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By SAM PHIRI – Times of Zambia
YOU might just know him as Sulu; the Big Brother The Chase well loved but evicted housemate from Lusaka.
Apart from imprinting a new signature on his personality now as a continental luminary, fresh from the impulsive Big Brother House, others know him as a simple taxi driver!
Sulu is loquacious and very loud but with a likeable personality.
Yes, you may be right there but there is just more than what might have met your eye on the DStv screens of channels 198 and 197.
For example, who would have known that Sulu is a naturally talented lethal striker and that his football talent gave many of his former school mates at Chadiza Secondary School conviction that he was definitely destined for the national team?
His former schoolmate Chibwe Katebe, who is one of Zambia’s celebrated comedians attests to this fact as he says:
“Sulu was my junior at school and he was really very good at his football … he was nicknamed ‘Material’ because we used to see national team ‘material’ in him.
“The guy is good, it is unfortunate that he did not continue chasing after his talent,” he said.
But who wouldn’t want to be a superstar especially at the national team level if opportunities were glaring?
Sulu has his own reasons; perhaps good ones that made him put aside his football career.
Born in 1982 in July from the late Protazio Banda and Maria Tereza Banda in Lusaka, Sulu is the third born in a family of six.
It might be interesting to also learn that former and once well-liked Ministry of Health spokesperson Canisius Banda is the first born in Sulu’s family!
The second born being Bridget then comes Naomi after Sulu, and Eledina the last-born.
It is rather heart rending to learn that Sulu started living a fatherless life at quite a tender age of nine when his father died in the famous Lenco food poisoning tragedy that claimed more than 69 lives in February 1991.
At least, Sulu’s father was there to usher his third born son into the first step of literacy in 1987 at Mutambe Primary school before he moved to Mambilima Primary School.
He then went to Chipata Basic School in Lusaka’s Chipata Township.
After the death of his father, his mother assumed the responsibility of single handedly educating and managing the family.
She saw Sulu through his education life until he went into boarding school, for his senior secondary education.
It was while at Chadiza Secondary School that Sulu said he started enjoying life to the fullest because of being among many new friends.
“I liked making friends especially girls, because these ladies make the world go round… I couldn’t accept a boarding school where there were no girls,’ he said.
But surprisingly, Sulu’s love for girls would end sat just mere hugs and sharing light-hearted moments.
The older sister Bridget, confesses that Sulu is so friendly to ladies but shy to propose.
How funny, especially coming from the family dominated by sisters!
According to the mother, Sulu grew up always wanting to be friends with almost everyone and sharing.
She said it delights her to see that most of the life-guiding rules she told him years back were still fresh
in his mind.
“I used to tell him that the best path to success is being hard working, obedient to especially the elderly and loving everyone regardless of their status… I am happy that he has kept those words,” she recalls.
Talking of fame, Sulu realised his potential while at Chadiza Secondary School in Eastern Province where he was a deadly striker for the school team!
What he regrets having not known is the fact that society after school meant him facing a competitive world where one has to fight hard to win a place in a reputable football club.
It was not easy for Sulu more especially that he was meant to believe that getting into the national team would be an easy path for him looking at his glorious school football experience.
Instead of just sitting and waiting for fortune to fall on his doorstep, the well-taught Sulu engaged into a small Kantemba business.
According to the mother and sister, Sulu denied himself pleasure for the sake of his family as all the little profit he could make would be channeled into helping the family.
“That is why I did not even look at furthering my education because I was too busy in trying to help out my mother in running the house,” he said.
He has been into business ever since. He even acquired a car for a taxi; a business that sustained him until Big
Brother saw a potential housemate for The Chase.
From the screen, one would agree that Sulu is a friendly and honest individual, and the good part is the fact that he has maintained his personality even in the outside world though the mother says: “Ever since Sulu came from the Big Brother house, he has changed… he has become a better person, more enlightened and knowledgeable person,” she says.
Sulu’s mother is right because the time the young man was leaving for Johannesburg to chase the US$300,000, few ladies knew him.
By SAM PHIRI –
Even in the Big Brother house, Sulu was never shy to lament that he wanted some romance, which was not coming that easily.
Ghana’s Selly was the only one that came romantically closest to Sulu though she had her drama with the disqualified Nando that put the Zambian man on rather a low spirit.
What Sulu did not know was the overflowing in abundance of what he was seeking for in the Big Brother house here at home – romance.
But is he getting it? If yes, then from who?
Sulu says that ever since he came from the continental experience, he has had less time to think of pleasing himself at the expense of the people who made him a celebrity.
He believes this is the best time to give back to the Zambian people for making him what he is today by concentrating on helping especially in the welfare of children and the under-privileged as that is what touches his heart most.
Sulu is indeed a rising star such that those who understand business, will not waste time but get their hands on his blazing luminance.
He is simply a saleable face.
By SAM PHIRI – [ SOURCE Times of Zambia ]
