SOME AMBITION HERE: Yomi Mupuma wants to be Livingstone's music export

WHILE Livingstone, the famed tourist capital of Zambia could rightly be credited to have produced quite a number of musicians that have gone on to make a huge impact on the industry, it has rough diamonds too.

Dalisoul, Shyman, and Ty 2 are, but just a few of the many names that have come from the tourist capital.

 

To that list, 28-year old talented up and coming artiste Yoram Mupuma wants to be added.

 

Born on June 2, 1991 in Livingstone to Mary and Godfrey Mupuma, Yoram whose stage name is Yomi hopes to become the next big thing to come out of Livingstone.

 

The Weekend Mail caught up with the budding artiste who is married and is father to three children, one boy and two girls, and he shared his aspirations.

 

“I am the first born in a family of two and apart from music, I am also into sign writing,” he says. Yomi went to Mulwani Primary and went on to complete his secondary school education at Linda Secondary in Livingstone in 2010.

 

Despite scoring fairly good results at Grade 12, Yomi is yet to go to college since completing his secondary school.

 

“At the moment, I have my own company called Yomi Signs. We are basically into sign writing, number plates, billboards, date stamps, and also interior designing in houses among others,” he says. “Business is going on well at the moment. So far, so good, I cannot complain. I created the company in 2017.”

 

Detailing his music career, Yomi says he started music at a very young age - at as early as ten years old.

 

He says his father who at the time used to play drums for a named band in Lusaka could have played a role.

 

“I was still in primary and my father used to sing and play drums in a band in Lusaka a long time ago. It was in the era of the likes of 2wice and Nasty D, back in the days. I think that is how I got the talent too,” he says.

 

Yomi can sing, perform and write songs. “So, I would basically say that music was always in my blood,” he says.

 

His first song was What I am and it was recorded in 2010 by producers DC and Emma at Sound View studio.

 

He speaks highly of it. “It is a hit song. It’s a nice song, if you listened to it today, you wouldn’t know it's close to ten years old,” he says.

 

Like any other artiste, Yomi is also looking to release an album sometime in the future. “Maybe next year, or the other year. We shall see. But at the moment, I am just concentrating more on recording and releasing singles as I build a fanbase too.”

 

Other songs to his name include Chiyenda So, Nenzoganiza, Baby Nibang’ono, Rumour, Ulendo, Personality, One in a Million, Where Do You Put Me, Kwabula Ubewa and Don’t Cry.

 

His latest songs are Kukukondelela, Sinzakaibalako,Kankalidwe, and Sum’ting. In his early days as a musician, Yomi never had a genre. He used to do random genres.

 

But after finding his niche, he has now settled for conscious dancehall music. “I have worked with the likes of Camouflage, Edma, J Love, Chris Bryan, Malulu, Ray Cee, Twaila, Nephew Jae, and Nick from Botswana,” he says.

 

Given a chance, Yomi says he would relish working with the likes of Roberto, Petersen, Jay Rox and even T Sean.

 

Much as he is an up and coming artiste himself, he advises fellow upstarts who are still yet to hit platinum to stay focused, push hard and never give up.

 

“I have seen it myself. If I wasn’t hard working I would have stopped music, but I have refused to stop. I will keep going and keep pushing. The same mentality is what every young up and coming artiste needs to have,” he says.

 

He knows the road to stardom doesn’t come cheap. “You have to work hard to get what you want. The road to stardom is not easy, I know that too and that is why I have a side business even as I do my music,” he says.

 

He also calls for unity among Livingstone based artistes. “There is unnecessary beef among local artistes and we don’t even support each other. Otherwise, Livingstone has a lot of young talented musicians with a lot of potential,” he says.

 

In the next five years, Yomi sees himself as a big artiste.

EITA, Diakonia partnering to build capacity of Kalumbila Northern Resettlement community

HOPE Chibumba, married and with children, is a resident of Northern Resettlement.

The area is a community of people who were resettled from Wanginwa area in Kalumbila to pave way for mining activities by the Kalumbila Trident mine.

Ms Chibumba, and the many other residents of this community were moved to the Northern Resettlement in 2014.

She was happy to move.

“I would say we were happy to move,” she says. “Of course, it was not easy, but the idea of having some mining activities in the area was something that everyone of us was happy and looking forward to because we knew the benefits that would come with such a big undertaking.”

When moving the people, Kalumbila mine through Trident Foundation Limited (TDF) made sure that it built a school, clinic and houses for the relocated.

The idea was to make it easy for them to settle in their new community.

Ms Chibumba loves it, but feels more still needs to be done for her community.

“We are grateful that these things were built for us here, but after living here for six years, we have come to realise that there is a lot more that we need actually,” she says. “We need a police station, electricity and piped water. It would also be nice if we had a secondary school here.”

Kalumbila North primary school only goes up to grade nine.

Another resident Muse Musemangeji has called on the Government to consider upgrading the school into a secondary.

Ms Musemangeji also wants a community police post to be built in the community adding that crime is high especially when miners get paid.

She says the nearest police post is over 10 kilometres away.

“You should come and see what happens here when people get paid. There is a lot of lawlessness that goes unreported because the distance to the nearest police station [somewhere near the housing area] puts us off,” she says. “Because of the distance, people tend to settle disputes out of court, regardless of how serious they may be.”

Ms Musemangeji says the Government and the mine through the Trident Foundation Limited should consider putting up a community police post in the area to curb crime.

According to her, people resort to revenge or ignoring the acts altogether as a way of settling disputes.

She says prior to being resettled there, they were also promised a secondary school which hasn't been built up to now.

“Before, we didn't have a mine, but now we have it and it is making a lot of money, so we still don’t understand why basic needs keep eluding us,” she adds.

Diakonia, a Swedish faith based organisation is through the Extractive Industries Transparency Alliance (EITA) implementing the Strengthened Accountability Programme (SAP) II project in the area, aimed at increasing community voices in holding duty bearers accountable.

Diakonia programmes officer Maimbo Kalenge says the organisation seeks to build the capacity of people to speak out and be empowered enough.

“Our role is to only fund organisations that are working where we don't have a presence. In this case, we believe that knowledge and education is the greatest empowerment one can ever have. We want by the time the SAP II ends next year, people are enlightened about their rights and are teaching others too,” she says.

She adds: “We believe that in order for development to come, people need to be empowered with enough knowledge and skill to know how to demand for it. For as long there are no better roads or policies, even our businesses would just be in futility.”

Ms Maimbo who was on a monitoring visit in the province adds that Diakonia is working with 14 other implementing partners in various provinces on the SAP II project.

EITA is a network of NGOs, individuals, and academia in Zambia advocating for improved transparency, accountability and management of natural resources for poverty reduction and national economic development.

EITA communications coordinator Mulenga Chishala says the organisation which was established in 2009 to coordinate the efforts of members is carrying out a project focusing on social accountability for economic empowerment for the period 2018-2021.

“It is focused on fostering economic empowerment and entrepreneurship for sustainable livelihood of women and youth in extractive communities in Zambia,” she says.

Mtumbi Malate is the programme officer at EITA.

He adds that the project seeks to address economic development through social accountability in the extractive sector, particularly in Mansa and Kalumbila districts.

“The main aim in Kalumbila is to improve livelihoods through promotion of entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women and youth in Northern Resettlement and Kisasa areas. This initiative is to respond to barriers women and youth face in accessing and benefiting from empowerment initiatives offered by Kalumbila mine and other business opportunities in the area,” he says.

In order not to be left out, Ms Chibumba also confirmed that the women and youths in the community have since gone on to form groups which they hope to legalise in order to embark on entrepreneurial activities.

“We know that there are things that the Government has to do, but we also know that we also have the responsibility to change the fortunes for ourselves. As we are voicing out, we are also working towards becoming a vibrant and well informed group that will be able to stand up and speak out for others,” she says.

In the same vein, the groups intend to start a block making and poultry business to supply to the mines and the nearby communities.

The project also seeks to increase access to technical and vocational training for youths and make education and training delivery more responsive to women and youth while providing young women and men with information on jobs and earnings associated with various educational choices.

TURNING LEMONS INTO LEMONADE: the case of Legendary Creations' Jane Namunji

JANE Namunji embodies the saying ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’.

When the 28-year-old lost her mother in 2005 to pneumonia, and her father a year later, her life turned topsy-turvy.

She was only 15 then, and doing her tenth grade.

“That changed a lot of things in life. Things just became somewhat hard for me,” says Jane, who is fifth-born in a family of eight.

“Growing up, we were okay but everything changed when we lost our parents. It was almost like the hardest moment of our lives, but I will not exaggerate it because at least we had a roof over our heads. But it’s just never easy to lose your parents.

“I would say from the time my mother died, school fees became a challenge because my father was in and out of hospital - I think my mother's death may have depressed him or something,” says Jane.

Luckily for her, the Forum for African Women Educationalists of Zambia was on hand to take up her school needs and ensure that she completed her education in 2007.

When her parents died, Jane and her other siblings were left in the care of their other older sister, before others were taken in by their father’s relatives.

“I was the only one that was not adopted by a father figure,” she says. “Now that I am older, I realised how difficult it was for my sister to take care of us with the little money that our parents left.”

Jane graduated from high school in 2007, scoring 17 points. But instead of going to college or university, she decided to look for a job to support her own livelihood.

Her first job was as a sales lady in a boutique in Dambwa Central market, where she earned K150 as her monthly salary.

“I remember the salary so well because at that time, it seemed like a lot of money because I didn’t have to think of rent and I had not held that much money before, I had just completed school,” she says.

Jane would later work for Debonairs, where she earned a more decent salary.

And at only 18 years old, Jane then decided to move out of the family house, with only a blanket and a few belongings, to rent a one room in 217 Township.

“To supplement my income, I also started selling clothes,” she says. But she wasn’t to last at the fast food restaurant.

Because of her love for art, she quit her job at Debonairs to join a Canadian couple - Marylin and Bob Gregory - at the Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation in 2009.

“While there, with the encouragement of my bosses, I decided to go to school. I applied and was eventually accepted to study Law at the Zambia Open University. But I was overwhelmed with the fees and also time to study, that’s how I ended up doing just one term,” she says. “But after two years, the organisation closed and  Bob and Marylin told me to do something with my life.”

Bob and Marylin paid four months rentals for Jane and left her some money to sustain herself.

Jane still had plans of returning to university, but because she could not afford the fees, she decided to abandon the idea.

Instead, she enrolled at Livingstone Institute of Business and Engineering Studies (LIBES) to study accountancy with the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA).

“My school was really slow,” she says. “As I was about to finish my Technician [first level of ZICA], I fell pregnant, forcing me to completely stop school in 2012.

“My pregnancy was not an easy one, I was literally sick throughout and I was still taking care of myself. And when the child was born, it didn’t make things any easier either.”

When her child grew a bit older, Jane got a job as a bookkeeper for Blue Ray Night Club.

“I cannot explain the kind of luck I have when it comes to getting jobs,” she says.

After working for the night club for three years, Jane quit and got a bigger job at Vilole Images Productions (VIP).

It was while there that she decided to even complete the ZICA Technician course at LIBES.

But she now had to juggle life as a wife and mother. And she was expecting her second child.

Being home on maternity leave led Jane to discover a new talent in handicraft, something she used to love doing in her free time.

And as fate would have it, a few months after returning to work, Jane and others were laid off in 2019  because the company she worked for went bust.

It was then that she decided never to look for employment again.

“That is how I decided to go full-time into crafting and jewelry,” she says.

Jane officially registered her business in 2019 and used Facebook to advertise her products.

Her business is called Legendary Creations.

As her business grew, she attracted attention beyond her own country.

“I get most of my supplies from Tanzania because we don’t have them here. I have been receiving invitations in Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi and even Namibia to train women on how to do this,” she says.

Supported by her husband, Namunji Namunji, Jane makes jewelry, bracelets, necklaces from beads among other African themed crafts.

She supplies her crafts on both retail and wholesale to several clients in Livingstone and other parts of the country.

She says her main desire is to create products that will not only dominate the Zambian market, but also sell the Zambian talent to the rest of the world.

She also hopes to create a platform in the near future for different artists to network, and a training ground for upcoming artists.