By Chalo Mvula
In the heat of campaign period and with Malawi Political climate agitating for change, Malawians living in Diaspora unleashed a voice that became harder to suppress or ignore. Indeed, in the past years we have observed the involvement of Malawians living abroad in the political discourse, but never in a large and influential scale like the 2019 and 2020 elections. One activists worthy mentioning in the struggle is Nic Thindwa, a music artist who decided to use his music talent to see justice and liberation for Malawi in what was described as the struggle to unseat the DPP/Mutharika regime.
Prior to the elections of 2019 and 2020, Nic Thindwa was just a Rap and Rnb artist focusing on his music and singing about love. Born Nicholas Thindwa Is a Malawian artist Based in Birmingham UK. He confessed early in his career that his aim was to become Malawi’s biggest export musically. He indeed unleashed a number of singles such as Ndikuchengete , Banja Nkupilira, chamufilimu – It is however the passion for his country that led Thindwa to temporarily halt singing about love and romance but join the bandwagon of young warriors armed with their talent and belief to help Malawi get liberated “I couldn’t help it, the situation in Malawi was getting worse. I saw my fellow Malawians suffering under the DPP regime, my fellow youths couldn’t find a job and jobs were only being given to certain people, there was ever increasing corruption, enough was enough and I had to do something to help “
The frustrations and anger caused by the regime of Peter Mutharika and DPP made Nic Thindwa become a political activist s “ I am not a first musician to become a political activists and neither will I be the last one – Music gives us a platform to speak out again the ills in society and it is the only God given talent that I can use to make an impact” he argued. Thindwa found himself joining Malawi Congress Party Diaspora Network, a group of Malawians in diaspora affiliated with Malawi Congress Party
Asked why he choose to get involved with MCP Diaspora, Thindwa claims the leadership of Dr Lazarus Chakwera made it easy for him to make his choice. “ Mind you it was a difficult moment when I decided to get involved in politics, DPP were claiming to be a system and that they cant lose any election, however , I had so much faith in Dr Chakwera as a God fearing leader and I saw it from far that he was earmarked for the Malawi Presidency” Thindwa said another thing that inspired him is the team work that was there within the MCP community in diaspora “MCP Diaspora and talking of the UK chapter where I belong to has been a real brotherhood, working together as one family with one common goal of getting DPP out of power. The Diaspora UK leaders like Allan Mandindi, Chalo Mvula, Nelson Ngulube ,Patricia Chimangeni ,Grace Tucker ,Mphatso Mainala and Chris Chaima Banda and many others welcomed me and gave me a platform to use my talent to advance the MCP agenda”.
During the campaign period, Thindwa became a household name with his signature kwasakwasa singles that promoted Dr Chakwera Presidency. Alongside his music partner Pon G he delivered campaign songs such as Yalira Ng’oma, alamulire, Tikufuna Chakwera , Osaopa among other hit singles . Thidwa said the Diaspora adopted social media as its main tool to add firepower to the MCP campaign on the ground. In executing this strategy the artist relied on released his music singles with accompanying music videos . After the agreement for Tonse alliance was finally formalised, Thindwa released another smash hit “Tipambana” which he did alongside Gospel music songbird Rudo Chakwera.
Asked on what’s next for Thindwa after the Tonse win, the artist cum activists said his political journey is not over . He argued that he will forever remain a music artist but is now geared to help Tonse Government fulfil the promises they made to Malawians in their manifesto. “ I am now part of the government and to us now its time for action so that we make a difference to the life of Malawians. Malawi is on the right track , the president and his government has started well and a lot of Malawians have hope”
The artist promised that he will work on a new single to thank Malawians for voting Dr Chakwera and Dr Chilima in power
