Grammy Award Nominees Plus Malawi Prisoners Equals Zomba Prison Project

Truth be told, we don’t hear much music that comes direct from Africa here in the United States. Sure, most large metropolitan areas might have a radio station or two that plays African roots music during a specified time slot for a few hours a week, but that’s about it. As a result, I think we miss some pretty incredible music. It just never enters our radar screen.

I haven’t yet bought this album, but watching this video makes me believe that this is one of those albums that the overwhelming majority of people will never hear, but should. In fact, even the Grammy Awards think so, nominating them in the Best World Music Album category.

I think that category of music is not something we think about much here in the States. All of the superstars get the press and we tend to think that this is just another category. But think of how broad that category is. The Grammy Awards tend to focus on very Western types of music: pop, rock, country, rap, etc. But there is a world of music out there that we never hear, from Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, South America. Indeed, the majority of the world doesn’t regularly listen to most of the artists usually present at the Grammy Awards.

With that in mind, think of how big of an honor it is to be nominated for a Grammy Award in that category. Now think of how big of a deal it is to be a prisoner in Malawi to receive that nomination. That’s exactly what happened this week for the Zomba Prison Project.

All of the music and singing on this album is done by the men and women of the maximum security Zomba Central Prison in Malawi, some of whom are in for life. The inmates of the prison are in there for things ranging from murder and theft, but also homosexuality and witchcraft.

Journalist Zachary Lipez of Vice wrote about the Zomba Prison Project and what he wrote is worth quoting in length:

“The Zomba Central Prison, in the southern region of Malawi, was built in 1935. It is where a large population of Malawi’s political prisoners, accused murderers, and women accused of witchcraft are detained, sometimes indefinitely. At the risk of repeating tired tropes of disease and violence in a poor African nation, Malawi is extremely poor, the prison is appallingly overcrowded, and disease and violence are rampant. As with prison systems world wide, the humanity of the inmates is perpetually denied by the combination of bureaucracy, cruel indifference, and sheer, brutal economic realities. And, at the accompanying risk of sounding like a Polly Anna, music remains a source of dignity for those who are regularly denied it.”

I highly recommend listening to the song on the Vice page. I wanted to place it here but can’t seem to find the piece myself. However, I did find an incredible interview from PRI’s The World:

According to Rolling Stone, all money raised by the album, titled I Have No Everything Here, is going to pay for legal representation for some of the inmates. In fact, a few of the women have since been released as a result of this project. The Grammy nomination is the first such nomination for any album to ever come from Malawi. The country is a small landlocked country of 16 million in the southeast of Africa.

The producer of the album has said that it seems unlikely that any of the participants of Zomba Prison Project will be able to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony.