12/07/2026
MUSAMABWERE KUMUDZI: RESHAPING THE RURAL AND URBAN IDENTITY, RITUALS AND PERFORMANCE
By Esteemed Ziliro Mchulu
Twenty years ago, Malawi’s traditional music duo Edgar and Davis released an album whose title track is “Musamabwere Kumudzi.” In a bid to celebrate the two-decade milestone, the paper reflects deeply on the sublimity of the song by examining how the artists attempted to refine the debate on what home means. The song explores the concept of home by examining why people still claim rural connections in death, even when their stay in urban area detaches them from rural realities and values.
“Musamabwere Kumudzi” was released among other 12 songs in the album, and the acoustic and traditional touch of the album has stood the test of time. The sublimity is splendid, coupled with ingenuity in composition and tackling issues. It is in this album that we find songs like “Mulamu” and “Obale anga”. The use of Dowa Chichewa sets the group apart from the other dialects of Chichewa that sound diluted and over mixed.
“Musamabwere Kumudzi’ presents a persona who is reflecting on the behaviour of urban dwellers who are fond of going back to the village when they are sick or about to die. “Musamakonde kuti mukadwala, ine ndikupita kumudzi, Mwaona kuti chuma chavuta abale anga akandithandiza, mwaona kuti mthupi mwavunda…musamati bola ine ndikafele kwathu” (you like returning to the village when sick and when faced with economic problems, you are fond of saying let me die at my home).
In the lines above, the persona speaks from observation that people tend to bury urban dwellers in the village and that urban dwellers tend to go back to the village when they are about to die (bola nkafele kwathu). The observation stems from a geographical perception of space where the rural area is seen as the permanent home of a person, while the urban area serves as a temporary space where rural masses go temporarily for livelihoods. In the geographical contestation of space, the rural space is perceived as the place of belonging, and one connects with the ancestors. This explains the predicament that is being expressed, where the persona wonders why urban dwellers tend to come back to the urban areas in death.
The song presents the rural area as a place of hope in times of need. The song wonders why urban masses tend to come to the village when sick or in economic crisis. For example, we hear people in town saying “ngati town yavuta ingobwelelani kumuzi” (If you cannot make ends meet in town, just go back to the village). This shows that the rural area is a space of hope and recovery. Even when people are critically sick, they tend to go back to the village, which exposes the urban space as too demanding in its dynamics and that the village is the space whose social fabrics support them regardless of time. This again presents the unsaid truth of urban space. Urban space is so cruel that it needs you when you can help it. Urban space welcomes those in good health and positions that can make them survive on their own. This is why, when sick or in economic malnutrition, urban space becomes unbearable because it does not tolerate these welfare situations.
The song also questions the logic of urban dwellers who tend to display hybrid behaviours when in urban areas but want to be associated with the rural space in death. For example, the song presents a scenario where a relative was informed of the sickness of an uncle, and this relative did not even visit, and when the uncle died, he did not even bother to send condolences.
This incident presents identity and social crisis in the urban dwellers. The rural space has social fabrics of communism where people cheer each other when sick, and people attend funerals not because they are related to the deceased but because they are social beings who exist in the same space. This is the opposite of what the urban relative displays. He or she displays social isolation and keeps a distance from the same social fabric that knits the village. Ironically, this person wants to benefit in death from a system that he or she denounced when alive. Because of this hypocrisy, the persona is frustrated with the behaviour of the urban relatives. The song attempts to warn urban settlers to reciprocate social acts, when need be, so that they benefit from the same when need be.
Twenty years after the release, the song still critiques the view that has normalised the perception that some rituals represent values. The song trashes the idea that the ritual of burying people at certain places symbolises certain cultural values. We usually see people in times of funerals arguing about where one should be buried. There is a growing feeling by many that one should be buried in their village because this is where they connect with their ancestors. However, the song presents a critique of this thinking by looking at the economic exploitation that comes with the behaviour.
For example, the song asks, “Kodi Kapena kunyambadweko, kugaliva, malo okumba manda adatha? Kodi Kapena kwachimaliro, malo yokumba manda kulije? Mukutithela malo olima ndi khalidwe lanu loti ndikafele kwathu” (Don’t you have graves in Nyambadwe? Galiva or Chimaliro? You are finishing our farming land with your idea of dying home). The song attempts to show that this problem is in all regions of this country by using symbols: Nyambadwe represents the southern, Galiva central, and Chimaliro represents the northern region. This makes the problem a national problem.
The song might be trying to redefine and dilute burial beliefs on the relevance of where one is buried. By wondering why people do not bury each other in their urban spaces like Nyambadwe, the song might be suggesting a paradigm shift in mindset by igniting a reflection on the role of the burial place. Like what changes when you are buried away from your rural base? Don’t you rest? Do you cry? The over emphasis on the rural space as a burial space is also causing land problems in rural areas since the persona complaints that they are losing farming land because many urban dwellers are being buried away from their base.
This represents economic exploitation because land is a means of production. The urban dwellers seem to be protecting the urban space, making it tight for productive activities, while delegating the rural space as a dumping site. While the urban dweller might look at land as a material for spiritual connection with their ancestors, the song presents a 21st century perception where land is seen as an economic assert. This even brings urban burial in question because in some urban areas, burial land is paid for; however, this is not the case in rural areas. Is this another reason?
Edgar and Davis, whose real names are Edgar Kachere and Davis Njobvu, have managed to produce a masterpiece that has managed to integrate the issue of space and its implications in the urban rural relationship. The two Chancellor College law graduates who have produced three albums, including Musamabwere Kumudzi, have demonstrated that artists who are truly committed to their society express issues that go beyond sound and rhythm.
The chorus, which finishes the song has two simple messages: “do not bury urban people in the village, don’t come back in death, the rural space is not a deathbed”. The urban space should be forced to take care of the people it has benefited from. The song deconstructs the narrative that burial is a spiritual and cultural process that connects people to their land. The song presents the vanity of claiming reintegration into the rural space in death because this has no logic or basis. The song challenges the moral stand of thinking that the best place to be buried is the rural space, even when one in life failed to live by the principles of the rural space. The urban space comes with its principles of modernity, which set the urban people apart from the communal principles of village life. With this revelation, it is important for urban dwellers to always create time to connect with the rural space when alive, so that in death, the rural masses should not alienate your body or funeral procession.
As we are fixing this nation, we need to demystify death and burial. We need to redefine home and welcome the new dynamics of both life and death. There is no point in death to force yourself into a space you were not part of when alive. Twenty years down the line, the song still makes sense, long live thoughtful music.
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