If the stature of mimicker Synoden Tembo were a landscape, it would not have served as an adequate reflection of the continental greatness that is about to follow him.<\/p>\n
This is because Tembo, whose art was at first treated as a soft-handed conceit, is making inroads on the international scene following reports that Malawians based in South Africa are courting him.<\/p>\n
Tembo mimics former president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, who was regarded as a mystery in some quarters. The mimicker debunks the mystery that is Bingu, ever enlarging, refining and redefining his speeches to suit the mood of the occasion.<\/p>\n
One of the Malawians based in South Africa, Kondwani Martin, said in an interview on Wednesday that a group of eight Malawians have teamed up with the aim of flying the mimicker-cum-poet to the Rainbow nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever happens, we want him to perform here this year. We have listened to his mimicking on radio via the internet. We feel that inviting him to perform here will offer us the opportunity to appreciate his art,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n
He hoped that South African citizens would also attend the performances. He described art as an inter-culture saying art is, all over the world, treated as both a way of life and a state of mind.<\/p>\n
However, the mimicker himself treated the issue with a typical good-humoured contempt.<\/p>\n
He, however, indicated that he was casting his net wider and would not scorn at opportunities to perform outside the country.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the mimicker\u2019s brother, Austin, has confirmed that he is at the centre of organising the event.<\/p>\n
Austin, who is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and owns Lovemore Studio, said he had started compiling the artist\u2019s works with the aim of taking them to South Africa to satisfy people\u2019s curiosity.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, we have organised a trip for him and we want him to go and perform in South Africa. I am working on videos which will be taken to South Africa. We are working on holding such shows in Cape Town,\u201d said Austin.<\/p>\n
If the chance materialises, the mimicker cannot afford to be wrong: one wrong approach to a sceptical audience, and it\u2019s game over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the stature of mimicker Synoden Tembo were a landscape, it would not have served as an adequate reflection of the continental greatness that is about to follow him. This is because Tembo, whose art was at first treated as a soft-handed conceit, is making inroads on the international scene following reports that Malawians based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27556,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27554\/revisions\/27556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}