Encomium
African Voices sponsored by Globacomon the Cable News Network (CNN) will this week examine the feats of three change makers in music and ecotourism and how their concern for the youth drive their daily engagements.
The guests are Mogamat Shamier Magmoet, a South African,Vice Chairperson of Sea The Bigger Picture and coach from the I Am Water Ocean Foundation, who teaches kids the importance of pollution-free oceans, Albert Ndereki, a Motswana, who deals with ecotourism under the aegis of Chobe Game Lodge to which he has dedicated more than 40 years of his life, and multiple-award-winning Mwila Musonda, popularly known as Slapdee, regarded as one of the pioneers of Hip-hop in Zambia.
The first guest, Magmoet fell in love with sea diving four years ago. The sport helped him realize the threat that humans pose to the ocean and its inhabitants. “I found out that billions of tons of waste and garbage end up in the oceans every year, and kill the marine and plant life,” he tells African Voices.
With that realization, Magmoet started taking children from his locality to the beach regularly to educate them on the beauty of underwater, how to take care of the ocean by fighting pollution and how they could help the protection of marine life. “This way these kids also get to see there is something better out there than gangs and crime. The aim is to spread awareness and love to protect our dying oceans and give many kids an opportunity for better future,” he added.
The second guest, Ndereki is respected as one of the longest-serving members of the Botswana tourism industry and was one of the builders of the game lodge in 1971. Reputed as the encyclopaedia of tourism in his country, he manages the lodge’s iconic ecotourism facilities which include a bio-gas plant, massive water-treatment plants, solar-powered safari boats and a recycling plant where cans and glass bottles are crushed to make building bricks. He has successfully mentored young Motswana from the country’s local communities to be responsible and diligent while nurturing the environment through ecotourism.
The third guest, Musonda, born in 1987, is widely known by his stage name Slapdee. His parents and only sibling died when he was young, forcing him to live with his auntie, who moved around the country working. He attended schools in Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa before moving back to Zambia where he began his career in hip hop and rap as a high school student.
He is often regarded as one of the pioneers of Zambian Hip-hop and has won multiple awards since his debut in 2006 with “Asembe Isebenza”. After the first successful attempt, Slapdee released four studio albums, So Che, Black na White, True Story and The Business. He is signed to the Zambian record label XYZ Entertainments, which he founded as a platform for supporting the growth of local music in his country.
Slapdee has received nominations and awards, including the 2009 Ngoma Music Award for best hip-hop artist and the AFRIMM Award nomination(s) for Best Male (artiste) Southern Africa. He has also clinched nine Zambian Music awards for best male and hip-hop artist and six Sun FM Kwacha Music Awards.
CNNAfrican Voices Changemakers will be aired on DSTV on Friday at 8.30 a.m. and on Saturday at 11.30 p.m., 4.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Other repeat broadcasts come up on Sunday at 4.00 a.m., 8.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m., with more repeats on Monday and Tuesday at 4.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. respectively.
