipite ku mudzi amai azikaona pofera

 

Iwe Chiwede! Chiwede iwe ndalema ine

Enough!

This above verse, and the one that follows, details what breaks the elephant’s back. The husband is hardly home, leaving in the evening and returning the following day intoxicated – the level of exploitation not usually conceptualized as such where the woman, as long as there is no physical abuse. Yes, it is possible Chiwede does not physically abuse her. However, Mbenjere lays bare another form of gender-based violence that this woman has been enduring in this marriage. For example, he fails to provide for her and their three children!

She can’t take it anymore.

As is familiar in all of Mbenjere’s songs, social inequality as a byproduct of liberalisation, as I have mentioned, is a never-detached topic. In this particular case, it centers on how she is used by the husband—a common theme among tobacco farmers in rural Malawi, where men tend to exploit their wives, enjoying the proceeds with others who were not there during farming — the wife is a mere slave. The status of a man as a farmer is not one that the woman is counted as part of. It is only the status of the man who uses it to his own advantage of sleeping around or alcoholism. We probably all know how tobacco framers spend their cash – pa Kachere, Lunzu, Luwinga, Chigwiri  etc.

Nyesi kuthilira ndekha, ayee

Fodya kuthyola ndekha, toto Chiwede!

Olo mikangala kudula ndekha, aye

Okadya chuma ali chete inu amnzanga

kungoti mpite ku Bank omwewo, wakalala/waa(?)

Mpakana mwezi kumatha aye Chiwede

Wana kumangolowa nayo njala

Ndilibe n’khale lobowola khobidi ine

Iwe Chiwede! Chiwede nzipita ine!

I strongly believe in Chiwede, Mbenjere echoes Chimamanda Ngozi’s Why we should all be feminists call for action. My own call is Mbenjere would make an excellent HeForShe ambassador as his voice is often a vessel that brings to light the stories of women in rural Malawi to the men in challenging structural factors that continue to fuel intersectional vulnerabilities and exploitation of women in my village – and may be yours too. This is a common theme. His songs typically revolve around women’s empowerment, resilience, and agency to combat structural inequalities that persistently place women as second-class citizens – that continue to fight  – even when The Patriarchy Strikes Back – resulting in a vicious cycle!

I have the song for those who would like to have a firsthand listen (correct some errors in the lyrics) – but remember to send him something to his mobile money if you would like to get the song so he benefits from his labour. I have said before, the complex rhyming scheme in Mbenjere’s songs is not accidental (check the second verse).

#16DaysAgainstGBV