DIVA FROM THE WEST: MoMo DiVa opens up on her musical journey

BORN and bred in Mongu, Western province, Monde Mbanga has gone on to become a household name in her native town - thanks to her role in the entertainment and media industry.

Who is she?

Monde is one of the most acclaimed rappers in the town who goes by her stage name of MoMo DiVa.

Born from Captain Godfrey Numwa Mbanga (retired) and Maureen Imataa Mukelabai Mbanga, in October 1992, Monde is the last born in a family of four which consists of two males and two females.

The Weekend Mail caught up with the budding artiste who apart from being a trained journalist, is also in charge of music programming at Catholic owned and run radio station Oblate Liseli in Mongu.

“In my family, I am the only one doing music,” she says. “I did all my schooling in Mongu - at Mongu Primary School and went to Holy Cross Girls’ Secondary School (now Holy Cross Girls Catholic Secondary School) from grade 8 to 12.

“In 2015, I went to Zambia Institute of Mass Communication Education Trust (ZAMCOM) where I studied a Journalism and Public Relations Diploma up to 2017 and graduated as best overall performing student of two intakes,” she says.

She started singing from a tender age of seven.

“I started music when I was seven years old as the youngest choir member at St. Agatha Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Mongu. I started writing my own music in 2004 when I was in grade eight.

“My mum inspired me to sing because she always sang to me and taught me church songs. Music is one hobby that I share with her, we still sing together.”

She recorded her first professional song titled ‘Moving To The Top’ in 2012.

“It was a love song. It is the song that introduced me to the industry in Western province and I still love it even more, especially now that I am where I wanted to be at the time I was recording it. The growth is amazing,” she adds.

MoMo DiVa

MoMo DiVa who is arguably the most featured female artiste from among her peers in the region has other songs such as Island Ya Lilato which was recorded and produced by Swit Kid. She says she intends to release more music this July.

“I am planning to release an album but at the right time with the hope of making sales, not just free releases,” she says.

She is inspired by award winning Mampi. “My first performance was in 2012 at a closing bash at Mongu Trades Training Institute and in my performance, I was miming to her music.”

She adds: “She has represented Zambian music without fail and I admire that about her. Eminen is my favourite rapper and I am a die-hard fan.”

MoMo DiVa has worked with late Mongu producer and artiste Radikoh on a number of songs including a collaboration called ‘Nitakupahamela’ which featured on ZNBC Radio 2 top 10.

She also worked with Mumble Jumble, a rapper from Immac Music on two songs Western Culture and Singanyenganye. “He is one of my favourite rappers in the province.”

O’Nelly, a R n’ B artiste has also worked with her. He is a record label mate at Fly Time Music and they have a song together titled Sorry, whose studio video is already trending and was recently featured on ZNBC’s Born n’ Bred television show.

Others are Tuks Teezy on a song called Nkondo and also Kaoma based rapper and producer DJ Waz on two songs.

“I am one of the pioneers of Mbunga Music because I was the first female rapper when I started and there are very few female musicians who are still active in the industry from the time I started. I feel I have lasted the test of time being relevant from the time I started,” she says.

MoMo is also Zambia Association of Musicians (ZAM) provincial vice chairperson and has been fighting hard for artistes in the region to breakthrough.

“I have served in ZAM since 2014 and I have so far taken an active role in mobilising artistes and creating platforms for local artistes to perform at all entertainment activities in the province.

“I’m also in charge of music programming at Oblate radio Liseli which enables me to effectively achieve the 50 percent local music airplay policy at the radio station,” she says.

“My music career introduced me to radio broadcasting after my first radio interview in 2012. The on-air experience was so thrilling that I joined them as a part-time presenter in 2013 and I have been until I went to college. Now I am a full-time journalist. They say ‘do what you love and love what you do’ and I am here, living the dream,” she says.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? Meet Lynne Mandelsohn, Livingstone's passionate defender of dogs

IN its quest to minimise the risk of rabies, the Livingstone City Council (LCC) from time to time, while working with the officers from the Zambia Police, raids the townships to rid them of stray, unconfined and unregistered dogs.

They do this by gunning them down, a phenomenon that does not sit well with Lynne Mandelsohn.

Who is she? Ms Mandelsohn is a youthful looking 53-year-old Scotland born dog lover who came to Livingstone from the United Kingdom in 2008.

Ideally, such a person that dedicates much of their time protecting animals would be expected to have some kind of training in animals or anything related to livestock. But no, that is not Ms Mandelsohn’s story.

In fact, she is a trained lawyer and political analyst. “I was lucky enough to go to a great high school in England where I also studied politics at Newcastle University,” she says.

After traveling, mostly around Asia and working for three years in the United Kingdom, Ms Mandelsohn decided to go back to school and studied law at the College of Law in England.

“I worked as a lawyer from 1993 until December 2006. I worked at a law firm called Masons [now Pinsent Masons], then Freshfields [now called Freshfields Brukhaus Deringer] which is one of the top law firms in the world,” she says.

After practicing law in England, Ms Mandelsohn then decided to go back to her native country, Scotland to take care of her elderly parents.

“While there, I joined a law firm called Shepherd & Wedderburn,” she says. “I was a partner at the law firm in Scotland and it specialised in contracts and disputes for big infrastructure projects (building roads, power stations, hospitals).”

In 2007, Ms Mandelsohn took a career break and travelled in Southern Africa - with Zambia being the first country she visited.

“I fell in love with the beauty of the people and the country so much that when I went back to work as a lawyer in 2008, my heart remained here and forced me to move back here permanently in October 2008.”

When she came to Zambia, she took over Zigzag Lodge, which she has been running since then, giving employment to 13 people.

Ms Mandelsohn who was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1967 also has a community based project called Mazuba Mabotu where she sponsors 120 children with education in Livingstone’s Ngwenya township.

“I like working in the community and helping people in many ways, especially in areas of education,” she says.

Other than that, through her love for animals, Ms Mandelsohn founded the Zambezi Animal Welfare Services (ZAWS) in 2014 and has to this date rescued over 260 dogs and 175 cats.

“Growing up, there were always animals at home. We had rats, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, name it. It was always normal to have animals around and I used to enjoy it,” she says. “The only animal I am scared of is cattle.”

Simply put, her love for animals, well except for maybe cattle, can be traced from childhood. “I don’t disagree with the council's way of handling the rabies situation for the sake of it. In fact, I agree with about 97 percent of the things and only disagree with the part where they inhumanly kill the stray dogs,” she says.

“Alternatively, as opposed to killing the dogs, I would rather the council which has a fast track court take these irresponsible dog owners to court and prosecute them for failing to take care of the dogs other than letting the dogs pay for the mistakes of their irresponsible masters.”

Sitting in a chair at her lodge, and stroking a cat that is sitting on her lap, Ms Mandelsohn says she cannot stand people who keep pets that they fail to take care of.

“The first dog I rescued was found somewhere near New Fairmount Hotel. Unfortunately, it died,” she recalls.

“Normally, because people know the kind of work I do, I get reports of dogs wandering. That is when I move in with my guys and get the dogs, give them shelter and try to get them as fit and healthy enough before people come and adopt them."

Among the people that help her with her work is Foster Sibbuyu, 25, and Semi Mvula, 26. They love helping her tending to the rescued dogs.

Ms Mandelsohn also recalls how she once rescued a dog that was strangled by the neck, left for dead, supposedly by its owner.

“The branch where the dog had been hanged broke and its neck was broken. That was my worst experience. How can someone be that cruel? It is very challenging emotionally when you see such cruelty. That day, I nearly cried,” she says.

She says people need a mindset change towards keeping pets. “It’s important to sensitise people and especially children on how to live with dogs and other animals generally,” she says. “When I see such cruelty on animals, it gives me an insight into how much more we have to do as a people.”

At some point, she had over 20 dogs and cats in her custody that hadn’t been adopted yet. “Having that large number means you have to spend a lot of money on feeding and vaccinating them. It’s not always a cheap endeavour, but luckily we get help and donations from well wishers,” she says.

Ms Mandelsohn intends to have a bigger place where people, especially children can interact freely with the animals.

Once the dogs are rescued, before they are adopted, they are sterilised for population control purposes and to reduce the number of stray dogs.

“Much as I disagree with the council shooting the dogs, I also don’t agree that people should irresponsibly keep their dogs. Let us all ensure that we follow the public health guidelines and confine these dogs within our yards,” says Ms Mandelsohn who still maintains her youthful look despite her age.

According to the LCC, the tourist capital has over three thousand dogs but only a paltry 182 are registered and vaccinated, as of May 18.

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS AGAINST COVID-19: IHS Zambia donates towards the cause

THERE is no doubt that the novel coronavirus pandemic is one of the most urgent health, economic, and social crises the world has faced in decades. To date, over four million cases and more than 280,000 deaths have been reported worldwide.

Back home, Zambia has so far recorded over 260 confirmed cases with seven deaths resulting from the virus that is believed to have started from China.

As regional governments move to stem the tide of this pandemic and counter its short- and long-term impact across critical sectors, a multi-sectoral response is needed to meet immediate health emergency care and response needs, while ensuring that a social safety net is created to support people whose income may drastically reduce during this crisis, and to protect the rights of the most vulnerable citizens.

This multifaceted approach which seeks to mitigate shocks and support recovery efforts from a crisis that may exacerbate existing inequalities and result in losing past years’ gains towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has seen the private sector moving in to supplement Government's efforts.

Here, one such player is mobile telecommunications company IHS Zambia which recently joined the fight against the coronavirus with a donation of assorted items worth over K250, 000 to the Kazungula district preparedness committee.

IHS Zambia is one of the largest mobile telecommunications infrastructure providers in Africa, Europe and the Middle East by tower count and the third largest independent multinational tower company globally.

Among the items the company which has been in the country for six years donated are 50 mattresses, one hundred blankets, fifty hand wash buckets, two hundred bottles of hand wash soap another 200 bottles of soap refills, five hundred bottles of hand sanitizer, three digital thermometers and one thousand face masks.

“One of the most pressing needs in Zambia right now is materials that will help the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. When we received the request for assistance from the district commissioner for Kazungula [Pascalina Musokotwane], we did not hesitate to respond positively,” said IHS Zambia commercial director Augustin Phiri.

Mr Phiri said IHS Zambia was pleased to respond to the needs of the people because it attaches high value to people and communities it operates in.

“As the largest provider of telecommunication tower infrastructure in Zambia, we have a physical presence in all the regions in Zambia. For us, this means that we have a vested interest in giving back to the communities in which we are present through various sustainability initiatives such as the one we are here for,” he said.

In the six years that IHS Zambia has been in the country, they have executed a number of corporate social responsibility activities that go beyond the ICT sector to touch a wide variety of humanitarian causes particularly those that have a direct, positive impact on the Zambian people.

Some of these activities include the building and commissioning of a 40 foot containerised library at Kamanga Community School in Lusaka, the rehabilitation of classrooms and learning infrastructure at Mphango Primary School, Chainda Primary School and Kapete Primary School to name but a few.

Furthermore, in an effort to promote positive environmental practices, IHS Zambia has converted a good number of their sites to solar power with a robust generator recycling programme that has to date seen then donate over 50 refurbished generators to schools, hospitals and orphanages for enhanced and uninterrupted operations.

Speaking when he received the donation on behalf of the Kazungula district preparedness committee, Southern province permanent secretary Mwangala Liomba called for more private sector involvement in the fight against the coronavirus.

“It is encouraging to see such positive support from the private sector especially during such challenging times as these. We as Government are constantly reminding the private sector that they are duty bound to the communities in which they operate and I am looking forward to a day when all players in the private sector put in as much into the community as IHS Zambia continue to do.

“I have been further assured that these projects will continue to be a consistent part of IHS Zambia’s operations. ...we all know what is happening in Nakonde, and this town being a border town, such gestures are welcome,” he said.

Mr Liomba also reminded the district to ensure that the donated items are not misappropriated.

“Make sure that you account for these items so that when the auditors come, you are not found on the other side of the law,” he said.

And Southern province director of health Naman Monze said his office will ensure that the items are used for their intended purposes.

“I am imploring the district preparedness committee to embrace these gifts which are as good as ammunition for use in the fight against the coronavirus,” he said.

Ms Musokotwane also took the opportunity to challenge the business community to come on board and supplement Government’s efforts in fighting the pandemic.

She said the district is lucky not to have recorded any positive case of the coronavirus yet.

“We shall continue to lobby for assistance from the business community. We want as many people to join this fight. Government alone cannot fight the pandemic, it requires everyone’s support,” she said.