I have been a fan
of Koffi Olomidé since I was a teenager. I loved or should I say I still
love his music and some of them songs we sung them during our bustele
days at Kasama Boys' Secondary School and Mungwi Technical Secondary
School. His music has been good. But of late the singer of Civilisé
which caught the airwaves I think in 1990 has really disappointed me.
As a promoter of
youth and women recognition and non-violence especially that is done or
on women I am gutted by his foolish behaviour.
The problem I have
with people who have money especially men is that they abuse women and
go free without anyone doing anything. They can pay lawyers can't they? I
think we need to pressure those organising Koffi's shows in Zambia to
call off the event(his shows) or for people to boycott them/it.
The other problem l
see is that our social movements especially those who claim to
represent the aspirations of women, children or youth have become
toothless as they are all political groupings now. Times like this is
the time when we need you. Zambia needs our social movement to step up
and lead such boycotts.
I am doing a
comparative study of Kenyan and Zambian Non-governmental
Organisations(NGOs) and the rest of the civil society on their
involvement or roles in matters of democracy, human rights and sound
lobbying.
I can say that our
friends in Kenya are more advanced in terms of lobbying and involvement
than our Civil Society Organisations(CSOs). They have their own
weaknesses but according to my research our social movement is more
compromised than the East African country's groups.
As you may already
know Koffi Olomide was arrested and deported partly due to the pressure
from CSOs especially women and human rights organisations. As I have
noted above I feel we need to push the organising committee of this
year's Zambia Agriculture and Commercial Show to cancel Koffi's shows.
Should the Show
society go ahead and have Olomide at the show grounds in Lusaka from the
29th July to the 1st of August. His shows should be boycotted to show
solidarity for the people being harassed like that dancing queen. If you
bought the tickets to see Koffie's show you know what to do... stay
away. If the shows are free. Simply stay away.
I have been very
critical on our CSOs not only in Zambia but in Africa because I think
most of them are so inclined to political issues. Not that it is not
important but I think they need to be seen in times like this. We need
to protect our young women and young people. Protection is also seeing
that we are committed to protest and lobby for justice regardless of our
political affliction. For me this is beyond sex, religion or status. It
should be condemned by all.
I know people will
say he is human he is prone to make mistakes. I agree with that. But I
think others should learn form it. Koffi apologised afterwards yes. But I
think there is a difference between apologising for publicity and
apologising because you are sorry.
In my opinion he
did it for publicity just like many public figures in entertainment,
politics or sports will do. We make mistakes but we have to show
commitment to work on our mistakes so that we don't repeat them in
future.
I would however
advice all of us who are aggrieved by Koffi's action not to use
emotions, our sex or political affliction when dealing with things like
this. For me what Koffi did has to be condemned whether done to a man or
a woman. What matters is that he did it to a human being and should be
condemned by all. Despite this I will strongly support the condemnation
of any matters related to the harassment of women and young people as
they are always disadvantaged.
In this regard I
would like to challenge responsible CSOs, the media, women, human rights
and youth activists to show that we as Zambians don't support
irresponsible artistes and so called public figures. For the Show
Society if Koffi performs it shows that you are more intrested in money
than moral.
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