Chama: musician, filmmaker and poet

By Winston Muleba II, Zambia 

He is a Musician, film maker, freelance copy writer, poet and actor. Fumba Chama otherwise known as pilAto, talks about negative Self-talk. 

 Q. Who is Fumba Chama? Why did you choose PilAto as a stage name? 

 A. Fumba Chama is a young Zambian with dreams and hopes like every other human being. pilAto is an acronym for ‘People In Lyrical Arena Taking Over’. I believe that even people that sing, rap or just write should be allowed to speak on any matter affecting them or the society they live in. I am married to Caroline Mwewa and we have very beautiful girls Christina and Abishai 

Q. When and where were you born? 

A. I was born on the 6th April 1984, in Ndola at Ndola central hospital. 

Q. Tell me briefly, about your family. 

A. We are a family of four boys and am the second born. My father is the late Rueben Chama and my mother is late Christina Kabwe Chama. I later learnt that my father refused to give any of his son’s English names because he had never known any English man with a Bemba name. 

Q. Tell me about your education and work background. 

A. I went to Katondo Primary School then to Dzikomo Primary School in Itawa and later went to Ndola Basic School after my mother refused to let me go to Mpongwe for my Grade 8 for fear that I was too young and still vulnerable to bullying. I then went to Masala High School and that’s where I completed. 

My hero and pastor, Pastor. Raynor Gunton realized I was so much interested in creative arts so he introduced me to his fellow pastor who owned a media house, Pastor. Chala Tumelo. I joined BGM Media and I studied video production as well as Non- Linear Video Editing. Am given to self-teaching too, currently am my own student of social psychology and I actively study marketing and advertising. 

Overtime I started assisting in the production of “Loose Ends”  for ZNBC as well as the production of commercials. I then moved to Lusaka and joined TL studios as a video editor and helped produce E-Valley for ZNBC too. In 2008 I joined MOBI TV as a video technician and later got in to transmission as head transmission controller. 

Q. What brought you into the Music Industry? 

A. I have always thought and believed that music is just an excuse for my expressive nature. It’s most accessed branch of art. Because I have so many things to say, I realized music was a better avenue of communication. 

Q. Highlight some of your best and worst moments in your career as a Zambian Musician. 

A. My best moments are those when I see somebody react to my music… however the reaction to me it all means the same. My worst is when you speak with your soul as an artist and the public responds with skepticism. 

Q. You have been known to be a controversial musician. 

A. I think the term controversial is a very misplaced term in my case; I do not think or subscribe to the idea that ‘I’m a controversial artist’. For me being an artist is just as good as a TV Station OR Radio Station. Our political leaders have become hysterical with a strange devotion to silence everyone who points their weakness. Controversial is our system that practically amputates the freedom of the poor and unpopular. Controversial is a leader who gives a road to a starving old woman in western province.  

Q. What is negative self-talk? 

 A. This is when you decide to speak yourself down. When you decide to highlight your inadequacies and make them prominent. As a kid I remember I read listened to some motivational sound bite which said, “do not read beauty magazines, they will just make you feel ugly”. 

 Q. What are some of the effects of negatives self-talks on a person over a period of time? 

A. What others say about you may be influential but what you repeatedly say about yourself transforms your actions too. If you sit to hear to your own negative talk, your actions will become negative and that tends to be deadly. Many people that have given up on life are victims of negative speech from others and then from themselves to themselves. 

 Q. What negative self-Talk have you ever controlled in your life so far? 

A. I once had thoughts that, maybe I was born in a wrong time and place; I even believed that if I was born a little earlier I would have been a little successful. 

Q. What message do you have for talented musicians who succumb to negative self-talk? 

 A. I am a strong believer that a good artist will always be born in his or her time? Things may not be easy for now but the success of an artist is not in the money he or she makes. Artists are not born to be stars but to serve the people that live with them. So even if no one pays you for your music, continue singing…. Even if they don’t record you….. Keep signing and when time is right you will understand why it took so long. 

Q. What are some of the ways young people can use to manage negative Self-talks? 

A. Avoid any media that speaks low of you, your culture and your race. 

Q. Who is inspires you to do what you do for a living? 

A. I get inspired by my two intelligent daughters, they believe me too much. 

 Q. How would you want people to remember you? 

 A. I wouldn’t mind how people remember me but I think my life would a big flop if people don’t just remember me for anything.

Avoid any media that speaks low of you, your culture and your race. You can do it.
For comments; mwenyamuleba@gmail.com / 0966 461 943/0950 594 050