Beyond Nyau-unit, (I have my 2 ¢ on that but I will save that for another day) and his music, this man Limbani Kalilani AKA Tay Grin is setting the pace for a new generation of versatile Malawians by being part of the leadership of the third mobile company in Malawi: G-Mobile.
It seems gone are the days when families sat around the table and parents asked the children, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" To the "correct" responses such as "I wanna be a lawyer, a doctor, a pilot", parents invested everything they had to make that dream come true- and, ahem, made sure you stuck to that profession if they had anything to do with it. If on the other hand, the response was something like, "ah, I wanna be an artist or a sports professional" the parents ably took up the challenge to drum it into your head that, "Honey, you could do that ofcourse, ASIDE from a real job, you know, like working in an office like a manager. Don't you want to be a manager honey, or a pilot, or a ...ummm...lawyer."
In the end the majority of the generation of M-dub kids born in the 70's and 80's grew up thinking arts and sport are "hobbies" that one can't make a substantial living from. Reading today about Tay Grin and G-Mobile, I begin to think of the likes of Dumisani Kapanga, a student/radio personality/online entrepreneur combo or Aubrey Mvula AKA Tha Gosple the chartered accountant/Christian rap artist/quasi evangelist or even Qabaniso Malewezi AKA Q, the poet/Abstrack Beatz Director/producer...the list is long (and women don't worry, to be clear, I know the list of reps from our gender is long also and I'm not hating on us by using only males as examples-O, we are making our mark as well).
Yeah, it's a happy day to see such a dawning in Malawi where the question of personal skills and talents and gifts can be expressed outside of the box shown us when we were young, after all, THERE IS NO BOX. I wonder then what is was that they showed us, a uni-dimensional square they thought was a box........
G-Mobile vice-chairperson Limbani Kalilani promises first class telecommunication services in Malawi saying his company, which is expected to invest US$40 million (about K1.6 billion) within the first five years of operations, will bring more advanced technologies in the system.
“We will be introducing the first ever hybrid network in Malawi. We want [mobile] services in the country to match the best in Africa,” said Kalilani.
As disclosed by Kalilani, the company is expected to provide about 900 jobs to Malawians, in addition to reaching the rural masses by providing facilities which will “facilitate easy access to telecommunications services.”
excerpt from Nyasa Times; pix: stolen from Tay Grin
P.S. Now if some external imperialist devises in his head a plan to use this development for self-seeking capitalistic gain at the expense of any Malawian rich or poor, I won't hesitate to slap ya upside the head, for real.
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