Interview with Marumbo Sichinga
Marumbo Sichinga – Poet
| Age | 27 |
| Current City | Lilongwe, Malawi |
| @marumbopoetry |
Notable Poem
Name of Poem: MOSAICS
The problem with growing up
With privilege is that you broke
Everything knowing that mommy and daddy would be able to
Buy it back and so you broke your console and phone
Knowing you could always replace them
And now you grew older and you treat hearts
And bodies the same
As if when you break hearts and people
You can replace them
We tend to love mosaics because they remind us that broken
Pieces can be made whole and beautiful
But we forget that the art of mending hearts and bodies
Is a skill God never shared with us
Interview
Interview Date: February, 2022
“Living in Malawi shapes who I am and what I experience and how I react to it and that can come out in my writing.”
I started writing in my first year of university.
Growing up my mother used to read us stories and I always loved books and literature.
Over time I fell in love with poetry, I would attend poetry shows and even read my friends poems until one day I decided to give it a shot.
Favourite poet is hard but let me try to name a few: Q Malewezi, Alex Chiwaya, Chris Msosa, Darkshadow, Phindu Banda, George the Poet, Miles Carter, Gemini, Joseph Solomon, Koleka Patuma and Upile Chisala.
The list can go on and on, each of these poets teaches me something I embrace and cherish.
My writing tends to be drawn from my experiences and the things I see and feel, living in Malawi shapes who I am and what I experience and how I react to it, and that can come out in my writing.
Spoken word poetry is continuing to rise and be accepted in the country and this makes me very happy.
Over time, artist are beginning to find their voices and sound unique and true to themselves and hopefully it can’t continue to grow and be a respected art form.
Yes, I also released an experimental project in 2018 which I will leave unnamed, then I worked on another project called ‘Things I Wish I Said’ in 2019 and this year I hope to release another project.
Certainly, I am happy with the encouragement I have received and I think the fan base is steadily growing, I still have a lot of work to do but hopefully over time the rt will get better and speak for itself.
Spoken word poetry is continuing to rise and be accepted in the country and this makes me very happy. Over time, artists are beginning to find their voices and sound unique and true to themselves and hopefully it can continue to grow and be a respected art form.
Writers block, that illusive beast, my friend once told me that sometimes writers block is just fear that what I will write will suck.
I think of poetry as my job, I won’t always enjoy my job but I have to do it, so when I feel writer’s block creeping in I force myself to write.
Not all poems make it, some are left in the drafts and that’s okay.
It varies sometimes a few minutes in the studio, other times a few hours other times a few days depending on theme and message and how it comes about.
But usually I try to come back to my original drafts to edit and re-do and to make sure I’m careful with my words.
To aspiring writers, I would say keep writing and practicing, be patient the success or the stage or platforms you desire won’t come over night, always seek to learn and do your best every time you get an opportunity.
