The Oral Literature Research Programme is an independent research institution founded in 1989 by renowned Malawian cultural anthropologist Moya Aliya Malamusi, and his sister, the late Lidiya Malamusi. It is based in Chileka,

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, about a kilometre from the

Chileka International Airport Chileka International Airport is an international airport in Malawi. It is located approximately , by road, northwest of Blantyre, the second largest city in the Republic of Malawi and the country's commercial and financial capital. Chileka ...

. Moya Aliya Malamusi (born in 1959) is an ethnomusicologist and lecturer at the University of Vienna and Sigmund Freud University (SFU, Vienna). Malamusi has done extensive research into guitar styles and techniques in southern Africa. He has also published a selection of his field recordings on CDs From Lake Malawi to the Zambezi (Frankfurt, 1999)and the DVD/CD Endangered traditions—Endangered Creativity (Frankfurt 2011). Its objective is the systematic contextual recording and documentation of orally transmitted African cultural traditions, notably oral literature (storytelling, riddling, proverbs, sayings etc.), song/dance, musical instruments, local technologies, ritual events such as ''in the nyau secret society'', or ''in chinamwali initiation''. The centre is housed in a large private compound owned by Moya A. Malamusi and includes an office, the archival collections, some guest rooms for visiting researchers and a special building called the Jacaranda House which serves as a Museum of Ethnographic Objects open to visitors from schools and the public. The permanent members of the Oral Literature Research Programme include Mrs. Maliya Moya, a writer and oral literature researcher, Dyna Malamusi who has a journalism background, and the musician-composers Sinosi Mlendo and Christopher Gerald. External researchers, cooperating with the centre include Kayombo kaChinyeka and Moses Yotamu from

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, Albert Bisaso from Uganda, and Vera Mwinuka from

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. The internationally renowned cultural anthropologist

Gerhard Kubik Gerhard Kubik (born 10 December 1934) is an Austrian music ethnologist from Vienna. He studied ethnology, musicology and African languages at the University of Vienna. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in ...

is also associated with the center and spends long periods of study at the institution every year. Dr. Malamusi's research group is in contact with other institutions across East and southern Africa including the Department of Fine and Performing Arts of the University Of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania through Dr. Mitchel Strumpf, and the

International Library of African Music The International Library of African Music (ILAM) is an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of African music. Seated in Grahamstown, South Africa, ILAM is attached to the Music Department at Rhodes University and coordinates its Et ...

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

, South Africa. Over a period of 21 years they have built up a vast collection of recordings on audio and video tape, estimated to amount about 4,500 individual items. These include story-telling (nthano)in context, rare musical instruments, and historical performances. The Museum of Ethnographic Objects houses rare musical instruments, now extinct, and also work utensils. It also houses the estate of the late Donald Kachamba, musician-composer.

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