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 ...

    My Dad, Kenneth Kaunda Dr Kenneth Kaunda. Kaweche Kaunda.   KAWECHE Kaunda is one of Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s nine children. Born in June 1959, he was five years old when his father became the first President of Zambia in 1964. In a special interview with JACK ZIMBA , to mark Dr Kaunda’s 93rd birthday, Kaweche gives his own perspective of the man who was Zambia’s President for 27 years, but whom he calls dad, or cheekily, the old man.   BEING A KAUNDA B EING part of the first family must surely come with many privileges – money, private schools, cars and personal helps and bodyguards. Not really so in the Kaunda household. According to Kaweche, if there was one great lesson that Dr Kaunda instilled in his children early enough during his presidency, it was that “State House was just a temporary home, and we were made never to forget that.” He says his dad tried hard to give his children a normal life even within the confines of Plot One...

Mr Phiri with his four wives. By Jack Zimba “I DECIDED to marry four wives because one woman could not satisfy my desire as a man,” says Moses Phiri of Mulangeni village in Chief Chanje’s area. Mr Phiri, 41, married his first wife, Lizyness, in 1993. But in 1997, Mr Phiri befriended and fell in love with Loveness Banda of neighbouring Bonzo village, whom he met at a village soccer match. Mr Phiri still fancies himself as a good soccer player. Within only a month, the two were discussing marriage. “I would lie if I said I found anything wrong with my wife, she was okay,” says Mr Phiri. “I just needed one more woman to satisfy my sexual hunger.” But when he told Lizyness about getting a second wife, she strongly objected to the idea. “She was very unhappy, and I understood why; she is a woman and wanted to have a husband all to herself,” says Mr Phiri, who makes a living through subsistence farming. In order to appease his wife and get his wish granted, Mr Phiri gave Lizyne...

  Mutinta pictured at her home. JACK ZIMBA W HAT would you do if your husband’s girlfriend invaded your bedroom in the middle of the night and savagely attacked you while you slept? That is the situation one woman of Lusaka was faced with. Now divorced for 10 years, Mutinta* talks about the pain of living in an abusive relationship. A fading bite mark on her wrist is a sad reminder of her deeply troubled marriage. She has similar marks on both thighs, inflicted on her by her husband’s lover. One night, when she couldn’t take the abuse anymore, Mutinta became like a cornered animal and hit back, savagely beating her husband. “He wanted to hit me, and I was upset, I was shaking. I have never felt that angry before. I just reached for a helmet under the bed, closed my eyes and just started hammering,” she says. “I used to ride a motorbike back then, and I would park the motorbike outside, but I kept the helmet under the bed. “I think it was a combinatio...

Email The mansion viewed from the observation post. Pictures by Jack Zimba JACK ZIMBA, Chinsali NOW here is a place you probably did not know actually existed – Shambalakale farm. Nestled in a lush mountainside in Chinsali, Muchinga Province, Shambalakale farm was meant to be the retirement home of Zambia’s first President Kenneth Kaunda. Shambalakale is a Swahili term meaning “old farm”. The estate, which stretches about 12km, is situated in Mafupa village, a few kilometres from Chinsali Boma. Hidden from view by a pristine forest is the mansion that Dr Kaunda built. After driving on a very bumpy road, you find an old tarred road, which is still intact, leading up a mountain. About 300 metres and you come to a metal barrier and a guard’s house. Beyond that, there is a long driveway lined with trees – flamboyant trees, umbrella and Christmas trees. There are also Bougainville plants. Then you come before the w...