Making Music in Malawi is a groundbreaking contribution to the historical and sociocultural significance of sounds that make and remake Malawi. A culmination of many years of research, Lwanda covers a staggering range of indigenous and hybrid musical genres, from sikiri to hip hop. His understanding of music in Malawi transcends borders and questions binaries. Lwanda’s expertise is extensive: he shows how indigenous song and dance met and melded with external influences; he examines the role of music as protest, both in resistance to colonialism and in the postcolonial era; he provides social commentary on the intersections of music, class and gender. He tackles the practical problems of marketing and copyright, and also explores the spiritual dimension of music as prayer and therapy. Lwanda’s analysis stretches between rural and urban Malawi and extends to the diaspora. He reaches into the precolonial past and projects into the future of music in Malawi. Lwanda roots his analysis in his academic training as a historian, but this text also demonstrates his personal commitment to producing and supporting Malawian music. This book serves as an archive and mixtape of the sounds of Malawi, from the precolonial period to the postcolonial moment.