Welcome back Padre!

Fr Mario Pacifici, the founding trustee of Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust arrived back from Italy on Sunday 5 February.

Coincidentally, 5 February is the day he first arrived in Africa. Fr. Mario arrived in Kenya on 5 February 1977 before proceeding to Malawi where he has stayed ever since.

Fr.Mario Pacifici

Speaking at a dinner organized for his coming, Fr. Mario talked about how special this day was to him because it reminded him of his first days in Africa.

Unlike in 1977 when he did not know really what he would face, this time Fr. Mario knows why he is in Africa and in Malawi particular. His passion for the poor was clearly manifested when he asked about the updates of the new Community Hospital that Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust has built right close to Andiamo. It is expected that the hospital will serve not only people around Andiamo campus but also the whole district and beyond.

Takulandirani Bambo!

The other side of White Kananji

White Kananji’s talent, was spotted during Alleluya Band show in Balaka. He is only 23 but he has all the skills a dancer would want to have. Those who have watched him think he has no bones because he can hang his legs around the neck and this has led some to think White uses magic.

White Kananji displaying how he do it during one of the functions at Umodzi Hall in Balaka

A Standard 7 dropout, White grew up with his grand parents after his father died when he was a baby and his mother married another man who couldn’t stay with him. He spent much of his childhood with his grand parents.

White Kananji Captured during during Alleluya Band show at Warehouse

White thought that living with her grandparents would be easy and that life would be easy but it wasn’t to be. His grand mother started to drink ‘Kachaso’ (locally distilled beer) excessively, which brought no peace in the house. There was nobody to search and cook food for him and some times he was sleeping with an empty stomach.

White started cultivating in other people’s fields in exchange for food. At the age of 16, he went to Lilongwe where his uncle was doing construction work to search for greener pastures.

“One day I went out with my uncle to a Chinese national residence where he was constructing a house. There I met kids who were doing acrobatics and I had a chance to learn from them. After I was satisfied with the skills I acquired, I started performing in different areas in Lilongwe where I was asking people to pay me so that I could show them how I do it,” White narrates that because life in the city was much difficult for him, he decided to come back home.

Then his lucky day arrived. Alleluya Band was performing at Ostia Primary School. He showed Alleluya Band what he is made up of. He got overwhelming morale from people who came to watch the famous band performing live.

Paul Subili and Cos Chiwalo decided to invite White to show his skills to the patron of the group Fr Mario Pacifici. Fr Mario was impressed. He was approved to be a member of Alleluya Band.

Although life is full of ups and down, White says since he joined the band, his life has improved tremendously.

“I am able to buy clothes, food and other necessities. I don’t need to go around showing my acrobatic tactics to survive as I used to do,” says White.

However, money has not made him forget about education. He has a part time teacher who is helping him in the morning hours.

“I feel starting again from Standard 7 will difficult for me. I just want to improve in how to write and read.” White believes that time for him to go in class was already wasted.

Alleluya Band, Blacks wind up year in style

Article from The Daily Times, Monday, January 2, 2012

Alleluya Band to celebrate Charles Wedding

Alleluya Band will be celebrating a wedding of Charles Mafukeni a keyboardist and also a dancer who is marrying Prisca Mulenga on 31st December, 2011.

The wedding will be officiated at St.Louis Montfort Parish, 8: 30 am and therefore a reception at St. Charles Lwangwa Secondary Hall 1: 30 pm

Charles & Prisca

Alleluya Band December festivals

Alleluya Band Weekend Shows

Who is Clifton Mkwapatira?

Clifton Mkwapatira in Madrid - Spain during this year's World Youth Day

He is flexible. He has all it takes to be a dancer. His name is Clifton Mkwapatira. Together with Alleluya band, he has toured different Europe countries and he has also attended world Youth Day gatherings since 2008. Andiamo Website office finds out who Clifton is.

Who is Clifton Mkwapatira?
I was born on 15th June,1976. I did my primary school in two different schools: Balaka and Mponda Full Primary Schools. Both are in Balaka. I only managed to reach Form one because of financial problems. I am a married man with four sons.

How did you start dancing in Alleluya Band?
It all started in 2005 when leaders of Alleluya Band announced at St. Louis Montfort Catholic Church that they wanted dancers to join the group. That time I was a member of St. Louis Montfort choir and I was dancing in the church during mass. I took this as a chance to join the group so that I can expose my talent to the world.

I was the lucky one to be chosen out of many who came for interviews.

What kind of interview was that?
We were asked to show all our different skills in dancing and we danced different types of genres like Reggae, Rhumba, Kwasakwasa and other traditional dances like Beni and Manganje.

What type of challenges have you faced since you started dancing?
Challenges are many as a lot of people think dancing is not a career for a wise and intelligent person. Some people regard us as useless which is not the true.

Since you started dancing, what have you benefited in this career?
I have managed to build a big house although it is not fully finished. This is one of my biggest achievement in life. I have also managed to setup a small grocery shop which is being run by my wife. This shop helps my wife when I am out of the country. For the six years I have been with Alleluya Band, I have learnt a lot like how to work together with different people and I have also travelled to different countries in Europe.

Who inspired you to have interest in dancing and what type of dancing style are you interested to acquire now?
Kanda Bongo Man from Zaire who was doing Kwasakwasa in those days and Koffi Olomide from Democratic Republic of Congo who was doing Dombolo really inspired me. My wish is to be dancing like Usher Raymond. Now I am still practicing his dancing styles.

What advise can you offer to those who want to be a good dancer like Clifton Mkwapatira?
For those who want to be a good dancer and take dancing as a career, they should forget what people say and focus ahead. Some people have a spirit of pulling others down. They should be doing some body exercises, practice some dancing styles and they have to make sure that their body is physically fit.

Who has been behind Clifton’s success?
Leaders of Alleluya Band and the founding trustee of Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust, Fr. Mario Pacifici have always been encouraging me to feel that I am part of the group. I really thank them for the encouragement.

My band of the year

Alleluya Band

Towards the end of each year, many radio stations in the country come up with what they call “Entertainers of the Year” programs. In their lists, they have a category called ‘Band of the Year’.

If I were given a chance to vote for my band of the year, I would not hesitate to say it is Alleluya Band! No? Am I biased? I don’t think so.

I am not saying that it is Alleluya Band because it is one of the oldest bands in Malawi. Neither am I saying this because the band has produced big names like Lucius Banda, Paul Banda, Patrick Abig Tung’ande, Rod Valamanja and Enort Mbandambanda. No! If it were for this reason alone then I would ask whoever gives awards to give it to Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust because since its inception, it has produced many big people in the society.

My band of the year is Alleluya for reasons beyond entertainment. Alleluya band has shown that through music, we can change the world. The band, through many of its international tours, has sung for life and well being of many.

For example, just this year, the band was in Italy not to enjoy the beautiful historic monuments that are in that country. The band had more than forty, yes ’40’ shows in less than two months. Those that play music would know that this is not a mean achievement. These shows they did not for themselves but for the street kids who are being supported under Tigawane Project in Balaka.

You will agree with me that not many bands would have shows just for others later alone forty shows in two months! This is not the only thing that Alleluya Band has done. There are many. Through their many tours with the help of Italian volunteers, the band has come back with many projects that have benefitted the community in Balaka and beyond.

Will I be wrong to say, Alleluya Band is my band of the year? I don’t think so. By the way, this is the only band that has represented Malawi in almost all the World Youth Day Celebrations!

Interview with Getrude Naluso

Getrude Naluso, a matron at Andiamo Education Institutions and a vice band leader of Alleluya Band explains how she became a dancer and the preparations of Italy-Spain trip.  

Getrude Naluso

Can tell us about yourself?
I was born on August 19 in 1981 in Balaka. I come from Mponda village, Traditional Authority Nsamala. I am a Roman Catholic Christian.

I did my primary school at Mponda Full primary school before proceeding to St. Louis Community Day Secondary school where I attended form 1 to 2 and that was from 2000 -2001. I then went to Limbikani Private Secondary School where I completed my secondary level. I did a course in Carpentry and Joinery at Andiamo Training Centre in 2006 with the support of Alessandro Marchetti and Valeria Giassi.

How did a carpenter become a dancer?
I used to take part in some of the church activities and organizing some dances during parish festivals. So it was in 2007 during a festival where I and three of my friends we were chosen to join Alleluya Band as dancers after the band was impressed with our performances. We were the first female members to join the group since it started.

So how was life at the beginning?
Life was a bit difficult because people were saying that it was our first step into prostitution since our membership meant also performing at night. For me, I forgot everything and I concentrated on my dancing career. Since 2008 I have been going with the group to Europe to perform. These trips also encourage me not to look back and make sure that I do behave well all the time.

What does it take to become a dancer?
Firstly, one needs to be a person who is physically fit, very flexible since we do not have well established institutions where people can be trained as dancers. A person needs to have regular practices for different dancing styles

What should people expect from you in Italy and Spain?
They should expect good performance and I will show them how good Malawian women are at dancing.  We have been doing our rehearsals since January and live performances as part of our preparations, so this time we are going to show them something different.

What is your message to girls who want to be like you?
They should know that everyone has got their own talent given by God. They should expose it without looking at what people say.

When you want to be a dancer you have to abstain from sexual behavior which can ruin your life.

Interview with Adam Douglas

You cannot talk of music minus a guitar. Adam Douglas, a member of Alleluya band, a producer at Alleluya Studio and a father of three is one of the talented guitarists in the country and we had an interview with him. Excerpts:

Adam Douglas doing his best during one of the international shows

Who is Adam Douglas?
I was born 35 years ago. I am a Roman Catholic Christian from Chimkwakwa Village, Sub Traditional Authority Sawali in Balaka district. I went to Liwonde full primary School and did my Secondary School at St. Charles Lwanga that was in 1999.

How did you start your music career?
I was inspired by my uncle the late Luke Chimkwakwa who was at that time a member of Alleluya band. He used to come to the village during his holidays with a guitar and he was playing after supper and at that time I was just a boy. I made my first guitar out of a milk tin which I used to practice. I also a joined our church choir that also helped me.

How did you find yourself with Alleluya Band?
It was in 1997 when we received a letter from St Louis Montfort Parish that they wanted to train youth who wanted to be musicians. This was the time Fr. Mario Pacifici was the parish priest. The church elders chose me and my friend Walasi Midwa. We went for interviews where we were 40 people from different outstation churches and only 10 were chosen fortunately my friend Walasi and I were among the lucky ones.

I chose to continue with my guitar career while Walasi chose to learn drums. After 6 months of being a trainee, I was asked to be on probation period before becoming a member of the group. That’s how lucky I was.

Was this your dream career?
Yes it was because when I was a boy I had two choices: to be a musician or a priest so the choice of being a musician came first.

Is this a rewarding job?
Of course yes! Am able to support my relatives financially. I have a personal house which I built with the money from my job. I can also tell you that I managed to buy a box guitar and you can see that now I have changed from a milk tin guitar to box guitar which makes easy for me to do my practices at home.

Without this job I don’t think I could have visited different countries like Germany, Belgium, Italy, Australia, Poland and Netherland in Europe and in Africa Ethiopia, Kenya, south Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. This is rewarding because in those countries I learned many things.

Some of your friends who were in the band left to start their own, why are you still in Alleluya Band?
Alleluya Band is my family and it’s where I have to stay. I cannot say that problems are not there but that’s how life should be when you work in a group because we think in different ways.

To me changing from one boat to another cannot be a solution of solving a problem if problems are there but another setback in which you need to understand the language of others that can also take along process to understand their minds.

Who helped you during your trainings?
When I started as a trainee, Charles Sinetre played a big role. I recall that was the time there were also misunderstandings in the group and some of the members went out to join other groups. Others started their own and it was hard but Charles helped me. I also thank some volunteers from Italy who have helped me in studio work, former band members Foster Chimangafisi and the late Samuel Kamwana for their encouragement during my trainings.

What could you describe as the good and bad moments you in your career?
The good moment I will never forget was in 1998 when we went to Zimbabwe with Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba where there was a World Council of Churches which was held at the University of Zimbabwe. I met youths from different countries, denominations and culture. I learnt a lot from that visit

Perhaps my saddest moment was in 2002 when I received a massage to vacate a company house immediately within 9 days and it was in the middle of the month. It was shocking to me. I was not given any reason why I should vacate the house till now and that could be the time I could have resigned from the group because it was painful.

What could be your advice to those who want to be like Adam Douglas?
They have to discover their talents by themselves in the beginning, be patient, have a good time to practice 4 hours a day and you will enjoy it!

Any hobbies?
I like reading different books and listening to music that were done by other artists.

What are your last words?
Patience always helps!