LEMBA: African Female Bloggers and the Metamorphosis of Love

Mazuba Kapambwe blogger at Afrosocialiting
and I after the Ngoma Awards in
Lusaka, December 2012.
Photo by Silumesii Maboshe
© Pencil Case Studios

Tomorrow as I have mentioned I will be speaking with other wonderful African women about the "Metamorphosis of Love".  This all happened because one of my Stanford besties happens to be besties with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah of the Adventures from the bedrooms of African Women. I crashed her bday party while falling in love with Ghana in January and afterwards reached out without looking like too much of a stalker fan (ahem I hope he he he).

In my early days of blogging, the Adventures blog was one of my go-to sites for inspiration.  I was so impressed by how bold these women were as, sex is such a taboo subject on the continent.  So is love.    We talk about AIDS and the perils of fornication, and if we do talk about love and sex it's in a church during a wedding where you are given blessing to copulate for procreation and where love is celebrated in a very traditional fashion for a coupla hours.  I digress, as I was saying, this blog inspired me to blaze my own trail with my own voice.  They disappeared for a while, which led me to believe they had been abducted by the forces of silence, but they thankfully came back.

Nana introduced me to Malaka Gyekye Grant, the other half of Adventures.  And then it clicked after a couple of exchanges  that she is the woman of Mind of Malaka whom I had stumbled upon after looking for the original of You Intellectual Scum account and I had another round of geeking out on Twitter with her.  Both have been so kind as to think that I may have something to say about love and the African woman.  I have not blogged much about the subject to be discussed - this post is the only one completely dedicated to it in the Love tag is and I have only made one PSA about safe sex, though I did speak about sexual choices in this post and discrimination here. I basically have skirted around both issues, only really directly addressing them in the first year of the blog and in the AIDS tag.  

Check out the other ladies who will be a part of the Metamorphis of Love Google+ Hangout at 19:00 CAT, 17:00GMT which will be facilitated by Malaka and produced by Nana:

Tosinger from the Nigeria and the USA

The Rambling Roommates from Ghana

Tiffany from South Africa and Kenya

And just for Malaka, as promised, I appeal to a baller Nigeria to be pimpin' and donate to Blogging Ghana's indiegogo campaign to help Ghanaian bloggers tell more stories. Or anyone else with deep pockets for that matter :)... 

@AbenaGyekye how about I get a Nigerian baller to give on this poor Zambian's behalf ha ha ha! When is the deadline, waiting to get paid...
— Ngosa Chungu (@whoops_c) February 10, 2014

Lots Of New Things To Look Forward To!

I have been unusually busy the last two weeks and I absolutely love it!  Working when I want 7 days a week is now an addiction.  It is important in life, as well as a blessing, to be able to pursue your passions on a professional basis.  Still working on the monetary side of things, but that is coming :).

I have started contributing to other blogs: My first post on The African Muse I have already shared and in the coming weeks I will be featured on Unchain Africa Press.  Also trying to get my hustle on here in Zambia promoting Zed creativity and have lots of things on the stove that need to come to a boil.

After making 3 Video Musings of an Afropolitan Woman, I must confess I am quite sick of myself.  MIghTy African recently ruminated over how indulgent one can be on one's blog about success and sharing your life with others and I said that it is important to share your joy and your triumphs just as you highlight other peoples.  But it is paramount to be mindful and to reign oneself in before narcissism takes over.  I named this blog Mwana Ba Afrika so that I could showcase other Mwana's (which can also colloquially and affectionately mean friend) across the continent. So that is what I intend to do for a while.

I have since deleted videos from YouTube and edited all the posts featuring Video Musings of an Afropolitan Woman after much rumination and though my friends protested as they enjoyed them greatly.  I realised that it took way too much energy to talk and be me in front of the camera, it is much easier for me to write to convey my nonsense and splashes of profound insight and brilliance (we can agree to disagree on that he he he).  I don't have the desire to be in front of the camera really.  I think that my posts in and of themselves more than adequately reflect my personality.  If you haven't realised by now that I am an intelligent, slightly unhinged and wacky afropolitan woman I can't help you ;}.

I am launching 3 new series that will fit in to my umbrella-ella-ella-e-e-e 3-4-10 series:
                                                                                                                 
LEMBA: meaning write, which will focus on writers, authors and bloggers.                                        
                                                                                                                 
MUNTU: which means person/ human/ there is no word for black person where I am from so it is also used to indicate a person of this land which by default refers to the majority who are black. This series will focus on inspiring individuals who are invested in their country's and Africa's growth and have country and African pride.  The first group will of course be from Zambia as part of the Zed Series.

These are the only videos that now feature on my YouTube Channel.  You can check out all the interviews I have done so far.

MA BIZ: an ode to Ba Nyirenda, RIP, who worked for my family for 23 years and would always say when you asked him to do something ni ma biz, ma biz meaning I am busy and also is a play on words and can be translated to be a mix of vernacular and English slang to mean the business. This series will focus on businesses doing great things on the continent.

I will be kicking off the MUNTU Zed series in the coming days with the lovely Miss Zambia 2005, Kabungo Precious Mumbi-Habeenzu, photographed above.  Very excited as she has a lot of insightful things to say and was delightful to video.

Please connect with my on Facebook (for regular MBA updates) and YouTube (information for both platforms on top right-hand side of the page) and also read the blog on your mobile at http://mwanabaafrika.blogspot.com/?m=1