By Natasha Muthete
A Lilongwe based female writer, Tamika Mkandawire, has released a poem titled Dying in silent.
In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), the female poet said she has released the poem following pressure from her fans.
Mkandawire who early this year won Hill and Valleys competition which was organized by musician cum politician Billy Kaunda said the poem follows another one she released early this year.
“This year I have released only 2 poems, the first one being motherland which talked about Covid 19 and how it has affected the country.
This time around, I did not work alone, I have worked with one of the talented poet, Mtumwi who brought and idea of us producing a poem. I did not hesitate because I knew I will be working with the best poet and it has been proved with the project we have released”. She said
Mkandawire further explained that Dying in silent is focusing on the abuses people especially women and children are going through every day.
Most of these issues are kept in silence as people do not speak them out for fear of being against our culture.
She revealed that she is planning to release more poems next year and people will be able to see them on videos.
“Next year am planning to release a lot of poetry videos and am planning to reach out to many people who do not know Tamika the poet in short I can say next year is my year to shine and reach out to great masses of people.
“Among all the poems my favoriteis the woman she used to be which talked Dr Joyce Banda,” she added.
Meanwhile, Mkandawire has advised her fellow poets that they should put their soul in poetry and encouraged them to also work hard adding that the rest will follow.
Fatsani Chione who is also known as Mtumwi said that the poem talks about gender bias saying most married people especially men they do not speak out are dying in silent.
Chione urged poetic fanatic to listen to the poem with keen interest because it offers more entertainment and educative to people.
One of her fans, Patricia Semu told Malawi news agency that she likes the narration of the poem, the message in it and rhyming words, background sounds.
“The action of the poet has really spoken well and whatever is narrated in the poem is really a true reflection of what is happening on the ground,” she added.
Dying in silent was produced by viun records owned by Frank Msowoya who is known Fray more.