MUNTU Y Zed Series: To Zed With Love Part I

I get really excited about things to do with positive promotion of my country and/ or the continent.  So I was really thrilled when we found out last year that Zambia would be co-hosting the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) General Assembly.  In two weeks the whole world will be descending upon us! This is such a great opportunity for Zambia to show what a hidden gem of a destination it is.  I have lived in Kenya, one of the premier tourism destinations in Africa and the world: they are such good salesmen that they can aggrandise coupla national parks and the beach like no one’s business.  Zambia is far more blessed with sunken lakes, caves with rock art, over 3000 heritage sites and a plethora of waterfalls.  It is located smack bang in the middle of Southern Africa and yet we are completely overlooked for South Africa, another country whose publicity is so good, yet still pales in comparison to actual stuff to see.  People globally still don’t know that the majority of the Vic Falls actually cascades on the Zambian side, yet Zim have co-opted all the kudos!

Instead of standing by and letting this continue, I have decided to use my established proclivity to veer in the direction of deranged and confused behaviour for the good of my nation.  I will not have Zimbabwe benefit more from this conference and have decided to take publicity into my own hands.  This undertaking was inspired by conversations with strangers, many of whom recognize me from my work on TV and know that I am interested in our natural beauteous resources.  They have come up to me and told me to keep up my good work and have let me know they would like to know more about what earthly gifts we have around the country and more about what the UNWTO means for Zambia.

After realizing that I was inadvertently objectifying minority races (yes when black people are the majority, they can forget that they too can be the dominant race and can offend, discriminate and make people feel uncomfortable when you single them out) by trying to single out muzungus, mwenyes and coloureds so that I could have representation across the board, I went out and interviewed people on the street who were very eager to share the knowledge they did have and what they would like to know.  Unfortunately I had a digital videocamera that used tape so I have to figure out how to convert that to a digital format to share.

So I then regrouped and decided to create a Flash mob at Levy Junction Mall, as they have such a lovely area in the middle of the ground floor, and the building is really pretty and has a skylight ceiling: lots of natural light to easily illuminate we black folk.  So on Sunday I co-opted my company, PurpleTembo Media’s social media and Mukuka lent C1rca 1964’s and on Monday I executed my plan.  

Pls RT: FLASH MOB| MONDAY 12 AUGUST| 13:00| LEVY JUNCTION| GROUND FLOOR CENTRAL AREA| @PurpleTembo @c1rca1964 #ProudlyZambian #ZedCreatives
— Purple Tembo Media (@PurpleTembo) August 11, 2013

People actually came up and said is this what we heard about on Twitter and I was like YES!!!! this can work in Zed and got youth to do a call and response to show we are #ProudlyZambian and ready to welcome the world.

Rebel 101: Don't go to prison and be
forced to wear a horrible orange
jumpsuit.  If you happen to mess
with authority rock an orange chitenge
print dress instead ;}

Management saw a crowd gathering and asked what I was doing with my little digicam and I explained and said it would only be a minute.  Then when it ended they said I would have to pay K1000 for such and that they didn’t think we’d make so much noise and after calmly explaining I didn’t mean to cause anybody and was not trying to hoodwink anyone, I was asked to vacate the premises with immediate effect.  As I was trying to give the participants the K10 each for their services security approached us, probably fearing we’d start hollering again, disbanded us and walked me out, and not in the direction of my car mind you.  So I went and bought talk time for participants who preferred that to cash and walked back in 5 minutes later and proceeded to get me a smoothie at Food Lover’s Market.  Pawpaw, pineapple, and strawberry yogurt mmmm mmm mmmm.

Was it worth it, hell yeah! Would I do it again, in a heart beat! ANYTHING FOR MOTHER ZAMBIA!!! VIC FALLS!!! UNWTO!!! he he he he ;}

Duncan, a MUNTU I interviewed last year is representive of youth doing things within the rules on a larger scale.  Check out his event for release of a UNWTO Mixtape in collaboration with Zim.