Jack Zimba

President Hakainde Hichilema with Thabo watching the movie Can You See Us? Image credit: State House. Thabo stars as a Joseph in the advocacy movie. Thabo Kaamba on the red carpet during the movie's premier on Wednesday. Image credit: Henry Mboyi  JACK ZIMBA  CAN You See Us? Of course no-one could not have noticed Thabo Kaamba.  The 12-year-old was a dazzling image on the red carpet at Ster Kinekor, Manda Hill, as she welcomed President Hakainde Hichilema and as she sat next to him at the back of the cinema hall watching herself on the big screen as Joseph - a boy living with albinism.  Actually many who saw her on the red carpet thought she looked like an angel.  “She was everybody’s angel,” says her mother Kayani Kaamba, who could not hide her excitement seeing her daughter cast in the advocacy movie Can You See Us?  “I was so excited. That experience was unexplainable,” she says. "I was excited to see my daughter acting in a great movie like that one.”...

  Bianca and her alleged killer, husband Lawrence Rudolph. Bianca Rudolph: Death in paradise ·       Leopard hunter who ended up on the wrong side of the gun   Today in a court in Colorado, USA, a murder trial begins that will shift focus of the jury to Zambia, and whose outcome might be an indictment on the Zambia Police Service, which first handled the case, JACK ZIMBA reports.   ONE corner of the great Kafue National Park is as serene as heaven – a real paradise of unanswered beauty, with eagles gliding effortlessly above, crocodiles basking in the sun and air filled with the laughter of hippos. The beautiful forest, teeming with game, is only broken by the beautiful Kafue River flowing eastwards in gentle rapids. It is a postcard painted by God Himself. And this is the paradise that Bianca and her husband, Lawrence Rudolph, a well-respected and wealthy dentist in his home town, Pittsburgh in the USA, came to back in October 2016...

JACK ZIMBA, Chipata   BEYOND the cloud-covered Nyamfinzi Hills in Chipata, Eastern Province, not too far from Ependukeni Palace of Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people stands a museum and a statue erected in honour of Nsingo.  The Nsingo Community Museum at Feni village was opened in 2017 as a repository of Ngoni history and culture, while the statue was unveiled in February this year. But who was Nsingo, and why is he being put on a pedestal now?  By the close of the 19th century, the Ngonis had conquered all the tribes that stood in their way and established a kingdom around modern-day Chipata, under Ntuto, who was Mpezeni I, having succeeded his father Zwangendaba.  But then came the British, searching for land and minerals, and the Ngonis had a new enemy.  Ntuto is said to have given in to the demands of the Europeans, but his son Nsingo refused to give up the land. As a result, war broke out between the British soldiers and the Ngoni warrior...

Capt. Chansa with Thabo on her first birthday. Capt. Chimwala with baby Thabo and the baby's aunt. Capt. Chansa with baby Thabo. Capt. Sharon Namuchimba, FET commander holding baby Thabo, while Capt. Chimwala looks on.  A day before leaving Birao, with UN head of office for Birao, Bessan Vikou, and Battalion Commander Zambatt 7 Lt. Col. J Mwana'hingombe. Capt. Chansa leaving Birao with baby Thabo. Capt. Chimwala with Thabo in Birao, Central African Republic. JACK ZIMBA IN A flat in Lusaka, a little girl makes unsteady steps, her radiant face, shrill baby calls and yellow floral dress lighting up the room. Watching her every move is the girl’s adoptive mother, Zambia Army captain Mwila Chansa. She is a doting mother and is all bubbly as she talks about the little girl. She thinks one day she will become president of her country.     The little girl’s story does not begin in Zambia, surrounded by love, care and hope; a place where her future is guaranteed. The li...

    Panning for gold. LUCY LUMBE and JACK ZIMBA   THE gold fields of Kasenseli now lie quiet, off-limits to any intruder, but the perimeter fence still lies broken at various points, evidence of how determined those lured by the prospect of instant wealth were to lay their hands on the treasure. At the gate, we are turned away by an uncompromising military captain in charge of the Zambia National Service contingent deployed to protect the area and safeguard the national asset. The Zambia Gold Company, a subsidiary of the Government mining investment wing, ZCCM-IH, was stopped from further operations by the new government, pending investigations into the whole gold saga, and so the excavators lie idle. But wind the clock two years backwards, Kasenseli was like a bright light to the moth, drawing thousands of gold prospectors. Chief Chibwika, in whose chiefdom the gold fields lie, said the population of Kasenseli was about 700, but after the discovery ...