By Antonio Mwanza
Zambia has developed a troubling habit: we are often quick to forget, and even quicker to diminish the people who built the foundations we now stand on. In politics, music, sports, academia, film, radio, and television, many of our pioneers are remembered not with gratitude, but with criticism and revisionism. We seem unable to simply acknowledge that before institutions existed, before degrees became standard, there were men and women who built entire professions through courage, talent, and perseverance.
This unfortunate tendency is not confined to one field. In music, for example, it is increasingly common to hear some of today’s artists dismiss or belittle the very pioneers who created the platforms they now benefit from. Instead of recognising the struggles of earlier generations—who recorded music with limited technology, promoted their work without digital platforms, and built audiences from the ground up—there is sometimes a rush to portray them as irrelevant or outdated. Yet without those pioneers, the industry itself would scarcely exist in its present form.
It is within this broader culture that the recent attempt by Field Ruwe to argue that Frank Mutubila is neither a broadcaster nor a journalist must be viewed.
Frank Mutubila belongs to a generation that helped build broadcasting in Zambia at a time when the country had almost no formal training institutions for radio and television. In those formative years at the Zambia Broadcasting Service—now the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation—many of the voices that shaped national broadcasting were trained through practice, mentorship, and dedication to craft rather than through university degrees. That was the reality of the era.
To judge pioneers of that generation using today’s academic requirements is to misunderstand history. It is to forget that institutions themselves are often created by people who first mastered their craft through experience.
Broadcasting has never been defined solely by the possession of a degree. It is defined by participation in the creation and delivery of radio and television content, by the ability to communicate with a nation, and by the influence one has on the development of a medium. By any reasonable measure, a man who has spent more than five decades presenting programmes, interviewing public figures, and speaking to generations of viewers and listeners has earned his place in the history of broadcasting.
Even internationally, some of the most respected figures in the profession built their reputations through experience rather than formal academic credentials. The legendary interviewer Larry King is one such example. His authority did not come from a degree, but from the thousands of conversations he held and the trust he built with audiences over decades
Frank Mutubila’s story belongs to that tradition. For more than half a century, his voice and presence formed part of the evolving story of Zambian television. He is part of the generation that helped transform broadcasting from an emerging experiment into a national institution.
A nation that forgets how its professions were built risks losing respect for its own history. Titles and definitions may change with time, but contribution endures.
Whether one calls Frank Mutubila a presenter, broadcaster, or media personality is ultimately secondary. What matters is that he stood among those who helped shape the early years of Zambia’s broadcasting landscape.
And pioneers, in any nation that respects its history, deserve recognition—not diminishment.
Antonio Mourinho Mwanza
05 – 03- 2025
Academic facts are just that, Ruwe just put them out there.