Masauko Chipembere (Poly Class of '88) Assembly

Last week, Poly middle and upper school students experienced an amazing hour of performance and presentation by the Malawi-American singer and songwriter Masauko Chipembere, who graduated from Poly in 1988. At an assembly that brought the two aforementioned sections of the larger Poly student body together, Chipembere wove insightful thoughts on activism, citizenship, and sustainability between lively renditions of various songs of his. His story in the United States started at nearly the same time as his parents; he was born only months after they arrived as political refugees. His father played a significant role in Malawi’s independence movement, but after disagreements with former compatriot and newly established prime minister of Malawi Hastings Kamuzu Banda, he took up residence in California, where he studied and taught for most of the rest of his life.


During the assembly, Chipembere offered various anecdotes about his experience at Poly and as a teenager growing up in the ‘80s. He described the difficulty he had reconciling his Malawian roots with his American childhood and adolescence, two forces with which he continued to grapple even during his work as co-director of his mother’s organization Women’s Initiative Network Malawi (WIN Malawi). He also talked about more lighthearted moments that came with his family’s arrival and residence in the States. Chipembere’s music, however, drove the assembly, engaging students from sixth to twelfth grade all the same. With his use of call-and-response, simple choruses, and active melodies, he captivated the five or six hundred audience members. His performance ended with an invitation for all to join him in one last song and dance, directly in front of where he was performing. One by one, and then all together, dozens of people formed a dancing, energetic crowd. Many middle schoolers, who were closest to the makeshift stage, and some high schoolers joined in, along with a few members of the faculty. It was rhythmic rejoicing, a fitting end to the jubilant assembly by the distinguished Poly alum.

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