Malawi Prisoners Sings, Zomba Prison Project

I heard this song on BBC 94.9 on Sunday when Jumoke Fashola interviewed Grammy winner, Ian Brennan on why he toured Malawi Prisons in search of music. He spoke about the originality of music and how some countries have lost touch with their cultural music. Watch a documentary of the Zomba Project.


 

Ian Brennan, is a record producer known for his work with Lucinda Williams, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Richard Thompson, as well as African bands like Tinariwen, from northern Mali, and the Malawi Mouse Boys, has completed an unconventional project that will put a spotlight on a largely unexplored current of music – Malawian prison songs.

Some of what Mr. Brennan discovered in Malawi prison surprised him. he said 

"On the men’s side of the prison, he found an organized band, with guitars, drums, keyboards and basses, as well as a generator to provide electricity. There was also a hierarchy, and the band’s leaders knew what they wanted to record, and how.

“When we went to the women’s side of the prison,” he said, “it was an entirely different story. They had nothing, no instruments. The did a lot of choral singing, and they did traditional dances, to lift their spirits. And they all claimed, ‘we’re not songwriters.’ But then one of them got up and sang a song of her own, and once that happened, it was like a dam breaking. One after another, for hours, they came up and sang some of the most moving, beautiful, songs, many of them clearly about their experiences, with titles like ‘I Kill No More’ and ‘Goodbye All My Friend.

I could not find the interpretations in English subtitles, could any Malawian in the house kindly interpret the songs? Thanks