I first met the Late Felix Banda in 2017 during marriage encounter meetings. I and my wife were the youngest couple and were told not to say anything but just watch. In fact that was the time I was being introduced in Shibukombe issues.
I bought his(Felix) book titled Galamukani, read it 10 times and went back to challenge him on some of the Issues I had observed.
When I told him about the issues I discovered in his book, and he said to me, ” In academia or in the world of writers, you can only challenge an author by you writing another book” because it’s easier said than done.
When I finished writing my book, I went back to him and he observed 389 grammatical errors. So I started chasing after reputable editors to correct those errors but most of the people I asked to review my book were not helping to correct those errors. I concluded they were not seeing them(errors) until I met Mr Hurry Simbeye who helped to edit those errors.
After that, I took the book back to him but he could not manage to read chapter by chapter because he was too busy. In fact most of the time I was meeting him, he was just remaining with 10 or 20 minutes to begin an event. One day I met him at the airport when he was about to fly out of the country, the other day at mulungushi international conference centre when he was about to start making presentation.
During the chase for him, that’s how I met the Late Dr Roland Msiska, former secretary to cabinet. He was also writing the book titled ‘ The Transformation of a Nation” . So we agreed to exchange our work and he started reviewing my work while I was checking his.
Dr Msiska was even the guest of honor at my book launch.
Now that he is gone and Chibamba Kanyama has found job in government, I just have to chase for Dr Siatwambo. In life you need a mentor.
Rest well big man, the great author, mentor and coach
