Mahiri Nasumu

Mahiri Nasumu was born Tiwonge Kondowe on 16 February 1991 in Mzimba Malawi. He was raised in the city of Lilongwe where he has lived for the better part of his life. His interest in music developed from an early age through listening to his parents’ music collection. Around age 12 he became exposed to rap music through friends and the television. Not surprisingly one of his favourite scholastic subjects was creative writing. He also claims to have read at least 60 books over the course of his life which has strengthened his writing skills. He gained some stage experience by performing skits, poetry, drama and songs at school events. He did not record a song until 2006. The song, titled ‘Witnesses’ was met with negative comments and never released. Later on, in 2009, he teamed up with his friend ‘Layome’ to record a song called ‘Wako’ at Purpose’s Heartbeat Records. This time the feedback was warmer and the song got some airplay on CAN radio’s Generation Y Music Breeds program. In 2011 he enrolled with the Malawi College of Accountancy (MCA) to further his studies. He sat for his final paper in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded the PAEC diploma. Later on that year he was hired as a customer support associate by Tech Mahindra. After a brief stint there he decided to go back to the MCA to attain a bachelors’ degree. His attempt of the Bachelor of Accounting: Audit and Information Systems (BAAIS) degree spanned three semesters from July 2015 to December 2016. Mahiri identifies as a rapper. However in 2015 he decided to learn how to sing in order to record better hooks (choruses) for his songs. That was the route that led to the recording of ‘One of a Kind’ at BFB’s exclusive entertainment in 2016. The record, which is a love song, combines elements of rhythm & blues, reggae and rap. The lyrics and vocals are by Mahiri, while the instrumental, mixing and mastering were handled by BFB. Towards the end of 2016 he teamed up with fellow Lilongwe resident Eminent 1 (born Matthews Longwe) to begin work on a project called ‘Ndado Zapachulu’. It was decided that the collaboration would be done entirely in Chichewa to offer something more Malawians could identify with and appreciate. The moniker Mahiri Nasumu means ‘skilful with songs’. This comes from a belief that every person is blessed with particular skills or talents. As architects are skilful with designs and programmers with coding so are lyricists with songs. The name has Swahili and Tumbuka roots.