Music makes waves in Malawi

A review of The Warm Heart of Africa: An Outrageous Adventure of Love, Music, and Mishaps in Malawi by Jack Allison, P.C. Writers, 2020

This memoir of Peace Corps service in Malawi, Africa, has everything such a memoir should have. It is frank in describing the author’s qualms about joining the Peace Corps. It is candid when presenting in his reactions to finding himself dropped off relatively unprepared at his site. It is honest in descriptions of Allison's village of assignment and the warmth of its inhabitants. The author realistically reported on the poverty, problems and the various cultural interactions that both fire and misfire. He learned a lot along the way. To his credit Allison mastered Chichewa, the language of his region, undoubtedly – as all Peace Corps Volunteers would attest – fluency in language dramatically improved his Peace Corps experience. Allison also recounted the travels, the parties, and contacts with fellow volunteers.  He related many telling or amusing anecdotes.  Up to this point this memoir constituted a fairly normal recitation of the transformative experience that most PCVs undergo.

What made Allison’s experience different was that he was a song writer. He composed jingles about health issues – eating protein porridge, boiling water, washing hands, etc. – that he set to music and recorded with local bands. The songs became national hits propelling Allison to an unexpected stardom. The songs had a measurable impact on improving health nationwide.  Allison was feted by senior political figures, but when his profile got to be too grandiose, i.e. more popular than the president, he was expelled.

Many years later, Allison was invited back to reprise his songs and to compose new ones combating HIV/AIDS.

This memoir is one man’s story – and interesting enough for that alone - but it also sheds light upon Malawi in the sixties and the positive impact that the Peace Corps had upon that nation.