The Influence of Evison Matafale’s Reggae Music in Democratic Malawi

Evison Matafale, a revered reggae music icon in Malawi, played a key role in the social and political discourse of Democratic Malawi. This essay, therefore, examines Matafale’s politically charged songs and the seditious letter he wrote in 2001, which eventually put him in harm’s way.

Like elsewhere in Africa and beyond, in Malawi reggae music is also regarded as protest music. Reggae music generally addresses themes such as corrupt systems, popularly referred to as Babylon, among members of the Rastafari Movement.

In 1999, Evison Matafale stormed the Malawi music scene with his debut Kuimba 1, a ten-track album that did not relatively sell much due to reasons which will be expounded later in this essay. 

Soon after releasing Kuimba I, he went off the music radar for almost a year battling with tuberculosis (TB). But after successfully cheating TB, Matafale released Kuimba II, which catapulted him back into the limelight.

This album, laced with candid socio-political monologues, further put him into public glare, making him the talk of town as well as across villages in Malawi. His music augured well with people’s daily reality.

Matafale’s Musical Activism

Reggae is undoubtedly the dynamic force for social and political expression. Evison Matafale, therefore, capitalized on the reggae’s feisty elements to resist repressive tendencies of the political class during that time.

Also, he considered himself a ‘prophet’ sent down on a mission by the Almighty Jah (the Creator) to speak truth to power. His music was also about Black consciousness and liberation from imperialism.

Matafale was a descendant or progeny of the Fumulani family, who were popular in the late 80s through to the 90s, with music that blended Malawian folk music with Afro-Jazz. Their music was moderate, with themes such as love and social unity, among others.

However, Matafale deviated from his family’s ‘soft music’ by taking a hardline stance in his compositions. As a griot, he composed songs that were/are not only creatively or lyrically alluring but also politically serious.

“So far, Matafale is the only musician in Malawi to achieve a considerable stature by using a type of reggae whose fibrous lyrical content and vocal output has been so appealing to any normal conscience,” wrote Gregory Gondwe, an art columnist and journalist in one his entries in what is now defunct Drumming Pen column.

In his three-part issue in November of 2010 dubbed Re-living Evison Matafale, Gondwe, a rasta himself, venerated Matafale as Malawi’s reggae icon who lived way ahead of time.

“…he [Matafale] had established himself already as a fastidious equal rights fighter, who like another Jamaican reggae legend Peter Tosh, had a personality and songs whose lyrical contents carried unquenchable sense of fury, cynicism, irony and both a poetic and direct nature,” wrote Gondwe. 

In Kuimba I, we find Olakwa Ndani? (Who’s responsible?), a song which Matafale ponders on poverty. In it, he draws the listen into his world where pictures a homeless and poor kids roaming the streets.

There’s a backstory that inspired Matafale to compose this masterpiece. In 1995, Matafale trekked to Zimbabwe to work in farms as an unskilled laborer, but the wages there weren’t enough, hence; he ended up in unspeakable poverty.

“It took his family to bring him back to Malawi where he pursued a music career resulting in his two albums, Kuimba I in 1999 and Kuimba 2 in 2001,” wrote blogger and author, Wonderful Mkhutche in March of 2024.

Although he never provided an answer to the question he repeatedly asked, Matafale incited the listener to question who was responsible for their hardship. Was it self-inflicted? Or was it because of somebody’s greed?       

That’s how creative Matafale was in his compositions. His music evoked critical thinking in the mind of the listener, making them start seeing the world they lived from a vantage point.

In part the song lyrics go like:

Umphawi palibe amaugonjeka (no living human can defeat poverty)

Umangonjetsa ndi akufa (only the dead can)

However, Matafale seemed to be spiritual by saying these words. Much as he called the listener to introspect about their suffering, but in other words, he was telling him/her to also consider searching for the answer to Olakwa Ndani? in a meta-physical sphere—spirituality.

Therefore, Matafale was aware of the fact that poverty is both a socio-economic and spiritual condition. A force whose ultimate end finds its fulfillment in death—the land of our progenitors and the departed.

Few days after 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre in New York and at the Pentagon in the U.S., Matafale release a single which he titled “Time Mark’. He said the attack was a fulfillment of the prophecy of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Jewish Bible.

He unapologetically referred to the terrorists as a ‘whip’ used by the Almighty to punish the world.

‘Time Mark’ in part reads:

This mysterious fall was long dreamt already by King Nebuchadnezzar, and I am Rasta Daniel,

And I am only here to finish up the revelation,

The World of Today,

Made up of Iron and Clay, this Kingdom is never to last.

And talking about Matafale being a self-proclaimed prophet, he foretold about his ultimate end in an unreleased album called Kuimba III in a track Police Manhunt Matafale, which the Black Missionaries released after his death.

Matafale’s ‘Time Mark’, which addressed the theme relating to international political and economic justice as well as the use of English to reach the audience he had intended to reach, transcended his bounds.

In Malawi, Matafale wasn’t militant as compared to ‘Time Mark’. He was more of a moralist, an advisor who warned Malawian to beware of how they utilized the democracy by leaning much to its understanding.

Ona kulotalota kwanga,

Ukhale wa mtendere wosatha

Ndati kulalalaka kwanga,

Ukhale wa ufulu wosatha

Komabe imva,

Mtendere si nsima-tu ai

Komabe imva,

Ufulu si nsima-tu ai   

This song is found in Kuimba I, which was his 1999 debut album. Mind you, this was an election year, just five years after Malawi transitioned into multiparty democracy. It was also a time when calls for civil liberties such as gender equality gained popularity.

Now, Matafale cautioned Malawians to beware of getting too engrossed in the shenanigans of politics and the hype of woke culture by deviating from the values and norms that dictate our society.

Perhaps his short stay in Zimbabwe might have inspired him to touch on the theme of misunderstanding democracy and modernity. As somebody who had traveled outside Malawi, he foreknew the problems of wokeness a fragile nation like Malawi.

As for No winner, no loser; Matafale reminds politicians and the general populace that in any political race, such as an election, there no winer. Nor there is a loser because even those supposed losers make to parliament and serve as the opposition.

In this somewhat philosophical piece, Matafale underscore the notion that in politics, winning or losing is just an illusion. By saying this, he means both the government and opposition wield power only that they sit on opposite sides in Parliament.

It may seem infantile imagination because the government is the one that decide who gets the lions’ share in Malawi’s modern politics, but lawmakers are entitled to almost the same benefits regardless of the side they sit or the party they represent in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is pegged at K200 million to all the current 193 constituencies across Malawi. This means, therefore, that along with all the benefits, every lawmaker gets equal share of the national cake.

Now in this case, who is the winner or loser? Nobody, right? This just vindicates Matafale that in politics, all sides are neither winers nor losers. Therefore, their followers should rejoice or frown because their candidate has ‘won’ or ‘lost’ an election.

Seditious letter and death

In 2001, Elton, Matafale's brother, told the BBC’s Ralphael Tenthani the singer was arrested and tortured by police because of letters he had written to President Bakili Muluzi denouncing his government's policies.

"When I saw him at Maula Prison he was in a bad shape," Elton told the BBC.  

In a statement, police said the reggae star was arrested at his house in Blantyre to be interrogated about those letters.

In them he had accused the president of backing Muslims and Asian traders and exploiting ordinary Malawians.

The singer, a temperamental man, had earlier in the month of November of 2001 lost his cool with an Asian merchant over payments.

Gregory Gondwe wrote in Drumming Pen in 2010: “Like all magnates, the Asian sent policemen, whom later on Matafale described as being under the distributor’s ‘payroll’ to hunt and charge him upon his arrest.

Some artists agree, his death has opened horizons of potential wealth that was pouched by exploitation, and misery. His efforts to confront the malpractice, was met with other forces within the music stable itself where other musicians started fighting him.”

On 27 November 2001, Matafale died in custody.

However, his death outraged Malawians, particularly members of the Rastafarian community who thirsted for revenge. They accused the political class of having a hand in his death, an accusation the government vehemently denied.

Then Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) administrator Charles Mwasambo said Matafale died of severe pneumonia. He said there was no evidence of torture when police officers brought the reggae star into hospital.

Pressure mounted on the government to investigate the probable cause of Matafale’s death. Months after his death, two commissions of inquiry were instituted: a presidential inquiry and the other by the Malawi Human Rights Commission.

What was astonishing, however, was that the two independent inquests found the same outcome. The pathologist who examined Matafale’s body concluded that he died of “traumatic injuries” while in custody.

One of the famous columnists late Jika Mkolokosa scoffed at the outcomes of the inquiries, arguing their conclusion were based on “bizarre logic”.

He wrote in All I Can Say column of Malawi News: “In short, Matafale was ill when the police arrested him and anything they did to him in custody could not be blamed for his death; he was ill and was going to die anyway.

On the strength of this bizarre logic, the police cannot be held responsible for Matafale’s death. Consequently, nobody should take the rap of his death.”

In conclusion, until this day, Matafale’s death is still a mystery whose answers nobody has, except those who were together in that cell which he died on that fateful day. But what is striking, is that he remains Malawi’s reggae maestro who unapologetically stood for what was right.

Matafale’s music has for the years after his demise, stood the test of time and the message therein still ring true to present day realities in Malawi. His unequivocal cry for social justice, economic freedom, Black consciousness, among others; are still far-fetched dreams.

His left Malawians with music that challenges convention wisdom and call each of us to see the country we call home beyond bounds that separate us. Bounds such as tribes, regions, religion, creed and others.

Like how he envisioned this country in ‘Malawi’, one of his timeless pieces, he yearned to see a united nation whose people are mindful of the consequences of embracing alien modern ways of life that are not compatible with our values.

Malawi yearned for a hunger-free Malawi, whose people are self-reliant and hardworking. That’s the kind of Malawi Matafale dreamed of. A Malawi without no corruption by the political class, God-fearing, and free from foreign imperialism.

Unfortunately, he never lived to see that utopian Malawi. That is the influence Evison Matafale reggae music has left in democratic Malawi. To make it attenable, it requires everyone’s contribution.

From the commoner, the in-betweens and all the way up to the political class in the upper echelon of power; we all need to roll up the sleeves and do what’s right. Perhaps until then, the soul of Matafale will rest in eternal peace.