Meet Sibu Malambo (above), programme co-ordinator at Contact Trust Youth Association in Livingstone, Zambia, and Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show airs from 20.30-21.30 (CAT) live and is a great mixture of latest international and Zambian music, and chat. Streams live on the internet too and links can be found here and here.

Sibu told listeners that 10 years ago he had been one of the founders of CTYA (Contact Trust Youth Association). The NGO is involved in motivating and educating  the ‘youth’ in Zambia – the age of youth apparently stretches from 10-35 years old in this country but CTYA’s main focus is on 10-24 year olds. The primary objectives of CTYA are HIV/AIDS prevention as well as civic education, and Sibu estimated that since inception, they had helped thousands of young people. The NGO has several sponsors, one of which is partially financed by USAID. There are seven full time staff working in the CTYA premises in Maramba. As well as HIV prevention and civic education CTYA also educates about care for the environment and entrepreneurship.

The music on the show was great. We opened with latest tracks from The Killers and Robbie Williams. George chose Zambian tracks from Macky 2 and Judyo. Milli Jam dropped Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’. The musical bombshell of the night came from George who had been asked to pick the ‘oldie of the week’ – we give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on our ‘oldie’ track. George chose the most obscure track ever played for the prize – ‘For The Good’ by Ray Price. None of us in the studio had ever heard of the artist or the track and needless to say the prize went un-won – amidst sms protests by listeners complaining that it was ‘just too tough’! Nice one George! My pick of the week was Tulisa’s ‘Sight Of You’ and we closed with AC/DC’s smash ‘You Shook Me All Night’.

Sibu told listeners that he was married ‘to the most beautiful girl in the world’ – after some in-studio debate and observation of photographs on Facebook, we decided he had some right to the claim! He and his lovely wife have one son – Sibu Junior- just 1 year and 8 months old. Sibu has lived most of his life in Livingstone receiving his secondary education at Linda High School in the city. He explained that he is currently pursuing a course in development studies with the University Of South Africa. He told us that CYTA from time to time hosts beauty pageants, one of the most popular was ‘Miss VCT’ which Chanters Lodge and other business houses in Livingstone had helped to sponsor in the past. Musicians like Shyman and Camouflage had been helped in their musical careers by CYTA with assistance from our own Kaufela.

Sibu is a Chelsea supporter – as evidenced by the shirt he wore for the show.  He said he did not agree with the latest managerial sacking and that Didier Drogba was his favourite all time player. Music wise he said he liked R&B as well as Zambian music. Sibu is well known to Zambezi 107.7 listeners because he hosts a popular CYTA show every Wednesday evening on air, sponsored by the station. “Wow!” I said (on behalf of those who have to pay for their shows!).

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing 10 years from now, he hoped still to be helping the Zambian youth in an expanded NGO, and to have one or two more children with ‘the most beautiful girl in the world’! He also mentioned that he would like to be involved in policy making for youth development in the future in Zambia. “Politics?” I queried. “Maybe” was the reply.

In thanking him for appearing on the show, I made the point to listeners that people like Sibu Malambo are the unsung heroes in Zambia – just look at the falling statistics in HIV infection in Zambia and you’ll see why I said that!