Masauko Chipembere at Chambo Market Bookshop
The brilliant Malawian-American singer/songwriter Masauko Chipembere will be at Chambo Market Bookshop and Gallery in Lilongwe, 5.30pm, 9 November 2023. Join us for an intimate event while Masauko is visiting Malawi.
Masa will be performing songs from his self titled album and sharing some passages from his father’s autobiography. He will help us understand how he hopes to keep the vision of Henry Masauko Chipembere and Catherine Chipembere alive through his art and activism.
Muti Michael Etter-Phoya, Logos Open Culture Director, with Masauko Chipembere at Tumaini Festival, Dzaleka, November 2023
Masauko’s primary instruments are the acoustic guitar and voice. And he mixes Southern African traditional music with jazz, folk, funk, hip hop and reggae.
About Masauko Chipembere
Masa was born in Los Angeles while his parents were in political exile from Malawi. As a child growing up in Los Angeles, Masauko was part of a large exile community from Southern Africa and the Caribbean. His first musical influences were the legendary South African anti-Apartheid activists husband and wife duo, Caephus Semenya and Letta Mbulu. They lived nearby. Masauko is the son of Henry Masauko Chipembere, one of the leaders of the independence movement to unyoke Nyasaland from British rule. Nyasaland became Malawi in 1964. Further, Henry Chipembere was the first Minister of Education after independence, but was later forced into exile.
Growing up in the diaspora, in exile, Masauko’s first visit to Africa was in 1996. He studied traditional music in Malawi before moving to South Africa a year later. There, he ended up forming the now-famous acoustic duo, Blk Sonshine with Neo Muyanga from Soweto.
For more information, see Masauko’s website.
