Presidential Advisor on Creative Arts, Qbaniso Malewezi, popularly known as Q Malewezi has said arts has the potential to promote the country’s culture.
Malewezi made the remarks Friday during the opening of Lake of stars scheduled for 6 to 8 September at Fish Eagles Bay in Nkhotakota District.
Malewezi, who is the founder of Kweza Arts, said that there is still a challenge in terms of uplifting Malawi’s culture as most people are obsessed with foreign arts instead of the home industry artistic material.
He said: ” I would like to see the country progressing in terms of the cultural arts that Malawi has. The expectation is to move the whole industry forward and move the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forward. We are looking at cultural tourism which pushes natural arts and cultural heritage bill. That is an implementation I wanted to be set,” said Malewezi.
Malewezi, who is also one of the international poetry artists, added that the country need to embrace content creation and concentrate on playing Malawian content than the foreign material which does not have any value rather than entertainment.
The 2021 agreement by Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) stipulated that 70 percent of creative arts should be for Malawi while the remaining 30 percent should be foreign material but currently the stipulation seems to take a different step.
The Lake of Stars festival has returned three years after a break due to Covi-19 pandemic that necessitated restrictions on public gatherings.
Among other artists scheduled to perform are Zeze and Temwa from Malawi while South Africa has brought Show Madjozi commonly popular with a song called “John Cena.”
