Last week, during the Burning Spear concert at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe, veteran reggae musician Limbani Banda shared his time on stage with Ndindi Mally. And some patrons asked ‘who is this guy? So Malawi Voice, on their behalf, had a chat with the reggae star:
Who is Ndandi Mally?
My real name is Emmanuel M Mally Ndasowa. I was born at Zomba Central Hospital in Zomba city Malawi 1980. I was born in a family of four children, however, my eldest Sister recently passed away. My mother is Ms Jessie Katsonga and I do not know who my father is.
The name Emmanuel was given to me by my mother, who later wedded my then stepfather, Mr Kelton Ndindi, and because my stepfather was a good man and raised me well, playing the vital role of the father figure for me and my sibblings, I chose to incorporate his name into mine in order to honor him as the father I never had.Sadly, after a fifteen year marriage, he and my mother later separated due to irreconcilable differences.
Regardless of all of that, me and him still keep in touch and will forever be in good terms.The letter M in my name stands for Mphako which was given to me by my late grandfather Mr Chester Katsonga, a seasoned business man and politician who cofounded and headed the Christian Democratic Party.
In his latter years, most of his property was confiscated by political enemies forcing him to move to his last piece of property, his farm at 4 miles in Zomba which in present day is situated by the Zomba roadblock. On this farm he had a bar with a single room which he chose to inhabit. He would often lament in misery when he reflected on his life and would constantly state and I quote ‘Panopa ndili mu chibowo’ which in the Yao language translates to ‘Mphako’ to exclaim how he was in a deep dark whole, all alone, feeling betrayed and abandoned by the people he once aided. The name Ndasowamally is quite controversial because it is a combination of two names. Ndasowa, a name which constantly came in my research when I was probing into who my biological father was.Due to other reasons, I would not feel comfortable in disclosing further information on this part.I ended up choosing my own surname and added the name Mally at the very end as a tribute to the late legendary reggae artist Bob Marley whome I strongly revered and idolized as a young boy.
He is the reason I am the man you know to be Ndindi Mally today I am a single father of 3.
And musically, whats your background?
When between the ages of 7-11, I was living in Sadzi and had a friend by the name Patrick Nyezerera. I along with my other friends would head out to Patrick’s house, because they had a broken down scrap yard car at his parents house.We would play in it with sticks using the dashboard as a drum and compose songs until late in the night when our parents would eventually come searching for us.
On the turn of the new millennium, I made a friend by the name Noel Mtambo at CCAP Sunday school and happened to live close to our new home.He had 3 sisters, & one thing we all had in common was that we loved music. They had nice music equipment but couldn’t compose lyrics or sing, I could do both but had no equipment.
Long story short, I quickly became the lead singer of the band. We became ‘U turn souls’Our name was given to us by a childhood friend we grew up looking up to till this. He would create a guitar from materials such as 5 liter king oil empty drums disposed from refugee camps , recycling it with a rod and a few spokes in place of strings, composing his own songs to his own tunes and karaoke.
I had lived with him since my former days in Sadzi and now in St Mary’s too. He was a star then and is still a star now.You may know him as Limbanie Banda.It didn’t last long because as youth we collectively didn’t have the seriousness, dedication and consistency one is required to have at that age.
Often we had education day at our secondary school High Density Secondary School in the township, Arthur Strings, Police Band, Songani Band, Freedom Band would come to entertain us at Zomba community Centre.
The Master of ceremonies that day gave an opportunity to the crowd to come and sing a Karaoke song to Bob Marley’s Put it on classic song. I knew his songs like the back of my hand. I stood out from the crowd and walked up to the stage and gallantly gave it my all and spiced it up with a freestyle at the end.
The crowd went crazy, looking at a nappy haired light skinned Malawian boy sing and move with confidence like the lion himself in his hay days.It didn’t take long until Amon Ngudeyi the owner of the Freedom Band decided to add me to his music group right on stage.
To date, what would you point as an achievements?
After my short stint with them, I went solo an started looking for promoters eventually running into Professor Edge Kanyongolo who sponsored my first singles known as ‘Ulimbo and Amaiopa’ produced by Chuma Soko and Jay Jay Munthali.Ulimbo ended up being number one on MBC in 2002.
While Amaiopa didn’t achieve the same feat but had enjoyed constant airplay and left lasting impression on some popular local dj’s at the time such as Phillip ‘Philtouch’ Kalindawalo and Gift Mabeya Mbeya ( Andalabambo) as well as Mike Chilimampunga and Jen Jen. Most of the youth today may not know them. I would like to salute them may they receive their flowers.
During my upbringing, I learned the art of painting. This skill has become second nature to me and apart from my success as a musician, one of my greatest passions in life is painting.With the money from Professor Kanyongolo and the savings I had from painting at my first company True Love Art and Signs , I released an album knonn as ‘ Moto wa gas’ produced by Ralph Ching’amba in 2006. It had 8 songs including ‘Ndigona kuno’, MBC and music splash can testify to the profound impact this song had on the nations entertainment scene in general at the time.
My hunger for success grew and I felt I had proved myself in Malawi, I wanted to go on the international stage and perform with the greats. I managed to get in touch with Lucky Dube on Facebook, we had some great conversations.
He ended up inviting me to South Africa for a collaboration On transit to South Africa, I had travelled to Botswana with a friend to resolve a business deal. We ended up staying longer than planned whilst there, word got to me that Lucky had been assassinated.
Final Remarks?
I have never been one to give up, because I never had a choice. Music is all I know, it has always been my escape and my Solace. I have always been fearless in pursuing my dreams and have always believed in myself because nobody was there to believe in me.Though I am a fatherless man, I am a proud father of 3 children.
Life has taught me not to stop and look back at where am coming from but rather to keep moving forward focus on where I am going.I have adapted my knowledge and style to fit the times, putting out more music at a faster pace than ever before, engaging on new modern day platforms such as youtube and spotify and brushing shoulders as I share the stage with legends such as Burning Spear as well as my childhood friend & brother Lambanie Dube.
There is a local proverb that says & I quote ‘ just because a lion is wet, it does not mean that it has transformed into a cat, it is still a lion’. After 20 years, 3 albums and tens of multiples of singles, I am in my golden years nearing my peak. I will give the world the very best of me until I neither have a voice nor life in me.I may fall along the way, but in true Ndindi Mally fashion, I will pick my self up. Surely in Judah the lion will roar again.
