Five, let us say seven, songs in Lawi’s latest release, Sunset in the sky, are not just laced with poetry. They are delivered in varying fusions, resonating natural sounds, a kind and careful tone, yet beyond – or perhaps underneath – that eclecticism comes a huge theme in modern literature: poverty-porn. When I met with Lawi, on a drizzling evening last year where he had come with that simplicity of a commoner yet the mind of an artist who understands his trade, I charged that he has metamorphosed into an artist who celebrates poverty. I was, in a way, echoing an opinion long highlighted by the University of Malawi academic, Emmanuel Ngwira, who writing on Lawi’s previous release specifically singled out Life is beautiful as a celebration of a distant life. A ‘poverty porn’ of sort. “It is not a celebration of poverty per se,” Lawi argued. Thereafter, he went into a sermon: on happiness – almost philosophical and intellectual in its packaging. Yet, in brief, he was ex
...writings and recollections; thoughts too.