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| Felix 'Galamukani' Banda |
Friday, January 27, 2023*
At 49, one of Zambia’s most influential motivational
speakers, Felix Banda, has died. What seems to have been his best motivational
speech was courage, which stood him in good stead as he battled ill health.
When the Zambia Daily Mail asked me on Tuesday to write
Felix’s obituary, many memories flashed through my mind. He always seemed
vivacious, with an imposing figure and commanding voice, as he spoke
passionately about financial literacy on ZNBC.
Widely known by his trademark expression Galamukani, which
means wake up in the local Nyanja dialect, Felix used television and seminars
to impart down-to-earth business growth and personal development insights to
entrepreneurs and the larger Zambian corporate industry.
His aphorism, “we don’t just become,” which he would later
use as a book title, was a constant theme in his work.
“I’m not going to use theory,” he once told an audience. “So
I’m not sharing some things I’ve read from some book…You can never become
anything that you can’t see, either with your naked eyes or with your mind.”
When I met him in person in 2021, not even his heart
condition could break him. The man who coached lives in schools, churches and
companies was even more courageous.
Early Life
Born into a modest family on May 17, 1973, Felix spent his
early childhood in Lusaka’s Chipata and Mandevu compounds.
A promising student, he went on to earn his bachelor’s
degree in education at the University of Zambia.
It was during his career as a mathematics teacher at
Rhodespark School that his dreams as a motivational speaker were conceived.
Together with contemporaries like former ZNBC director
general Chibamba Kanyama, it was in the mid-2000s that Felix came to the notice
of the nation by giving motivational tips on television.
Business consultancy
Having left his teaching job to pursue business consulting,
Felix consulted for different multinationals such as USAID and the World Bank
in areas of organizational development and strategy formulation.
Through his own consultancy business, Galamukani Consult,
Felix became a household name and the most popular keynote speaker for multiple
blue-chip companies in Zambia like Airtel, KCM and ZICTA.
Living through the Valley
Felix had come to live almost inseparably with his heart
condition since December 2019, when he nearly died after what felt like
miraculous resuscitation at the country’s largest referral hospital, UTH.
“I collapsed, I died, and I can’t remember [anything] for
the two hours that I was ‘offline’,” he told me.
Despite his situation, he exuded optimism, even more readily
as his wife and three children stood by him.
Brought on by hereditary diabetes, his heart failure
condition confined him to a wheelchair, but he never stopped having his
seminars, nor abandoned his faith in God.
After mild recovery, he developed what he referred to as
Galamukani Season 2 on social media, where he still shared motivation tips and
challenged followers to be financially literate.
In 2021, he went on to publish the book Why They Are Broke,
whose subject was financial literacy.
Impact
Since his undergraduate training in mathematics and
education at the University of Zambia in 1999, which he later bolstered with an
MBA and other executive qualifications obtained from around the world, for
nearly 20 years Felix used his books and consultancy firm to inspire personal
development of hundreds of Zambians and his work warranted successful
organizational change and performance for almost all leading organisations in
various sectors in Zambia.
“I knew him and I once attended his seminar under KCM
(Konkola Copper Mine),” said Maybin Sichimba to highlight Felix’s service in
the mining sector.
“[Felix] was instrumental. One of the things I really
benefitted from him was the teaching in his book We Don’t Just Become. After
attending so many of his symposiums, he always talked much about
entrepreneurship and how one can rise to the occasion amid challenges,” said
Morris Shimau, a media professional.
Felix died at UTH on Tuesday, January 24 owing to
complications of diabetes. He will be buried on Friday, 27th January at
Memorial Park in Lusaka.
*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's leading
newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail
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