One of the Malawi’s finest Muslim artists Muhammad Chilimba has expressed his delight after finally launching his DVD album titled Imfai ndi Ulaliki.
Chilimba told Malawi Muslims Official Website on the sidelines of the launch at Kameza Training Centre in Blantyre on Sunday that his long awaited dreams have come true.
“I am happy now that I have finally managed to release my DVD. It was not an easy road but Allah has made my dreams come true. My hard working spirit has brought rewards,” he said.
He therefore bemoaned piracy as one of the challenges facing upcoming Muslim artists in the country. But he warned all perpetrators that they will face the law once caught selling pirated DVDs.
“There is a security measure it has been improvised on my original copy which will help to identify all pirated copies easily. If I catch someone burning the DVD without my consent, definitely the law will take its course,” warned Chilimba.
Speaking on behalf of other artists who curtain raised the event Hussein Gopole popularly known as Anganga Afiki bemoaned the same problem saying alot of artists are being demoralised by unscrupulous people who are ‘leaping where they haven’t sown’.
“I really feel time has come for us as Muslim artists to depend on our talent on bringing food on the table. But this evil thing called Piracy is letting us down ,” said Gopole.
Chilimba then thanked all his fans and all Muslims in the country for their support towards the release of his DVD.
Amidst high expectations from pregnant crowd, Chilimba performed only one track out of 8 tracks with support from other local Muslim artists such as Salimu Kumpita, Grant Norman and Ismael Katawala. He surprisingly only lasted about 4 minutes on the stage.
Speaking in an interview, Muslim Forum for Democracy and Peace (MUSFORD) Director Sheikh Jafar Kawinga said he was very impressed with the show and hailed the artist for releasing the DVD saying it carries important messages that are beneficial to the Muslim youth as well as the whole community.
He said the DVD will give the youth something new to watch in their homes other than prohibited Music or films.
“This is a must-watch DVD. It talks a lot of things such as the prohibition of alcohol, gossiping among others. It was well composed and I think the artist really took his time in coming up with this DVD,” said Kawinga.
The former Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) chairman for Blantyre then appealed to Muslims to be supporting local Muslim artists as one way of keeping them away from indulging themselves from immorality.
‘I am told here that so many invitations were sent to Muslim Individuals and organisations, but look at how they have responded, it’s very bad ,these youths needs to be supported. One way of supporting them is participating their functions like this one. They get motivated when they see us here because this is also a place to tell if we found that there is something unislamic element in whatever they are doing or singing ,” he said.
Piracy my friend has been there for a long time, and i always why this mother caled cosoma[copyright society of malawi] is still doing nothing on piracy! Look, many artists have cried foul over this piracy,there is no protection people are burning music CDs causing more artists to live in poverty. cosoma should try to learn some tactics from foreign countries,like what htey are doing,i mean strong measures.Think of America,even RSA, they are doing better because their[artists] copyright society are not sleeping lions or giants. Frankly, speeking cosoma is not fulfiling its promises-imagine,a musician has spent about K50,000 after producing more copies of DVDs and he ended up earnig K15,ooo,what is the benefit?