In the past week, the social media was awash with a strange warfare involving musician Tay Grin, comedian Nya Uyu and Zambian socialite Mutale Mwanza.
The two Malawians exchanged disgraceful slurs with the Zambian on social media which at times degenerated into embarrassing body shaming. In the middle of all that, Tay Grin and Nya Uyu’s followers joined in the crossfire and took on Mutale Mwanza.
However, it later transpired that the fight among them was a mere stunt ahead of the premiering of Mutale Mwanza’s Unscripted television reality show aired on Sunday DStv’s Zambezi Magic channel.
Ironically, both Tay Grin and Nya Uyu have been featured in the show. The show also features Malawian Afro-pop singer Saint.
On Friday, Tay Grin surprised his followers with a post praising Mutale Mwanza. He described the Zambian socialite as a “beautiful woman with a kind heart who knows that peace is priceless”.
However, that post did not go down well with some of his followers who felt fooled by his earlier antics.
In her reaction, content creator Tamia Ja expressed sadness with the whole stunting episode.
“You are already big in the industry and people look up to you. You are too smart and intelligent for unnecessary stunts like these,” she said.
Our efforts to talk to Tay Grin were not successful as he did not respond to our WhatsApp messages and calls yesterday.
But in a separate interview yesterday, Nya Uyu refused to confirm if the exchanges with Mutale Mwanza were a stunt and part of promoting the show.
She, however, said in arts the actors need to be creative to promote the art and increase their following. The comedian said the goal is get attention.
“As artists we have the mandate to deliver quality content that will bring satisfaction to our audience. That calls for creativity and innovation,” said Nya Uyu.
University of Malawi senior lecturer in media, communication and cultural studies Jimmy Kainja said stunts have a potential long-term harm as they are not easy to sustain and do not offer a guarantee to sustain followership.
He said there is need to explore if stunts indeed contribute to the intended outcomes such as boosting patronage for shows.
“We need to appreciate that celebrities thrive in the limelight. Maybe the stunts made sense to them to claim the limelight as the nation moves on from the tragedy,” said Kainja.
