Interview by Brenda Zulu

African Journalists need to embrace the new revolution of Web 2.0 tools if they are to catch up in this globalised World. Below find an interview on Web 2.0 with Matongo Maumbi a journalist from Zambia whose blog matongo.blogspot.com

Maumbi recently attended an online training focusing on Web2.0 tools organized by PenPlusBytes, the International Institute for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Journalism. In 2006, PenPlusBytes launched an online course on ICT Journalism in Africa and it attracted about forty three participants from nine countries spread across Africa, Europe and Asia. You were one of these fortunate students.

Why did you want to engage in such a course? What were your needs?

Matongo: I engaged in the course because I have an interest in exploiting ICTs at personal level and also professionally. I have been working as a broadcast journalist since 2001 and I was lucky to have been exposed to the computer and internet right from the early days of my career. My ICT knowledge is driven by personal interest and enthusiasm. I needed some professional guidance on using ICTs in my career as well as how I would fully utilize them. I needed to know the pros and cons of using ICTs . The limits, the potential benefits the fun of using the internet and how to explore it better.

What did you learn? What did you prefer (e.g.,. learning about new tools, engaging with other journalists, sharing your ideas and knowledge with others, working together on a common article, networking and interacting…)?

Matongo: I learnt quite a number of things. I initially only took blogging as an adventure. Writing whatever came to my mind without any real set objective or target. I guess this was because I did it just out of interest and curiosity. I learnt how to conduct better online research for background information. How to source documents, how to set good parameters for searching. My knowledge on Web 2.0 was improved. Blogging is a good place to express oneself freely without the censorship of your editor or superiors on your work.

How does, what your learnt, influence your current journalism practice? How did it modify your way of working? How did it nurture your work (if so)? How do you apply what you learnt?

Matongo: I preferred learning new tools and also interacting with other journalists from across the continent and globe. As curiosity satisfaction was among my needs, I was really looking forward to learning new tools on ICTs. My mind was more set on learning new tools from what I already taught myself. I guess from the many things I learnt, I now spend less time on the internet. I spend less time because I know better how to conduct my online research with in the shortest possible time but with maximum information. As I am now working better with internet, it has encouraged me to continue getting a local touch to what I read on the internet. During the course I found my self working on fewer but better researched programmes that are of great relevance to our catchments community.

You created your own blog. How do you use this blog? What is the main purpose (PR, information sharing, interacting….?). Did you reach your goal? What are the strength and the weakness of such an exercise?

Matongo: Initially had a website aimed at doing radical campaigns online on things that affect Zambia. Time and resources could not allow me to continue and my site died out. Then I though of creating blog with a similar aim. I basically transferred what my site to the blog. I use the blog to make and achieve my thoughts online. As my blog is more of expressing my self, I have not yet set a good objective. In a small way I have reached my goal of transferring my thoughts online. The greatest strength is that you are your own editor and can write anything you fell is morally right at your own pace and space. You get unlimited freedom besides that fact that you have sensitive stories. Weakness comes in as most of the time I only write about my thoughts without backup professional thoughts. This creates a sense of non credibility from readers. Updates are seldom coming on the blog as I use company equipment and internet to do the updates.

What are the main challenges for African journalists to use Web2.0 tools? Do you think that most journalists have already a "mindset" for Web2 tools? What would the African Media community gain by using Web2.0?

Matongo: The main challenges of African journalists using web 2.0 tools is that we do not have our own working space. We have to rely on computers and internet from our offices. How on earth could one fully use web 2.0 tools when one does not have their own resources? The mindset for most journalists is there but a mindset with out resources is meaningless. Internet connection and access is very expensive for most journalists and even when it is affordable it is very slow. There is plenty to gain such as information sharing, unlimited power to express oneself (group) without the trouble of going through the censoring editors and managers.

Do you think that web2.0 applications - if well used by African journalists - can make the Internet more "relevant"? How so?

Matongo: I think Web 2.0 tools if properly used can make it more relevant. There is a lot of information that African Journalists have but because they have to go through editors, such info is suppressed. Mostly it is as a result of editors, managers not appreciating the role of ICTS tools.

Have you advertised your blog. If yes to whom and how?

Matongo: I think my blog is an isolated one. I have not advertised it. The only people that know about are my friends. I never thought of advertising it mainly because I think I do not update it regularly.

Are you making money from your blog?

Matongo: I am not in any way making money from my blog . I still do not fully know how I can tap into that potential. I do not really see how I can make money. I guess this is something I have to learn next. I know I have what it takes; I just do not have the right guidance.

Have you taught other about blogging?

Matongo: I have not taught any of my close friends' blogging and taking full advantage of the internet besides e-mail messaging. Training for African Journalists in necessary on new web tools because these are new things which are not taught in Journalism. It is also important to note that a blog helps to store content online for African Journalists which has been for a long time been stored in paper form. The content put on a blog is shared and people learn from that kind of content.

Education is one of the fundamental human rights and it is also contained in the MDG targets for 2015. Very soon we shall mark the half way point for these goals to be achieved.

This is achievable, and we shall achieve. The question is: What quality of Education shall we achieve by the year 2015? The Government in Zambia has made a lot of strides in making sure that the citizenry is eduacated. Primary schools (upto grade 7) have almost been all fade out and high schools (grades 10 to 12) have been introduced. The primary schools are now basic schools (grades 1 to 9).

This is a good idea. Children can now have a basic education. With basic education, children should as well be equipped with the learning environment they would encounter when they qualify to Grade 10. At the moment there are seldomly any basic school with lab facilities to foster for some practical works. more can be said on this, you may add your own thoughts.

The basic schools have now out numbered the high schools. So, where do those children that qualify to go to Grade 10 go to when the high school are already filled? They have nowhere to go to besides going back home and trying to help with different chores at home or worse still, start with the vices we teach them against. Again, you may add more of your thoughts.

The majority of the teachers in these basic schools are trained to teach upto grade 7. Now they have to be tasked to teach grades 8 and 9 - without training!! The infrastructure is not enough to handle the many children and teachers. There is understaffing, and many teachers have to do double classes. this is not just a double class. It's a class where you would have grade 3 and 4 pupils learning in the same class. What logic there is in this I still do not understand.

The children have been learning for free upto Grade 9. And they were happy the government was helping them. They would qualify to go senior secondary, and now be faced with the headache of searching for at least half a million kwacha to get to school. Free education should be free education at all levels otherwise we are moving more steps backwards than we are forwarding.

Government should not just upgrade the grades in schools, they should upgrade all the staff, infrastructure and financial help for education to be for all at all times.

Zambia needs a much dedicated effort in achieving education for all. it is achievable.

I have been producing programmes on MDG 1 - reducing poverty. We have tackled the issue of community grain banks and the need to restore them to their past glory.

An assessment was conducted in Sept 2006, and on Thursday 30 Nov 2006, there shall be a meeting with high level provincial government officials. We shall have representation from a number of districts in Southern Province, Senior Chiefs, Senior Headmen, and other stake holders.

The meeting is focussing on the report that was prepared and also to make a better way forward as planning has to be done now, than later.

I am happy that there is a step forward on one of the MDGs, and am sure that we shall achieve it by 2015. People need information, and once they have that information, they are empowered to act.

By KELVIN KACHINGWE

THIS is no way to end an illustrious career.

That a receipient of the Presidents Insignia of Honour, who was so honoured for the essential role that he played during the freedom struggle, should spend his final years as a pauper is highly embarrassing.

For a man who moved the entire nation, and indeed dignitaries in particular, with his emotional performances of his all-time great, Afrika My Afrika during African Freedom Day and Indepdence Day commemorations at State House, he surely deserved a little more than he got in the evening of his life.

Mpundu Mutale, who passed on to the Other Side of Town at the age of 71 after losing his battle against Diabetes in the University Teaching Hospital, for all that he represented, does pass as a perfect example of how not a nation should treat its heroes.

So desperate was his situation that he was literally begging, much the same street kids do, for assistance. Only in his case, for resources to enable him undergo for specialist treatment in South Africa.

Mutale, who addmitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the UTH, said from his hospital bed a few months ago that he felt time was running out for him as the situation was getting worse.

"I have been calling for help for a very long time but even the little help has come very late but if resources could be made available, I wouldn't mind going to South Africa," Mutale said.

Indeed the cry for assistance started a long-time ago for Mpundu Mutale, who was a prominent feature at celebrations at State House. But so say he need resources for specialist treatment is not to tell the exact truth. Truth of the matter is that he needed more than that. Other than resources to enable him release audio and video tapes of Afrika My Afrika, he also needed money for his upkeep. His abode in Chibolya, which this writer visited in 2004 was a sorry sight. It did not look much different from a stable at a pony club. His appearance was that of a dishevelled old man in crumpled clothes, hair matted, lips cracking and a tatty shirt, an inferior defence against the cold.

While there, he narrated how he needed money to undergo treatment and just to stay alive.

"I feel my life is falling apart. Misfortunes are happening in quick succession. First it was diabetes, now i'm too broke to support myself and to have my music and film on the market," he said.

The six-foot tall Mpundu, with a greying beard, was living alone in a makeshift home just behind Lusaka's Soweto market. At one point, he was unable to walk because of diabetes which has caused his feet to swell. The toes on both feet were turning a greenish colour and amputation would have probably been an option had he managed to go to South Africa for specialist treatment.

In Chibolya, he would go for days without a meal. Most of the time, it was his neighbour, a Mrs Liness Bnda, who used to help the artiste from time-to-time.

In explaining Mr Mutale's predicament, Mrs Banda called on the government and other well-wishers to come to his aid. She said it was shameful for the man who had contributed so much to the struggle for independence both musically and physically to be in such a state.

"The man has something to teach Zambians through his music and the videos depicting the struggle for independence," she said while further explaning that at one time, the old man had collapsed in his house and was only discovered after neighbours saw his legs protruding from the door of his home.

Mr Mutale, who was born on September 30, 1935, was divorced though he had a family in Kasama which, however, was unable to support him financially. A number of his children had passed on.

In his early years, he was a UNIP activist in Kasama during the struggle for independence and was heavily involved in the civil disobedience campaign that was directed against the colonialists.

His cousin, Martin Mwamba, who was also an activist, was murdered after being brutally beaten by the Northern Rhodesia police when he refused to disclose the whereabouts of UNIP stalwarts.

It was actually that, and the other injustices that were done against the blacks by the colonialists that led him to compose songs like Afrika My Afrika and When Afrika was in the Dark.

It was because of the contribution Mr Mutale made to the country that the Times of Zambia, in a feature article headlined The sorry sight of Mpundu Mutale, dated July 17, 1994, appealed to well-wishers to come to his aid before it is too late.

Humbly enough, even his poor health, he still wanted to complete the adio and video tapes of the Afrika My Afrika.

At the height of his illness and dire financial need, he wrote a letter to the Sunday Times of Zambia in which he appealed to well-wishers, charitable organisations and individuals to enable him complete the music projects.

"The short clip of the promo film Afrika My Afrika is now ready and has been showing on ZNBC for five months now. I'm promising my fans that I would release the complete version of the film on the market as soon as I start receiving contributions for the venture.

"I would like to point out that the film has taken long to release because of unseen circumstances mostly to do with funding for the project," reads the letter dated April 25, 2004.

The audio tape and CD of Afrika My Afrika Volume I was to have 10 songs. There was also a chi-Bemba version of Afrika Mayo Afrika also with 10 tracks. The album was also to have have an instrumental version of Afrika My Afrika poems.

"I would again like to express my personal feelings about Africa by highlighting both in songs and pictures how the continent was depopulated and underdeveloped by slavery and colonialism. The history which African people cannot forget should make people learn a lot from this noble and educative historical project on their past," Mr Mutale wrote in his letter.

Unfortunately however, no tangible help came. On the contrary, his health continued to deteriorate resulting in his death at the UTH last Tuesday.

But before that, Brian Chengala Shakarongo, a former Zambia Association of Musicians (ZAM) chairman organised a concert in aid of the ailing Mutale last December.

The concert, held at UNZA, was however shunned by the artistes except for James "Chamanyazi" Ngoma and Cha (Charity Mwiinga) and the Muvi Posse crew.

But true to form, there will be sustained chorus of praise for the man, who while in life, was neglected by his own society. On a positive note though, credit should go to Mama Chibesa Kankasa for hosting the funeral of Mpundu Mutale at Kabulonga House near Friday's Corner out of solidarity despite the fact that they are not related.

Otherwise, this is a moment for the nation to reflect on how it treats its own heroes.

Ends...

I produce programmess on Agriculture and this is one of the feedbacks I have received from my listeners.

"Where does Dunavant Cotton Ltd put us, the farmers? The cotton price was greatly reduced because of the appreciation of the Kwacha (Zambian Currency). Shouldn't we carry the burden together since we are partners in agriculture? Should we lose out because of the appreciation of the kwacha?

Don't they know that we have families to look after? We have Orphans to take care of. Don't they know we have problems in our familes and this is why we are in the cotton business?

Even when you genuinely don't enough money to pay back the loans, they are not considerate. All they are interested in is their money. Are they just interested in the money?

Someone should help us get a better price for our hard-grown cotton. There is a lot involved in cotton production."

From A Cotton Farmer in Mazabuka.