Three change makers in the areas of music, ecotourism and marine protection are the guests featured in this week’s edition of the Globacom-sponsored African Voices on the Cable News Network (CNN).
The trio will tell viewers of the 30-minute weekly magazine programme how their concern for the youth spur their daily engagements.
The three guests include multiple-award-winning Mwila Musonda, popularly known as Slapdee and regarded as one of the pioneers of Hip-hop in Zambia, Mogamat Shamier Magmoet, a South African who is also the Vice Chairperson of Sea The Bigger Picture and teaches kids the importance of pollution-free oceans and 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.
Magmoet, the marine protector, first took to marine protection when four years ago he fell in love with sea diving. Through the sport, he realised the menace 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.
To help to protect marine and plant life, Magmoet started taking local children to the beach on a regular basis and began 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 regarded as one of the longest-serving members of the Botswana tourism industry and was one of the builders of the game lodge in 1971. Described 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 over the years successfully guided young Motswana from the country’s local communities to be responsible and diligent while nurturing the environment through ecotourism.
The hip-hop star, Musonda, was born in 1987 and is widely known by his stage name Slapdee. He lost his parents and only sibling when he was young, thus he was forced 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.
Often regarded as one of the pioneers of Zambian Hip-hop, Slapdee 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.
He has equally received many 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 artiste and six Sun FM Kwacha Music Awards.
CNN African 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.
