Mau a Malawi: Stories of AIDS, by Peter Mawanga & Andrew Finn Magill

Mau a Malawi: Stories of AIDS

by Peter Mawanga & Andrew Finn Magill

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1.	Noell 04:04	lyrics
I wish to speak today as your neighbor To all of you who wonder why I'm ill Yes I'm positive but no one cursed me And neighbors stand beside each other still Yes I have it and I'm living I know how precious that is I started a support group in my house Where tobacco hangs from string like arms of gold In weeks they trickled in searching for guidance Until their numbers my house couldn't hold One by one they started testing Coming to my house Tuesdays at two, A while village taken by a war cry Piercing through the silence I once knew Yes I have it but I'm living I know how precious that is Yes we have it but we're living We know how precious that is Idza kuno m'bale/Ifetonse tiu Usaope konse kuno tingathandizane Bwera kuno naye/Ife kuno tiu Chala chimodzi sichipha nsabwe bwera tidzathandizane Translation: Come along my friend Come let us all gather Don't be afraid, it's a good fellowship Bring your friend along Come to this gathering Just one finger cannot crush lice so come let us all gather help from our friends.
2.	Women of Senga Bay 05:30	lyrics
It was all up to me My sister died and left behind seven kids They say that's just what happens When you're pregnant and positive But it's not just what happens And what happens isn't just To these women in my village We won't suffer in silence the violence of this virus It makes me angry, God it makes me angry Selling fish and selling me to feed my sons It makes me angry, God it makes me angry All of this we stand, but we cannot run. Chimandilimera ndaperewera ineyo Chimandipweteka ndaperewera ineyo Ine mavuto amachuluka Mbuye wanga mtendere ukundisowa Ndapeza munthu wosadziwa chauta Munthuyu nakhala banja langa Tsiku ndi tsiku amatuluka Komwe wapiti sindikudziwa Bambo wotani wosakhala panyumba (abale) Zandipweteka mpulupulu zake zake eeee Zokhumudwitsa nanenso zimandiwawa Naomwe zikupweteka amai wonse Zandipweteka mpulupulu zakezo Translation from Chichewa: I have lots of problems in my life Oh my God I have no peace of mind I happen to know a man that doesn't respect you God This man also happens to be my husband Every day he leaves home And he does not say where he is going as well What's with this man, that cannot spend time with his family? His wild behavior is killing It makes me angry and it hurts me That's what is killing women in my community His wild behavior is killing me
3.	Michael 03:40	lyrics
I just want to ask a favor from you, could you watch my son when I pass on? What do you mean? I said, "you look fine." She looked into my eyes and said, "I won't live long." First week of August her husband died, then a son, and then soon she Fall of 99' it really hit home, I lost my sister but met my son The doctor said my son as positive, "what am I going to do?" it just hit me We flew back to America, me and my six-year-old son, six years old Searching the articles, I stayed up reading Many years passed and he grew up faster each day "Dad I just can't live this way... waiting for cures" Took him to school and I met his teachers "No, please not AIDS," they said, they just didn't know And how would they know If I didn't tell them? Chemistry, Physics, physics and football He wants to be an aerospace engineer Seventeen, he's my inspiration Seventeen, he's my inspiration I know that God made a sacrifice One family lost. One family given that day.
4.	Emily & Graphiud 04:23	lyrics
Sikangandilume sikangandilume ayi kachina nane manyazi pakuti mkazi ngwachikondi anandiululira chinsinsi chake eee I never thought love could be/For a girl with HIV He proposed all the same/And so I took his name In sickness and in health He has kept that promise well In sickness and in health He has made me love myself Sikangandilume sikangandilumeeee (aye wanga wa chikondi) Emily mayi wachikondi (aye wanga wa chikondi) Graphiud bambo wachikondi Kan'luma bwanji m'banja lachikondi You are the most beautiful girl that I've seen Emily, won't you marry me? We can have children who are free I will always keep you healthy, and love you Some of them tried to tell me I was crazy I do not care what they say Nothing can stand in the way Emily we'll tell them one day, what love is Sikangandilume sikangandilume kachilombo* kachite manyazi Kwetu mkazi wachikondi unandiululira chinsinsi choke He's the love of my life I'm proud to be his wife Now we have a boy Our little baby joy All the men they used to run away When I'd reveal Graphiud only ran closer To me to help me heal Translation: It cannot bite me, not it cannot bite me It will shy away from me because this woman is faithful she revealed her secret to me It cannot bite me no it cannot bite me (aye she's my one and only lover) Emily is a loving woman Graphiud is a loving man How can it bite me in this house of love? Let the virus shy away from me you are a loving woman because you revealed your secret to me *In Chichewa, the euphemism for the AIDS virus is Kachilombo, meaning "little beast," something that could actually "bite" you.
5.	Monica 08:12	lyrics
A secret is merely an untold truth That easily turns toxic with when kept The secret in our hearts you kept in your blood A terrible secret that claimed you in your youth Sleep little girl, sleep The secret can't hurt you no more Out of the heart the mouth speaks But somehow from our eyes the secret leaked Confirming your fears of our silent conspiracy We held the truth as you befriended myths What kind of love allows this in His child If Love is really pure how can this be kind Left alone to guess what was in your blood Let alone what it would do to your heart From my mouth now the secret leaks Into your grave I hope it seeps Sorry for not telling what we all knew For both our silence and the secret claimed you Luluele lulule Mwana atonthole mwana apumule Aitana amake mwana agone Baby should stop crying, baby should rest Mother says, child go to sleep
6.	Ezra 04:53	lyrics
The others told me, Ezra you have to come A child's been defiled by her father and she's numb Her father and she's numb Her father and she's numb I went to the father and asked him was this true He said "yes" a man said "do this and the virus will leave you" This virus will leave you This virus will leave you Village elder: Kodi mwamulakwilanji inu ho mwamulakwinlenji? Village responds: Mwamulaula mwanayu The fisherman told him "I can pay you for that cloth The one you wiped her down with, there is money in that blood" Money in that blood Money in that blood A herbalist waits, it's that cloth that he wants And you can be a rich man and this virus no longer haunts This virus no longer haunts It no longer haunts I went with the mother straight to the police We locked him away, may these girls now have peace These girls now have peace These girls now have peace I live to tell them, these fathers who know nothing of a virus that they spread, I won't sleep 'til I've done something No sleep til I've done something No sleep til I've done something Poor and desperate are these fishermen I see How to make them value... life and not money? Life and not money Life and not money Translation from Chichewa: Call: Why have you destroyed this child? Response: You have defiled this child Call: You have given this child the virus Response: You have defiled this child
7.	Hilda 04:28	lyrics
And he was a caring man Quiet, humble, my husband Ernest was his name and heart Until death forced us apart My true love since eight years old "Finish school then I'll be yours" This is what he said to me 'Gainst our parents, we married Ernest fathered our girls well And our boys 'til sickness fell From a secret he had kept 'Til it took him as he slept Sickness then came unto me There I suffered silently Until drugs would help no more From a coma at death's door Three days I dd lay by him Until life woke me again That's when Mercy brought me home To the family I had known God has saved me Put me on the air I have a story to share Mother Mercy God has saved me Mulungu wachikondi, anandikonda anandipumuludza Mulungu wachifundo, anandikonda anandipumuludza Translation: Loving and merciful God, he saved me
8.	Madalitso 04:08	lyrics
Nine years old That's when mom went away My Dad had died in an accident, leaving us brothers to pay "Oh hey this heart of mine, weakened more by grief I will raise this brother of mine, Joseph he will raise me I know I can't pretend I'm ever at the end So come what may Joseph don't fear. We'll be ok My name is Madalitso. I was born in 1992. I live in Lilongwe, Malawi. I have HIV/AIDS but me I don't care about that. I don't care about that because I stay with my brother, Joseph. My brother is negative..no HIV. Me, myself, I'm happy because blessings is all over. Oh deep in this heart of mine, I know I'm healing inside I am raising this brother of mine, it's what has kept me alive
9.	Thengo 05:30	lyrics
Ndithandizeni manga/Ana anta agera kuchigwembe Translation: Help me please, help me urgently/My children have all fallen into the pit When a father buries his child who will bury him? What we've buried in silence has taken my children I watched my ministry slip away from me Workers every month, then my children, how can this be? e built this democracy to speak for everyone Yet the ones who should be speaking we're losing one by one When a father buries his child who will bury him? What we've buried in silence has taken my children I gathered my countrymen to tell them of this loss Now we've started speaking but at much too high a cost All of my life I've believed in sacrifice But to give a son, I thought only God should pay that price
10.	Mara 05:40	lyrics
Mvera mvera mverawe!/Listen, Listen, Listen closely! I was born a fighter and I've been fighting since For women who never had a voice I've lectured 'round the work, on AIDS and how it spreads To women cause we never had a choice It brings me to tears, God it breaks my heart They chased me from church, chased away And so many just like me, women who must know I'll fight for these mothers every day Akaitana amayi Mara Abale simunkaamvera nkomwe inu kalero Remember when Mother Mara was calling Some of you hardly paid attention to mother Mara The elders of my village, they made me a chief And I've made my life caring for them Caring for the orphans, of women now deceased At the grassroots, underneath their stem A passion of knowing, knowing ho to change The problems which spread this HIV This is my mission, my calling, and my cry That one generation will be free What happens to the woman who doesn't get to know? Every single woman should watch her child grow Then what about the child too young to understand? Why his mother couldn't raise this boy into a man? I know this will change, I see it with my eyes People living healthy and living out their lives And we will grow together a country loud and free Fighting for all of those who fight for Malawi One generation will be free. This generation will be free.

about

In 2009 I received a Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship to spend eleven months in Malawi creating the project that became May a Malawi: Stories of AIDS.

I spent all of my senior year planning this project over Skype with Malawian pop icon Peter Mawanga. In 2010 I moved to Malawi and with the assistance of the UNC Malawi Project based in Lilongwe, the nation's capital, I began collecting narratives in English and Chichewa from dozens of Malawians affected by HIV.

Selecting ten Malawians and their narratives, Peter and I wrote music lyrics which integrated their actual quotations to musically portray the personality and story of each person through song. We wrote all of the music and played many of the instruments but had more than 25 guest musicians from our respective countries (including singers "cast" to sing from the point of view of each Malawian) on this album.

The album is meant to generate a new positive dialogue about HIV as well as be a fundraiser for vulnerable children in Malawi.

credits

released October 12, 2011

Storytellers:
Patson & Rhoda, Evelyn & Andrew, Esther, Emily & Graphiud, Daniel & Hawa, Ezra, Richard Moyo, the women of Senga Bay, (Eileen, Kate, Chimwemwe, Selina, Jessie, Kathryn), Noell, Hilda, Madalisto Usi, Queen, Eantambwe, Michael Kumwenda, Billy, Dickens, Thengo Maloya, Mara Kumbweza Banda

Translators:
Blessings Chikakula, Peter Gusto, Chikabachi, Angela, Edward Jere, and Jeffrey Somali

Musicians:
Jorge Izquierdo, Lizzy Ross, Ellis Paul, Q Malawezi, Stephon Lamar, Cathie Ryan, Seth Barden, Daniel Kelo, Grant Scheuring, Kaitlin Houlditch-Fair, Siobhan Quinn, Dryson Mwimba, Alfred Sitolo, Mavuto Miliyomi, Thatcher N'goma, Rudo Chakwera Mkukupa, George Mkandawire, Faith Mussa, Joice Kaliwo.

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about

Andrew Finn Magill Asheville, North Carolina

For twenty years violinist/fiddler and composer Andrew Finn Magill has been pursuing parallel careers in traditional Irish music, Brazilian choro, jazz and American fiddle and he has performed with everyone from grammy-nominees Trio Brasileiro to Rising Appalachia. ... more