Celebrity Politics, Political Cynicism and Contestations of Credibility in Lucius Banda’s Songs

ABSTRACT

Lucius Banda is one of the renowned popular musicians in Malawi. His songs explore a wide range of political and social issues. In 2003 he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) party and decided to run for parliament representing Balaka North Constituency. This paper focuses on Banda’s transition from musician to celebrity politician, and on what his music and behaviour after joining politics reveal about the man who prefers to be called soldier for the poor. I illustrate that Banda’s transition reveals that he is a shrewd musician who envisioned joining politics in the future. The transition also shows a remarkable continuity of a calculating artist who sang about the necessity of his martyrdom for his country’s social and political transformation to an elected politician who believed he could advise fellow Malawians on which political party and presidential candidate to vote for during elections. Thus, while most of his songs that criticise politicians resonate with Malawians, in others one sees evidence of a savvy musician who used his songs to promote his own interests and ambitions. The discussion draws from Karen Barber and John Street’s views on the communicative power of popular arts and from John Street’s notion of celebrity politicians.

KEYWORDS:

• popular music
• political cynicism
• Malawi
• Lucius Banda
• celebrity politician
• communication
• songs

Acknowledgement

I wish to thank Emmanuel Fumbanani Mwale, a final year Bachelor of Arts (Humanities) student at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, for providing me with some of the songs used in this paper.

ORCID

Syned Mthatiwa http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-4637

Notes

1 Runner (quoted by Greear 2015, n.p.) understands the expression ‘speaking truth to power’ to mean ‘believing deeply in what you say and fighting every day to have that heard. It may not be popular; it means taking a risk, it means standing for something.’

2 Hannah Arendt rightly observes that ‘[n]o one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other, and no one […] has ever counted truthfulness among the political virtues.’ She goes on to say that ‘[l]ies have always been regarded as necessary and justifiable tools not only of the politician’s or the demagogue’s but also of the statesman’s trade’ (2005, 295).

3 Efforts to confirm the title of this MP3 song proved futile.

4 Banda denies that he submitted a fake certificate to Malawi’s electoral body. In his chat with Chakhaza on Cruise 5, Banda tells his host: ‘The certificate was not mine, I never tendered any’ (Banda 2018). Skeptics hold a different view.

5 According to Malawi’s electoral laws ‘no person shall be qualified to be nominated or elected as a Member of Parliament who […] has, within the last seven years, been convicted by a competent court of a crime involving dishonesty or moral turpitude’ (Malawi Electoral Commission 2019, n.p.).

6 The academic freedom saga at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, was an eight-month-long protest by lecturers who were demanding the restoration of academic freedom following the interrogation of one of their colleagues by the Inspector General of Police on 12 February 2011 over remarks the lecturer made in class (University World News 2011).

7 Dr Banda always carried a flywhisk, a symbol of authority among his Chewa people, whenever he appeared in public (Gabay 2017, 1127).

8 At the time of writing this paper, Chilima and Lazarus Chakwera of the MCP are contesting the election results in court.