FORMATION of a Music Union of Zambia, an organisation that will represent the interests of musicians, DJs and managers is progressing well with the drafting of its constitution completed.
Music Union of Zambia interim secretary general Machi Muchindu, aka, Prodigal Son, said the formation of the union is necessary because it will help protect musicians from exploitation.
“We’ve finalised with the constitution for the Music Union of Zambia…we are just doing final consultations, the union should be registered by next week,” Muchindu told the Weekend Mail in an interview yesterday.
The musician and radio presenter said the formation of a union for musicians has been long overdue adding: “most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have unions representing musicians except us in Zambia”.
Muchindu said a team spearheading the formation of the union has been in close contact with veteran musicians for advice.
“We have not left out anyone during meetings concerning the formation of the union, we have been consulting the big guns in the music world like James Chamanyazi and Brian Shakorongo…even during the final consultations concerning the constitution and the union, the old timers in the music industry will be involved,” he said.
And asked why meetings for the formation of the union were only advertised through a WhatsApp page, Muchindu said “We just did that for starters, we needed a road map”.
Commenting on WhatsApp postings suggesting a rivalry between musician CQ and the people in charge of the formulation of the union, Machindu said “it’s not really rivalry” but “an exchange of views among artists debating clauses in the union’s constitution”.
“You expect people to argue on contentious issues when discussing the constitution…it’s not really a rivalry because the way we argue on WhatsApp can be different from the level of debate when we go in an actual meeting,” he said.
Zambia Association of Musicians ZAM chairperson Njoya Tee recently said he would support the formation of a union to represent the interests of musicians because it has records of musicians being poorly paid after providing services.
(DailyMail)
