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The rise and rise of Yo Maps

  Yo Maps Originally published in the Zambia Daily Mail  By VICTOR KALALANDA For any ardent follower of Zambian music, there appears to be enough reason to believe that celebrated Zambian artiste Yo Maps (real name, Elton Mulenga) is nothing short of extraordinary. If he was average, as his detractors would desperately have us believe, he wouldn’t have lasted more than six months on the local music scene after releasing his smash hit song “Finally.” He would have disappeared like snow in the summer sun. The unwritten rule in the music industry is that without a decent prior music catalogue, any artiste who happens upon instant fame is destined to become the infamous one-hit wonder. In any cut-throat field of human endeavor, big doors don’t swing on small hinges. The roots must run deeper than outward appearances, or else nothing lasts. For an artiste that keeps exceeding public expectations since rapturously coming to the notice of the nation in 2018, Yo Maps proves th...
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Zambians in USA: who’s who?

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The Pilgrim, June 3, 2022*

This Monday I got to meet several Zambians in their element in the United States of America. They were drinking and dancing. But most importantly they were a bunch of success stories living the American Dream.

I stay in Illinois, but I don’t often get a chance to meet a lot of Zambians. The reason is simple: everybody is busy. So this Monday was the exception, thanks to America’s Memorial Day, which is a federal holiday dedicated to remembering US military personnel who have died while serving in the United States armed forces.

Of course, people commemorate the day differently. Some place flowers and flags on the graves of slain military heroes. Some of the remnants, like the man I saw at the Walmart the other day, will wear a shirt that proclaims, “I’m proud to have served my country.”

Memorial Day is also a time to meet with old friends and family who live apart for extended periods of time in different states in the USA, either because of work, school or business interests. For Zambians living in the US, this meant hosting one big party, where we ate nshima with relish that tasted nearly perfect as pupwe and Solwezi beans.

The Zambian dishes were mouthwatering, and Yo Maps’ music in the background was beautiful. But what captured my imagination were individual success stories of the people I got to meet as we wined and dined.

The party wasn’t short of surprises. We had Zambians who have excelled in academia as professors or in industry as engineers, financial risk experts and as entrepreneurs in the food or construction industry, or real estate. They’re not household names in Zambia but they live in luxury and represent their country with smart investment and diligent service.

Well, I was impressed my many things such a young Zambian woman working at Boeing and a young Zambian student who is a fitness enthusiast and manages the gym at his university.

Then there were the extremes, such as a professor who chairs a department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and his colleagues who drive high-end cars after making fortunes in their construction and restaurant businesses.

The biggest highlight was a Zambian couple that wanted us to check out their home in Missouri after the party. They had just moved into a predominantly white neighbourhood and they were having some interesting experiences.

We drove from St Louis all the way to their home in a convoy as a unit. You must have seen this! Zambian of different extraction moving in a single procession in a country far from their own.

The said house was an imposing mansion by all standards. It had a basement and one story going up but nonetheless one of the biggest in this part of the United States. What was interesting is that at every level the mansion is a complete house, with all the trappings of comfort you can imagine such as a recording studio, a well-stocked bar, spacious lounges, and expensive art collections.

During the tour we learnt that the rest of the neighbourhood was anxious to know who would be buying this house when it was put on sale. Being a white neighourhood, a black couple was least expected to be the new owner. Unfortunately, such segregation still exists in the United States, where oppressive taxes are still used to ensure certain neighbourhood remain the preserve of exclusively high-income individuals, who rarely turn out to be minorities because of decades of inequality.

Of course, the Zambian family in question is not a low-income pair. They’re insanely rich and hardworking. To cut the long story short, they bought the house, much to the shock of their white neighbours.

Since moving in, they’ve constantly been pestered by an elderly white neighbour who pries into their private life and tries to tell them how to trim their hedges or pare surrounding trees.

Well, that’s as strange as it goes, so the Zambian family has promised to go Kabwata on him, whatever that means. But he probably says that on a lighter.

But my big takeaway from the party and subsequent house tour is that Zambia should be proud of its diaspora, particularly professionals such as the ones I’ve described because most of them not only represent the country well abroad, but some of them are currently building local hospitals in Zambia and making substantial financial investments which will boost the economy in the long run.

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's best-selling newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail

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