Mampi shares testimony, says prayer gives hope

By Staff Reporter, LUSAKA 

A Lusaka based singer and dancehall artiste, Mirriam Mukape better known as Mampi says God does not forsake his children if they trust in him, stay focused and maintain discipline. 

Mampi recalls that she loved singing from a very tender age. 

She says she sung in church every Sunday until the age of 14. 

A youthful Mampi says the death of her mother taught her a lot of things. 

“When I lost my mother from cancer that's when my life started changing, things where not the same because this affected us and dad even more. I had no one to talk to as a teenager, nobody to buy me clothes and other little necessities. At this time I missed my mother dearly but I knew she was not coming back,” she recalls. 

She says she became a double orphan at the age of 16. 

“My father was devastated, his only friend was mum and he could not understand and provide me with all the little things a young girl would need, I had nobody to guide me. A few years down the line my father and young brother were murdered, I became a double orphan at 16 years old,” Mampi explains. 

Mampi shares that she could go a day or two without food but held on to prayer. 

“I had no one to pay for my school so I could further my education, had no one to talk to other than my friends, things got real bad for me, I was so bitter with life coming from a comfortable family and losing everything just like that it was hard for me, had nowhere to sleep ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys if I was a reckless girl this is when I would have lost it and opted to prostitution because it was the toughest time of my life, I slept in the garden a couple of times I could go a day or two without food but I held on to one thing, 'prayer' and it gave me hope until my friend and her sister took me in. I still thank God for them. 

She says she used to perform for free just to get experience. 

“I told myself I can not go on like this, I need to get up and do something with my life and that's when I started going to the studio, I used to walk from Kabwata to Chelston and back everyday, until my music started playing on radio but even then I performed for free for about a year or two because I was passionate about what I was doing hence gaining experience...then came Danny Kaya who actually gave my music direction through his advice from the dancehall music to the image that includes my stage costumes and stage presence and slowly my life started changing,” Mampi recalls.