Jack Zimba

Gabriel Ellison JACK ZIMBA  GABRIEL Ellison, who died last Tuesday, aged 87, was one of Zambia’s pioneering artists with some of the most famous designs associated with every-day life. And yet Mrs Ellison, herself, remained a little-known figure, and perhaps not appreciated as much. This may be largely because Gabriel Ellison was not one to blow her own trumpet or to walk in the limelight. “She was a very private person,” says Cynthia Zukas, who was a friend of Mrs Ellison’s. A private person, yet her works scream from the walls of many public as well as private buildings; from the hallways of State House and the sacred walls of the Cathedral of the Child Jesus. One of her biggest mosaics can be found on the front wall of Protea Hotel on Cairo Road. But without doubt, her most common art pieces are the national flag and the Coat of Arms. When Northern Rhodesia was granted independence in 1964, the administration asked Mrs Ellison to design the national flag to repla...

WORKERS sort potatoes at Chartonel farm in Lusaka. PICTURE:JACK ZIMBA JACK ZIMBA , Lusaka ZAMBIA and South Africa may be perfectly at peace, but farmers on either side of the Limpopo River may be engaged in a trade war. Around a table in the boardroom at the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) offices in Lusaka, there is some tough talking from some local commercial and small-scale farmers. Top on their discussion menu is potatoes, and a bit of onions and tomatoes. This is a fruits and vegetable working group, formulated to lobby Government to protect the interests of local farmers from cheaper vegetable imports. What is currently worrying the farmers is cheaper imports of potatoes from South Africa that have flooded the local market. According to the farmers, South African potato markets are currently over supplied due to a bumper harvest in the Eastern Freestate on the back of good rains. “I have investigated the issues as these potatoes are spilling over into our ma...

Esther Nyendwa with her two-month-old baby. JACK ZIMBA, Lusaka ON A cold June morning, Namukale Chella stands on the pavement at a busy junction in Lusaka, her 19-months-old son strapped to her back. She waits until the traffic light turns red, and then goes from car to car, asking for money. The 24-year-old mother-of-two has memorised one line which she uses to beg for money or food: “Baby hungry, no food to eat,” she says gesturing to the baby on her back. When she is tired of standing on the pavement, Namukale sits under a Jacaranda tree and breastfeeds her son. Her first-born son called Joshua, who is four years old, playfully tags at her mother, oblivious of the harshness of life the family faces. Namukale is one of six young nursing mothers begging daily at this junction. Each of the young women has a sad tale to tell about the misfortune that brought them to the streets. For Namukale, she started begging on the streets after the death of her parents. She has been ...