By Winston Muleba, Ndola
A renowned communication expert Maureen Nkandu has launched a book which accounts for her experience when she got arrested in Democratic Republic of Congo during an interview with the former late President Laurent Kabila.
Maureen says she had gone to the DRC to report on the civil war and interview former late President Laurent Kabila.
"...but in the course of filming, the cameraman and I were arrested by government soldiers and charged with spying. They said that if found guilty, we'd be executed.
"They threw me into the water, then jumped in to try and drown me - they didn't know I was a Shark!" and I say "The sticks and the stones that they used to throw has built me an empire," she narrates.
Against this background, Maureen has published an autobiography titled 'Tired and Tested'.
To read more about her adventerous war
reporting buy the book which is now available on sale: K200 at Bookworld stores in Ndola, Kitwe and Lusaka's Manda Hill and Crossroads Malls.
The book is also available next week on Amazon Books.
Maureen is a Zambian international journalist and
communications expert. She began her career at the Zambia
National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) aged 18. She is
daughter of the late veteran journalist and lecturer, Faxon
Nkandu, a former News Editor of the Times of Zambia.
Early life
Maureen was born in 1968 in Lusaka to Faxon Nkandu and
Grace Chakulunta. She was influenced by her father Faxon
Nkandu, former News Editor of the Times of Zambia, and
one of very few African journalists to cover the Vietnam War.
Out of all of his children, she was the one who showed the
most interest in his work. She was nicknamed a reporter
both at home and at school because she frequently told on
her peers and siblings whenever they did something wrong.
At age 11, Maureen read a speech on behalf of all
Commonwealth children to the Queen of England and other
British and Zambian government leaders at the 1979
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Lusaka.
Education
She started nursery school at Kilimani Primary School in
Nairobi, Kenya, where her father worked as communications
director for the All Africa Conference of Churches. She later
attended Northmead and Woodlands primary schools
briefly, then Lusaka Girls Primary School, and later Leopards
Hill Secondary School.
At age 17, after completing high school, she walked into the
then Zambia Broadcasting Service (now ZNBC) to plead for a
job but they could not hire her because of her age and
inexperience. Because she was persistent, she was put in a
pool of about ten candidates. All the others at the interview
were journalism college graduates who laughed off her
chances. Little did they know that she had been practicing
for the job in front of the mirror for five years and they were
all stunned when she got the job.
Professional career
Maureen began her broadcasting career at the age of 18 as a
continuity presenter at ZNBC in 1986 -- all the while begging
her bosses to let her do the news which was the preserve of
'the veterans' at the station. Then one day the news
presenter did not show up on time and she asked them to
let her read the news which they reluctantly allowed her to.
The news was watched by virtually everyone in the country
including President Kenneth Kaunda. When she concluded
the take, her director was ecstatic with her performance.
Having noticed her evident talent, the station invested in
Maureen by sending her for formal training.
She resigned from ZNBC to join BOP (Bophuthatswana)
television as an executive producer and presenter where
she became their lead TV anchor of the flagship programme,
Panorama, for which she won a Marang award. BOP TV was
one of the first commercial television stations in Africa in
1984. Bophuthatswana was a self-governing homeland
within South Africa during the apartheid era. Her moving to
BOP TV was timely, as she was facing rampant sexual
harassments from some of her bosses at ZNBC.
After studying for her master’s degree, she worked for the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as chief
international correspondent and TV news anchor. It was
through her elaborate work as a roving reporter, covering
civil war and conflicts, elections, humanitarian and
developmental issues that Maureen was spotted by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2001 to work as
their Africa specialist and presenter of the flagship
programme, Focus on Africa.
Maureen returned to the SABC, when she reported on the
volatile elections in Kenya in December 2007. She brought
out the key political and social aspects of the tension in
Kenya, while also showcasing how the violence and all the
flawed processes impacted on the people there.
In 2010, Maureen worked with the Electoral Commission of
Zambia (ECZ) to develop their communications strategy.
Six years later, the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) appointed Maureen as Regional Communications
Adviser for East and Southern Africa. And after nearly four
years at the UNDP, Maureen was again head-hunted in 2012
by the African Union’s NEPAD Agency as Head of
Communications.
In December 2014, she came back home to Zambia working
for the World Bank as a Senior Communications Expert. She
has also conducted training for public relations practitioners
and under the Airtel Media Excellence programme.
Personal life
Later in her teenage life, Maureen met and got engaged to
Zambia's soccer legend and former Football Association of
Zambia president, Kalusha Bwalya who was based in
Belgium at that time. Together they had a daughter, Tamela,
but their relationship did not last long.
She was in her teens
and he was 23; they were young and the public attention
also put a strain on them.
Maureen has three children.
She has also been bestowed with different awards for her outstanding performance.
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