FORMER Zambia Daily Mail Sports Editor James Mwambazi who has recently died in Lusaka was an epitome of a trained journalist who used the power of the pen in pursuit of the truth and not personal vendettas, which he regarded as highly unethical and unprofessional.
I had been out of the country and did not know Mwambazi who had not been in touch for a long time, had passed on until this week when a former colleague and the man he had replaced as Daily Mail sports editor, Sam Equamo, phoned me to break the sad news.
‘Jim’ – as everyone in the media fraternity fondly referred to him – and I met for the first time as journalism students in Lusaka at the then Evelyn College of Further Education in 1966; and had been close friends since then. In fact, Mwambazi had over the years become not only a family member but a trusted veteran professional with whom I developed a friendly rivalry in the sense that he worked for the Zambia Mail and I workedfor the Times of Zambia.
If I missed any sports story for the Times, Mwambazi was likely to have it published as an Exclusive lead story for the Mail; and vice versa. Ours was a healthy competitive rivalry that helped boost circulation figures of the two biggest newspapers in the country at the time.
But what was particularly striking about Jim was the fact he practised what he had been taught in the lecture theatres at college and always used appropriate jargon in his journalistic conversations and essays. Whenever critiquing various news stories either in the Mail or the Times, etc., James Mwambazi, like his former colleague on The Miner, which later became The Mining Mirror, Hamington Lintini, often reminded some of us of some long-forgotten terms that we, as scholars, had to memorize in order to pass an exam such as the “news peg”, the “news angle”; the “staccato intro” and “suspended interest”. What a paragon he was.
Trained by, among others, two American journalism experts – Professor John Reid and Anthony Frances; Dr John Manyarara (Zimbabwe), Maurice Hormel (South Africa), Neville Hauxum (South Africa), Nawa Kwaleyela (Zambia) and British lecturers Timothy Homes, James Waddington, Allan Rhodes and Ms Rene Dent, Mwambazi would often look back – with a trace of nostalgia – at how fortunate we, as journalism and indeed other students, were because the fledgling Zambian Government, with the support international cooperating partners, had managed to assemble a team of world-class tutors to train its growing army of employable youth.
Mwambazi covered many important events, the domestic National Football League and cup competitions, the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA)-organised All-Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games of which the Seoul 88 Olympics stand out because I was there with him – he filing stories for the Mail and I for the Times.
I remember an incident in the Main Press Centre (MPC) in Seoul, which the South Korean Olympic Committee (SKOC) had set up for international journalists covering the global event. We were preparing to leave for Kwangju city for the Zambia versus Italy Olympic match when a Nigerian journalist, sitting on the opposite of the Sports Desk, said Zambia would be “lucky to survive a massacre” at the hands of the ruthless four-time World Cup champions.
James and I did not agree because, we argued, the name of the game is football and in football, anything could happen.
Convinced the outcome of the encounter was a mere formality, our dismissive Nigerian friend wished us and Zambia “good luck” against the Italians but was quick to add we would be “very sorry” by the time we returned to the MPC to file stories back to Zambia.
However, a Ghanaian journalist from Accra, who had been listening to the ‘shouting match’, chipped in saying: “If I were you I would not be worried by what he is saying; surely you know by now that Nigerians always win their matches with their mouths even before the games are played – these guys talk too much – it’s their special gift from God.”
Everyone present in MPC could not help but burst into uncontrolled laughter at the ‘friendly rivalry’ between the two West African soccer giants.
Of course, Zambia, the underdogs, upset the odds, ripping the stunned Italians apart 4-0, with Kalusha Bwalya, the current Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president, scoring a hat-trick that helped him clinch the 1988 Africa Footballer of the Year Award.  Back at the Press Centre later in the evening, the Nigerian scribe was conspicuously absent – we looked for him but he was nowhere to be seen.
Readers of this column will probably recall that I recently wrote about My Adventure in Southeast Asia and highlighted how Mwambazi and I found ourselves stranded in Hong Kong on our way home from the Olympic Games in Korean. It was, indeed, an experience of a lifetime.
James Mwambazi you were such a jolly good fellow and a refined example of journalists who in their reportorial tasks adhere to professional ethics without fear or favour. You will be sorely missed by everyone. MHSRIP
Comments:
Hi Mr Alfred Mulenga.
I have just finished reading the article on former British Prime Minister Macmillan, a good digest and I have enjoyed the reading. Moreover, I have no comment to make on this one, but the previous two; namely, KK would have every reason to smile on the political turn of events; and your visit to the Livingston Museum.
In the first place, I believe you’re wondering at my logic of trying to co-opt Mr Simon Mwale in this correspondence! Well, the reason is simply that I have chosen him to bear me witness before the Lord God that, despite all the impediments and predicaments, I have said all that I had to say.
Otherwise, I am aware of the negative attitude you adopted towards me due to variance in certain aspects of looking at things, but that is nothing to deter me as it is written: “To him that knows to do good and does not the good that he knows, to him it sin.”
Thus it would be a sinful carelessness of me to bury my head in the sand when you are preaching abominations to mislead the nation. My remarks may not be published, but my spirit shall always be light for having played my role. The two articles were mainly exaltation of Kenneth Kaunda, probably as a reaction to my earlier commentary remarks because in one of them I discerned some unorthodoxy reference alluded to me.
I have to tell you one fact that empirically determined wisdom be it from the Bible, spiritual, or from our fathers, natural, is not something you can contradict and call yourself wise, as you have contradicted that which says: “you can’t be wrong and get right.”
Therefore, you should really be ashamed of yourself sir, for thinking that you can find plausible words for Kaunda’s one-party dictatorial regime which was imposed on the nation for such stupid reasons as selfishness of one man that wanted to remain in power for his life long! It was obnoxious right from the word, go and all along people continued fighting to bring it down. It shall therefore never bring good memories to us even if someone smiles over it.
As for Kaunda’s personality, we all once admired the first man that headed the government of us indigenous nationals; we thought that he was a God-given messiah. But the amount of misleading statements that came from the man’s mouth made us doubt him; he promised moons and mountains to the nation: An egg a day, no patched pants and shoes for every foot!
He talked of economic take-off when the opposite was happening to make the nation oscillate between the two extremities, from one of the best economy in the world to one of the poorest indebted begging nations in the same world. What good things can you say about a system of government that left a nation in the state Kaunda’s administration left Zambia?
Thanks to the Lord God who is not the author of confusion, everything about Kenneth Kaunda has been revealed crystal clearly! In 1973 he took a pen and wrote to publish a book entitled, LETTERS TO MY CHILDREN were he declared saying: “My parents brought me up in Christianity and I grew up with it, but now I consider that to be a curse.”
I am very sure that Kaunda now regrets that, while reckoning on people below idiots who can call Christ Jesus the Lord and God at the same time, shower reverence upon a self-confessed ungodly man and open enemy of the same Christ. Nevertheless, the Lord God is not mute about such a damnable situation, it is written: “Should thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.”
What libel can you intimidate us against where the wrath of God is the alternative?
As for the knighting of a head of a sovereign state by another head of a sovereign state, which you suggested, I really cannot believe you were serious in your thinking aloud and I wonder how you can entertain such a situation when you write such a thing for public consumption.
An independent state and a kingdom are equal in everything regardless of their economies and races. The Queen or King of England is not greater than the president of Zambia, though the former presides over the Commonwealth.
The first president of Nigeria and that of Botswana were knighted, perhaps before independence of those countries or just when they were prime ministers. Otherwise the reasons you suggested for the Queen to knight Kaunda were ludicrous.
Africa has had a few puppets like Charles Njonjo of Kenya, Kamuzu (Hastings) Banda of Malawi and Jean Claude Bokasa of the Central African Republic; those are the men who could have jumped sky-high at the chance of being knighted by the Queen. I also remember, at Nairobi Airport when we received Kaunda for a heads of state summit conference; I heard Mwalimu (Julius) Nyerere teasingly call Charles Njonjo, as ‘sir Charles’ and everybody laughed.
Be still and know that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Major SYLVESTER L CHOLA
Mumbwa
NB: Maj Chola’s comments have been abridged but without losing the gist of his arguments/observations.
Please let us continue to dialogue constructively; that is important. Have your say and send your comments/observations to:alfredmulenga777@gmail.com