To the disrespectful fake leaders of the Zambian diaspora in America

We in the diaspora are always complaining about how the Zambian government has ignored the Zambians us. We say that they don’t care about us. So when the government has finally acted, it was the fake leaders in the diaspora who were great disappointments.

On 17 July to 19 July Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Chalwe Lombe and Zambian Ambassador to the US, His Excellency Palan Mulonda met with the Zambians in the Diaspora in America to discuss details for the Diaspora Policy. This has never been ever done before.

The government of Zambia traveled just for the diaspora.  So I thought that this would be the time when all those people in the Diaspora would be excited to have their concerns addressed especially the ones who call themselves leaders in the diaspora. As leaders of the diaspora they should be focused on things to do with the diaspora and I thought that these leaders would be in the forefront of promoting these meetings and asking people to attend, but that was not the case.

I want to congratulate PS Chalwe Lombe and Ambassador Mulonda for a job well done.  They were very patient in listening to all questions and they both did an excellent job to explain what the Diaspora Initiative is all about.

Problems:

The meeting for the Diaspora in Washington DC was poorly attended even though there is an association there which covers Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. This man Kingfred Chisanga from the same area calls himself the leader there but he and the association could not even get good attendance for the meeting. They didn’t even promote the event.

But the same guy drives to our meeting in Atlanta. How can you only have 20 people at such an important event in DC, even with all those Zambians there? Also can someone tell Kingfred to stop putting sunglasses on the forehead. That is fashion from the 1980s and that they don’t do that anymore. Every picture in Facebook he has sunglasses on top of the head.

I expected better attendance from our home ground in Atlanta because of all the organizations that are here. In Atlanta we have so many organizations, AZA, SOZA, OZA, TOAA, ASOZA, NGOZA, ZLA, and not forgetting all the Foundations and business for Zambians.  All the leaders of these organization were just quiet…zeeee!  Instead, we had other leaders from Florida, Arizona, Washington.

To make matters worse, even with all these organizations we only had about 35 people in attendance. But let there be a party and you see 150 people come to eat, drink, fight, and behave badly.  You don’t even need to advertise the party because they will just be there.

I admit that Association of Zambians in Atlanta (AZA) was professional and very organized for this meeting.  That Dr. Anna Fulano-Katema is a no nonsense woman and those are the kind of Zambians we need. I am also very proud of Henry Kamau who provided executive limo service for the PS and Ambassador.

But the AZA president Siddique Geloo showed up very late long after the PS and Ambassador had already started addressing the group. Very rude behavior. I guess maybe Siddique was confused because he is also the President of OZA. This is the new organization he says represents the Diaspora in the whole world.

The whole world? But kwena, this is what you call ambition. So, if he represents the whole diaspora, why didn’t he promote the meeting with the PS and Ambassador Mulonda the same way he does the Red Carpet Independence party? For the Independence, we are seeing all these people he is putting on Facebook at least 5 times a day.  Kufya bupuba alaposako amano. Bunda bwakutemwa ba mukabene nelo alikwata umwanakashi no mwana pa ng’anda. Atase!

Then the convicted criminal Mwangala Jo President of SOZA comes dressed like she has been sleeping in a ditch for two days. Then there was this woman Freda Mwamba Brazle, she said she is the president and founder of Zambians promoting leadership in America (ZLA) saying it promotes Zambian leadership in America. We didn’t know this woman here in Atlanta until last year independence jubilee when she organized a jubilee party. She was telling people that her party was only for rich Zambians who could afford $200 so others needed to go to Siddique’s party for $20. At the meeting, this woman asked one question at the beginning of the meeting and she just had to tell us her position as a leader.  Also her assistant Chanda Mutale who said she is the president and founder of Touch of an Angel (TOAA), they stand up and walk out of the meeting while the PS was talking.  That is very rude behavior for anyone who claims to be a leader. These are grown 50 year old Zambian women with no respect.

What kind of promoting leadership in ZLA allows for this rude behavior? Come to find out that they left the meeting to go and watch OC Oscillation at a concert in downtown Atlanta because they are now music promoters. While we are in the meeting Freda Brazle was already on Facebook promoting Zumba fundraiser for ZLA. Not too long ago Chanda Mutale using that talkative boy George Mtonga was busy forcing us to buy tickets to TOAA B1 concert for Kaniki Clinic…..fi red lipstick fimo fimo.

These two (Freda Brazle and Chanda Mutale) who are always busy telling us to buy Zumba tickets all over Facebook everyday but they could not even sit in the meeting to listen to our leaders from Zambia. What kind of leadership is this?  Freda Brazle says she promotes leadership but when we had these young leaders visiting from Zambia and they even met with President Obama but no post or anything from this so called Zambia promoting leadership. This ZLA promoted a party for rich Zambians last year and now it’s promoting Zumba and OC umusana wandalama.

Freda Brazle even promoted South African Women’s Day event and even convinced excellency  Ambassador Mulonda to write an official letter to congratulate Felicia Mabuza-Suttle (a South African) on official Zambian government letterhead.  How has Freda managed to manipulate the Ambassador and the embassy by pulling strings? How come we have not seen an official letter congratulating the likes of Kenneth Mwenda, PhD on the publishing of his 5^th book? This is the same way SOZA controlled the Ambassador and Embassy a while ago.  By the way, reliable sources say that Freda is setting the stage to run as the next SOZA President.

Then we come to this self-proclaimed FTJ Chiluba lookalike Mr. Humphrey Malimba who is always grandstanding making no sense at all but feels that he just has to talk even if it doesn’t make sense. How can this man Malimba tell the PS that the Zambian government does not understand what Dual Citizenship is? Baba, are you serious? Does he think that the whole delegation from Zambia is stupid and he is the clever one?  No respect for government! But he shut up after PS Mr Chalwe Lombe said, Bati kwena, we have beaten this issue of Dual Citizenship to death, ngatatumfwa, ninshi katwishifye mwe.

In conclusion, these Diaspora leaders really embarrassed us. The Ambassador and Permanent Secretary were very polite even with foolish questions and unnecessary comments. On behalf of some of us in the diaspora, I am saying sorry to our government for the rude behavior of these fake Diaspora leaders.

WE ARE ALL NOT LIKE THAT!

Concerned Zambian in the Diaspora