Forchibe Ethelyn Echep

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Musenga Katongo is a Zambian award winning creative arts entrepreneur and founder of creative arts platform, Colour Culture Arts. He is a three time international and local poetry slam champion, TEDxLusaka Performer and an award nominated author.  His creative entrepreneur journey began in June, 2019 when he successfully launched his creative arts platform ‘Colour Culture Arts’ that has held multiple arts activities targeted towards youths. The aim of these activities is to educate young people about Zambian culture and history through poetry and visual arts with the vision of creating a society that celebrates cultural diversity..

As a spoken word artist, he emerged victorious in the 2017 Bittersweet Poetry Slam and was officially crowned Bittersweet Poetry Slam Champion which earned him the opportunity to represent Zambia at an African Poetry Slam held in Chad. He has also opened for American international spoken word poets Ezekiel Azonwu and Joseph Solomon on two separate occasions.  Internationally, Musenga has represented Zambia in the first and third editions of Digipoems, a collaborative programme that involved poets and digital artists from across the Southern African region and the United Kingdom, in 2019 and 2021 respectively. He is also the first non-Zimbabwean to win the 2019 Intwasa Poetry Slam held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. , He emerged victorious at the inaugural Alliance Francaise de Lusaka Talent Show in the ‘Spoken Word’ category. In 2020, he received the ‘Cultural/Artistic Achievement Award’ from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Child Development and National Youth Development Council for his outstanding contribution to culture and arts in Zambia. 

In 2021, he was a finalist and runner-up in President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s Presidential Poetry Contest. In the same year he performed at TEDxLusaka where he performed his original poem entitled "Walking Museum". He was also interviewed by BBC World Service and was the only Zambian that featured and performed as a special guest at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in the United Kingdom. 

As a fiction and poetry writer, his short stories and poetry have been featured in various publications including ‘Sister Wives’ for his story ‘Redeeming Chilufya’, The Writers Space Africa Magazine, ‘Pain’ for his poem ‘Five Senses of Envy’ and in ‘Short Stories from Zambia’ for his short story ‘Dreams for Dowry’ which has been translated into Arabic. He has also released his own publications such as ‘Memento Mori’ which was nominated under the Best Poetry category at the Tell Your Own Story National Book Awards in 2019 and he co-wrote the short story series ‘Lindiwe and the Maniac’. 

António Baptista Magaia Júnior artistically known as Bathist Dmc is a poet, rapper, actor and screenwriter born on October 21, 1986 in the city of Maputo. He has a degree in Technologies and Information Systems from  São Tomás of  Mozambique University. 

His passion for literature began at an early age, but he started writing in 2004, the year he started writing poetry and prose. He attended literary events such as Poetry at ICMA, Ntsindya, Ascendente Bar and later, Palavras são Palavras. Bathist is the leader of 1 Day of Hip Hop artistic movement (1DdHH) made up of poets, rappers, and thinkers who are dedicated to social initiatives such as: Raising children's books and Graffiti  in primary schools, Debate events, poetry, Street dance and Networking . 

He graduated in Theater at Mozambican Brazil Centre Culture. António Magaia is Co-Author of Anthologies: Poems +258 vol. 1 Anthology of Mozambican poetry, World Anthology Days of Reclusion, Poems in Tautoindriso from Aurora to a manifest, was recently Selected for the International Anthology - For a Better World to be launched in 2021 in the United States in Los Angeles. He was a finalist in the 1st and 2nd Edition of the largest Poetry Battle Contest – Moz Slam as a reciter poet. 

On July 12, 2021, António was hired by Progresso Association as a writer to join a team in a children's book production workshop project financed by the Canadian embassy that lasted 3 months. This year, on 02 of April 2022, António Magaia will launch his first book entitled: “How to overcome your parents' divorce”  with GiMacu publisher in Maputo City.

Marita Banda is a multilingual (Tumbuka, English and French) published poet (Telling It Like It Is, 2017) and author (Traditional Zambian Etiquette for Modern Living - Youth Edition, 2019). The latter has since been adopted as a core textbook at the Zambia Institute for Diplomatic and International Studies. 

Currently, she is working on several manuscripts. She is also participating in a year long art mini-lab at the Livingstone Office of Contemporary Art where she is exploring the theme of identity of indigenous societies in Africa in the global context. 

Marita is a respected member of the literary community in Zambia and has served in various leadership capacities including the positions of chairperson of the Zambia Reprographic Rights Society (ZARRSO) and is founding chairperson of the Zambian chapter of the Writers Space Africa, WSA-Zambia. 

She is also a member of the Zambian chapter of Pen International. Marita is co-founder of Sotrane Publishers.

Mercy Mukami is a third year student at Masinde Muliro University of science and technology where she's pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. She's a lover of poetry and posts most of her pieces on her Facebook timeline and on her page, The Wildflower poetry.   

She is working towards her first anthology ‘Insanity Tagged Love’ to be published by AdinkraLinks Publications under Meli Creatives. Mercy says she writes mostly to release stress. Her poems are mostly stories of broken hearted girls. 

Her inspiration comes from all aspects of life including, people, places, and events …anything can be an inspiration.  She is currently aspiring to complete her degree and a second publication of a book before the year 2022 ends.

Grace Nkrumah-Buandoh, who writes as Bonkua, is a graduate of the University of Ghana and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with Mathematics. She started writing short stories at the age of 10 when a classmate suggested they put their imaginations down on paper for fun. She entered into the poetry community in 2018 with Ehalakasa. She has since performed on various stages including the National Theatre. She was a performer at the 2020 Black History Month held by the African American Association of Ghana in collaboration with Ehalakasa at the W.E.B DuBois Centre. She has also appeared on the Obaagogetter Network, a platform for empowering and supporting ambitious and goal-oriented women in their respective careers, as a guest performer. She ventured into artistic activism with ActionAid Ghana in 2020. She has a keen interest in addressing issues such as Environmental protection, Gender-Based Violence, Rape, Menstrual and Reproductive Health, as well as Mental Health.
Through her love and passion for volunteering and teaching, she has engaged in several workshops that seek to promote writing and reading culture. Among these are the Books on the Streets Campaign in 2019 and the Nubuke Foundation Community Engagement for children in 2020. When Bonkua is not writing, she spends most of her time reading novels and webtoons and watching movies. As a lover of theatre also, she is currently with Dzomoko Productions, a production house that educates and entertains through stage plays and film.
Bonkua believes that an artist is screaming in everyone’s mind. We just have to listen and scream along with it. She aspires to be a writer who leaves her footprints on the hearts of wandering souls so they can find their way back home. Bonkua is one of the selected poets collaborating on the third volume of the Adinkralinks Poetry Anthology Series Nkyinkyim 'Turning and Twisting We Come Out Right'
You can connect with Bonkua on Instagram Twitter: @iambonkua Facebook: Nana Yaa Bonkua