Chansa Tembo

Junior Bester

The Highway Africa conference has given me the opportunity to meet many interesting and fascinating people. Speakers at the conference and the many workshops include accomplished scholars, distinguished members of society and qualified professionals.
I have personally met many fascinating people yet none seem more fascinating to me than Chansa Tembo, a Zambian film and video producer. I had the pleasure of speaking to Chansa after a workshop he hosted today. Chansa is an accomplished producer as he has produced an award winning video entitled “Democracy is like a Smoothie.” The video is only 46 seconds long yet it conveys his message of democracy perfectly. It also poses questions among the viewer and it allows them to gather their own interpretation. The short video was entered into an open competition in Zambia and after beating 12 fellow Zambians Chansa’s video made the finals where it would compete with winners from Southern African countries such as Namibia and South Africa. After beating the African countries Chansa’s video could proudly be called the best in Africa and as a result he is currently representing Africa in a group effort to produce a global video about democracy. The other members that will be working with Chansa are the winners of their respective continents. His video was on display at the 61st United Nations General Assembly, at The Directors Guild of America (DGA) and at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Chansa showed his passion for film at the young age of 12 and after travelling around the world to different countries such as Italy, Russia, Australia, Japan and the United States of America. His passion grew and grew and he ultimately gained an unimaginable amount of knowledge in terms of culture and history. Chansa uses this knowledge to produce videos and films for different types of people form all walks of life. He currently has a film production company called, “Frontline Exposures,” in Lusaka, Zambia.