MUMBA YACHI PLEADS WITH THE ZAMBIAN GOVERMENT TO LET HIM IN AS HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER LACK SUPPORT

EXCLUSIVE: Living without my wife, daughter has been very painful- Mumba Yachi

HE may be away from the Zambian soil but his music and presence remains alive.

Having lived amongst us, ate with us and most unforgettable, sang for us, memories of Mumba Yachi, the Congolese born artiste that spent his music career in Zambia will forever live.

A very talented musician, raising a young family with a future so bright but later overshadowed by his identity crisis.

Indeed most of us remember the dramatic events that surrounded his life, and eventually led to his deportation to Congo DR last year.

Talk suggesting his deportation was engineered by a certain gospel musician is rife amongst his musical colleagues and fans on the local scene.

But Kalemba, recently caught up with Mumba Yachi for an exclusive interview from Mokambo, a border town linking Zambia and Congo DR, his new base.

The folk musician says he is still broken that he is not available for his family he left in Zambia.

“I AM A CONGOLESE but my home is Zambia, I naturally feel like a Zambian because I spent most of my years in Zambia. My feelings are firstly of a man who has left his daughter and wife (family) behind. It feels so bad every day. I am not there when my family needs me. I am a Congolese but my home is Zambia. I naturally feel like a Zambian because I spent most of my years in Zambia,” he said.

He insists that leaving his wife and daughter has been very painful but as a law-abiding man he is optimistic that one day the Zambian authorities will allow him to return.

Yachi says he owes his music and reputation to Zambia because that’s where his career blossomed.

He adds that he is not bitter about his deportation but instead happy that he had an opportunity to clear his identity crisis.

With such an enormous attachment to the country where his daughter was born, where his wife is, his prayer is that the Zambian government gives him a second chance to be Zambian and raise his child on the Zambian soil.

The award-winning singer said his home is Zambia and he would not miss an opportunity to return and continue giving the citizens their favourite lyrics.

“And if I am a musician today, it’s Zambia which made me,” he says.

“About coming back, I will say I am a law-abiding citizen. I was happy to clear that issue I call identity crisis in court because I wanted to be in good terms with the Zambian law. If I am given a chance to come back, I will be so grateful, not just as an artiste but also as a father. I want to wake up and take my daughter to school in the country where she was born. That’s my only dream.”

He explains that his family and friends are in Zambia and living in Congo remains strange.

Having travelled and performed in all ten provinces of Zambia, Mumba believes he is more Zambian than Congolese.

“My wife Catherine and my daughter Kasongo remained, I could not come with them because I don’t know Congo that well. I know Zambia very well. I have been to all the ten provinces. I don’t know Congo very well but I would like to. I was born in Mokambo and just recently I was in Lubumbashi. It’s hard to be in a new place but as a man you have to make an effort to integrate because life is everywhere,” Yachi observes.

Currently working on another album – “Great Work: Volume 2” as he promised to the Zambian fans, Yachi’s decision to settle in Mokambo is to make him feel connected to Zambia.

His upcoming album brags of songs like ‘Kalolo and Licholo cholo.’ He urges all his music followers, especially those that enjoyed volume one to get a copy.

Yachi has not been to Zambia since his expulsion late last year as authorities have not allowed him to set his foot on the Zambian soil.

“I have never visited Zambia since my deportation in November last year. I am waiting upon the authorities to allow me to comeback. I am not allowed to cross the borderline. It breaks me as a family man. But you know as they say ‘Dura lex sed Lex’ (The law is hard but it’s the law).

I had to follow what the law of the land says. But again I have faith in the Zambian authorities to allow me back at the appropriate time,” said Yachi.

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