Kelvin Kachingwe
4 June 2008
Ndola — WHEN award-winning playwright Cheela Chilala was being interviewed to take-up a full time appointment at the University of Zambia (UNZA) with a view to taking over the courses that Professor Mapopa Mtonga was running, he was asked whether he was capable of filling his shoes.
Since it was a job interview, Cheela had to say something. And he said that he had big enough feet to do so.
In reality though, he knew that there was no one person in this country who can completely fill Prof Mtonga's shoe. Never mind both!
"In his field of specialisation, he raised the bar to a point where only he could jump.
In his field of specialisation, there was only him and others. He was a unique man with unique achievements, blazing a unique path. And that has finally given him a place in the history of Zambian arts and culture," Cheela concedes of the man who passed on to the other side of town two Sundays ago.
In that regard, the death of uncle Pops, as he was fondly called in artistic circles, is not just a loss to his family and relatives but to many others. It is a loss to his colleagues and friends, to the academic fraternity, to the arts union and indeed to the nation as a whole.
He was a reservoir of knowledge especially in his preferred field of traditional arts and culture. Like one poet said, his death is like the burning of a library. The teacher is dead, and gone with him are the books and the varsity. Uncle Pops was an archive walking on two legs.
That is why his death has touched the nation, for he was so many things to so many people.
Former National Arts Council of Zambia (NAC) chairman, Mumba Kapumpa has known the late professor for more than 48 years. He first met Pops in 1968 when he found him at UNZA where Mumba was already active in the University of Zambia Drama Society (UNZADRAMS).
Together, they acted in a number of plays with the most memorable being Che Guevara, which was produced and directed by Mike Etherton for the Non-Aligned Movement conference that was taking place in Lusaka in 1970.
In the play, Parnwell Munatamba was Che while Mumba was Marcos with Pops in charge of the musical ensemble composed of a rich assortment of African traditional hand instruments of drums, percussions, silimba (xylophone), which provided the score for the entire three-hour production.
"Pops was fully immersed in the music for the play, which we performed at the then famous Chikwakwa Outdoor Amphi-Theatre in the Chudleigh area to the north-west of Munali Secondary School. The Theatre itself was like a Roman Colliseum and Pops' control of the African drums would fill the entire place as he himself got infused in his own world.
"The production was watched by, among other international dignitaries, the current President of Cuba, Raul Castro who afterwards highly commended our efforts to portray that Argentine/Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara and specifically commended the wonderful sounds of the African music, coming from the expert hands of Pops and his group," Mumba recalls.
At the end of 1970, Uncle K as Mumba is also fondly called, left UNZA but still continued to be associated with Chikwakwa Theatre with Prof. Mtonga until December 1975 when the seven of them got together to form what was to become probably Zambia's best known theatre experience - Tikwiza Theatre.
The seven were Edwin Manda, Masautso Phiri, Mapopa Mtonga, Willie Magwali, Parnwell Munatamba, Matilda Malamamfumu and Uncle K himself. In Tikwiza Theatre, Pops got involved in all the major productions that the group did, as a musician and adviser on traditional dances and choreography.
At the time of forming Tikwiza Theatre, many Zambian artists were unhappy with the going-on's at the Playhouses dotted along the line of rail because archaic displays of racial segregation were still prevalent in all of them.
This discomfort meant that even the then national umbrella of Little Theatres, The Theatre Association of Zambia (TAZ) had elements of racists in the early and mid-seventies. With that, several artistes formed the Zambian National Theatre Arts Association (ZANTAA). And when Uncle K became general secretary of ZANTAA, he convinced his UNZA/Tikwiza Theatre friends including Pops to join ZANTAA. Prof Mtonga became very useful in the drama clinics and workshops that they used to hold during the Annual Performing Arts Festivals of ZANTAA.
In the early 1990's, the restless artists were now agitating for yet another national arts umbrella, but this time to have full recognition and support of the Government. So, they got together to discuss for over two years, under the chairmanship of Winna Kanyembo, the creation of the National Arts Council (NAC).
Prof Mtonga was given the daunting task of facilitating a committee that drew up the terms and conditions for qualifying to be recognised as a national arts association, a pre-requisite to affiliation to NAC. Later on Pops was instrumental in the formation of the Zambia Folk Dance and Music Society (ZAFODAMUS) in which he became its first chairman and therefore was a member of NAC when Uncle K was chairman from inception in 1996 to 2001.
Prof Mtonga was also instrumental in the creation of the Zambia Adjudicators Panel, which was responsible for determining the winners of the Ngoma Awards.
"In the entire four decades that I have known Pops, he has loomed larger than life in the arts world not just of Zambia but the rest of Africa. His unique and keen eye and ear for detail has earned him many requests to teach, lecture, produce, direct, comment, consult on many of our traditional ceremonies and customs as it relates to music and dance.
"His attire, comprising chitenge shirts and a "muchawa" cap on his head with a distinct Eastern Province "mwana wa kwitu" accent and a scattered typically village-style beard, made Pops stand out as a true and genuine African musical genius," Uncle K says.
But make no mistake; it is not just the likes of Uncle K that have been touched by the death of the prof.
During the traditional artistic send-off of Pops at the Lusaka Playhouse last Thursday, Community Development Minister, Catherine Namugala, said Government received his death with sadness.
The minister said the loss has left a big gap to fill not only to the bereaved family but also to the nation at large because apart from being a father and an eminent person in the arts and culture, the late prof. was an educator, scholar and performing artiste who made the country proud in all his works.
"And for sure, there will never be another Prof Mtonga because this great artiste was uniquely knowledgeable in the area of folklore and intangible cultural heritage who freely passed on his knowledge to others," she said.
She also revealed that at the time of his death, the prof was engaged by the Ministry of Community Development as the principal consultant in the Makishi being declared by UNESCO as master piece of oral and intangible cultural heritage for humanity.
"Not only did he work on the Makishi project, Prof Mtonga was also one of the eminent scholars who provided guidance during the formulation and elaboration of the National Cultural Policy. You will agree with me that is just the tip of the ice-berg as the man had done so much for the country both as an educator and cultural scientist," she says.
And she is right. Well, at least Abdon Yezi, senior partner in Yezi-Arts Promotions and Production, agrees.
"It is really difficult to find true expressive words to describe a visioned, accomplished, dedicated and determined person like Prof Mtonga. News about his demise is shocking, as many already have acknowledged to the nation, and in particular the arts fraternity in Zambia.
"While its impact is very direct to his family, on our side, we knew that Prof Mtonga had extended beyond the borders. His name is as familiar as his works in many parts of the world. For lack of a term, he was truly an artist, scholar and practitioner without borders," he says.
Yezi, who worked with Professor Mtonga when he was a student at UNZA, does know that the man is acclaimed as a pioneer to many initiatives including theatre for development which became one of his areas of specialisation - spanning over decades. Not to mention, like others have already said, getting the famous Gule Wamkulu to be a cultural heritage. Added to that is his ability to match artistic practice and theory. It is, thus, not surprising that the Creative Arts Centre of the UNZA is closely associated to him.
"It is during this time, whilst I was a student at UNZA, that Mapopa asked me to sit on a committee tasked to build an ampi-theatre adjacent to the main hall since the UNZA management had now converted the only drama hall into what is now UNZA print. We worked diligently on this project but it however did not materialise due to administrative challenges.
"So was the school of drama which Prof Mapopa and others coined then around 1989. It is not surprising that over the last 3-4 years, partnering with his other colleague, Prof Dickson Mwansa, the Zambia Open University was seen as platform for the dream for the school of drama to reach fruition. Such is the vision, determination and hardwork the man we mourn has," Yezi says.
The challenge is to emulate- for the teacher is gone.
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