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HoM News
Welcome to the penultimate HoM edition of the year that is #2020. This month we are ‘Celebrating Rising Kings’ especially as 19 November marked International Men’s Day.
Black men all around the world do not get fair press at all despite their grind, their greatness and their genius, their intellect, their innovation and their intrigue, their class, their cool and their creativity, their resilience, their radiance and their royal presence, their beauty, their bodaciousness and all-round badassery, their… need I say more? We have featured many of these kings over the last year of course.
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Though this time, it would have been easy to focus on the ones we all know about, here at HoM it’s about going left (or right) of centre to find hidden treasure. So, for this edition, we chose to shine the light on those who are kind of quietly changing the game, raising the bar and building legacies.
On the cover is choreographer and dancer John
Cole, one of the hardest working and committed humans alive. Speaking and listening to him left me infused with a special kind of energy and a buzz that I’m sure you’ll feel as you join in on our conversation. Inside, find out about a son of Mutare, Anderson Nyamande of After5 Radio and his mission to truly diversify Zimbabwean music. Then there is Shelton Mpala in Canada – remember him, the guy that started that petition against Disney’s intention to trademark the Swahili term hakuna matata from the 1994 film Lion King? Well, he’s continuing to redefine Africa’s image through the dynamic and vibrant platform, Children of The Dark Continent. Our kings redefine in all spheres. Bringing the essence of service back to politics is Adam Jogee who was elected Mayor of Haringey in London during Black History Month (October 2020) in the UK. Over in the world of art, Maxx Chembezi and Kennedy Madevu are capturing African beauty in photography and graphic design, respectively. We invite you to join us in celebrating some of our finest royalty and whilst you’re at it, do the same for those in your families and tribes too! Stay safe and well. Rhoda Editor-in-Chief & Strategy Executive
HoM NEWS B
y Rhoda Molife rhoda@houseofmutapa.com
K’s Wors Sausages Wins Another Award
Back in September 2020, K’s Wors, the company founded by Zimbabwean entrepreneur Dee Mapasure and her husband added another award to their CV. Their South African-inspired Chilli Boerewors won a Gold Star in the Continental Style Sausages category of the Great Taste Awards About the Great Taste Awards The Great Taste Awards are the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink awards and this year they received a record breaking 12, 777 entries. The award means that K’s Wors gains wider recognition as a high quality brand that produces a world class product. For the company, the awards came at a time when sales were impacted by a shortage of raw materials caused by an unexpected surge in demand during the COVID19 pandemic. The company had initially successfully pivoted by creating an online shop and despite the initial setback, Dee says that ‘the pandemic has presented opportunities in areas that we never anticipated we would. Going digital has been the best thing we’ve ever done for our business and we’re now growing our team in order to explore all of the opportunities.’
About K’s Wors K’s Wors is the second largest UK black-owned sausage manufacturer and produces the only three-meat sausage on the market. The sausages can also be purchased through Ocado, at Global African Ltd in Manchester and at the 1212 African-Caribbean Shop in the Midlands. The brand has also won at the UK Sausage Week Awards and is listed in the SmallBiz Top 100 for 2020.
Tawanda Chirewa Signs First Pro Football Contract Aged 17
Tawanda was a Young Mutapa back in our January 2020 issue after making news as the second youngest debutante for Ipswich Town Football Club in the UK. This month, he signed his first professional contract with the club that will see him play for them until summer 2022. The mid-fielder says the deal was offered and agreed this summer when football was on hold as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. ‘I’m delighted to get to this milestone and now just want to push on. I feel really proud and am happy for my parents but know that this is only the beginning as I have to work even harder now.’ Tawanda signed the deal with his parents Blessing and Tsitsi Chirewa at his side. He is the latest player with Zimbabwean roots to rise through the ranks at Ipswich Town after midfielders Tristan Nydam and Kundai Benyu.
Photo Credit - ITV
On Saturday 14 November 2020, 18-year-old student Blessing Chitapa won The Voice UK 2020 in front of a virtual audience, landing the big prize of a recording contract with Universal. The competition had been put on hold over the
summer due to the COVID19 pandemic just as Blessing was really coming into her own. She even celebrated her 18th birthday during the seven-month wait for the show to resume (which it did in October 2020) and came back stronger than ever under the mentorship of Olly Murs, who himself was also a reality TV singing show contestant with The X-Factor back in 2009.
Photo Credit-The Voice UK
Blessing was born in Zimbabwe and moved to the UK as a young girl. She lives in Dudley, Birmingham with her mother, an occupational therapist, father, a pastor and two siblings. She loves science and has previously said that if her ambitions to be a singer didn’t pan out, she would become a doctor. Now it looks like that may definitely remain a plan B! Back in 2018, another young Zimbabwean, Donel Mangena came second in the competition though he was a favourite to win.
Young Gamechanger in Medical Education, Malone Mukwende Continues to Soar… High
We cannot get enough of the brilliant Zimbabwean-born UK medical student Malone Mukwende (see HoM July & October editions). He came up with the concept of and co-authored Mind The Gap, a clinical handbook of signs and symptoms of disease in black and brown skins which has now been seen over 100, 000, 000 times on social media. On 24 October, he became a TEDx speaker as he spoke on the theme ‘Inspire’ at the independently organised TEDx event, TEDxYouth @CCHS. One week later he featured in a Black History Month special, Black & British on UK TV channel ITV as a modern pioneer; he spoke about what inspired him to create Mind The Gap and what it means to be black in Britain. “Growing up in Birmingham I noticed a lot of people in my community often had a lack of trust with the healthcare service. I slowly realised that a lot of this distrust was due to people being misdiagnosed.” Earlier this month, he became one of the youngest recipients of an Akindolie Medical Scholarship; this scholarship was founded by the children of a leading Nigerian doctor, Dr Frank Olufemi Akindolie. The objective of the award is to support aspiring doctors from a
