Africa in general is a poverty stricken continent and on our travels we’ve witnessed the listlessness of spirit of the people ravaged by disease, famine and destitution time and again. It always pulls at our heartstrings when we come across really enterprising and motivated individuals who are taking life by the horns, and gunning for a better existence using every possible means available to them. It really leaves an impression on us.
We recently had the pleasure of experiencing a performance by the Munjile Band in Livingstone. These guys lack only cash – talent and enterprise they have in calabashfuls. They have styled their instruments on the original mass-produced manufactured examples – their guitars have been carved from wood, using scrap wire for strings; drums have been fashioned from old cooking pots covered with cow-hide and cement bags.
In addition to not only getting it right in crafting musically sound instruments capable of producing musically sound notes, band leader Killian Munyama and his crew compose their own music and write their own lyrics. Where do they get their inspiration and the source of their material? As is customary with most muso’s, they sing about their lives and they view their music as a way to share their messages with their people. But, for those artists who reside in Livingstone, the life experiences tend to differ somewhat from your average honky-tonk town with an annual rodeo show.
Munjile Band’s members have all been affected by HIV Aids in some way or another, and THIS is the most relevant topic in their lives. In a tourism mecca and transit town like Livingstone, that sees thousands of truckers, tourists and traders pass through its borders every year, the disease is rife here. Livingstone ranks as a town with one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV Aids in Zambia. It was recently estimated that 14.3% of Zambian’s have HIV, and over 800,000 children have lost one or both their parents to the killer virus.
With lyrics along the lines of “Aids leave us”, “You’ve taken our brothers” and “Brother’s, choose only one partner”¦”, the Munjile Band hopes to spare lives by encouraging people to take heed of the dangers of sexual promiscuity and unsafe sex.
Our hosts in Livingstone, Toka Leya of Wilderness Safaris, support the band by regularly inviting them to play for guests. Here you can see a snippet of one of their hits as Killian tells us a little more about the Munjile Band.
