By TERENCE MISELO
TO many people in the entertainment industry, he is this wise music manager and promoter. One who is eager to see artistes grow professionally and find the real value for music. He doubles this entertainment responsibility with a dedicated fashion label called SOXX Clothing Line. In another life, he is a sportsman dedicated to social football, plays basketball and on occasions, a golf player.
This is not all, he is also into football administration, serving as Football Association of Zambia Legal Committee Chair.
Of course professionally, Sokwani Peter Chilembo is a lawyer who is not limited by his work but does as many things as possible with a special knack.
“The ability to make a difference for mankind and being the positive change that I want to see gives me the drive and motivation to keep pushing new frontiers to achieve more,” he says in explaining his involvement in many things.
“I am a busy body (Laughs). There are hardly dull moments in my life.”
Born on 19th April, 1983 in Lusaka, Chilembo is Mahtani Group of Companies Group Legal Counsel, a member of LAZ and owner of Elation Entertainment, an emerging Pan- African music label focused on promoting musicians.
“ I have been serving on the LAZ Council as a member for the past two years. I am currently a nominee for the position of Honorary Secretary for the Law Association of Zambia, and await elections which have been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he says in emphasing on his career involvement.
“Although trained as a General Practitioner, I have focused on Corporate Law. I started off as a litigation lawyer in private
practice, but went corporate and I have been in this space to date for the last nine years.”
Chilembo who did his secondary school education in Eastern Province at Hillside school then later moved to Chizongwe Technical before getting into law at the University of Zambia is currently a candidate for a Masters Degree in International Commercial Law (LL.M) with the University of Salford in Manchester.
He recognizes that his involvement in other activities other than his career dates back from his school days.
“Whilst at Chizongwe, I was an active sportsman and had great passion for entertainment throughout my stay there.
I was an integral part of the Basketball Team, I doubled as a goalkeeper for the football team when time allowed, and I was the D/Entertainment Captain,” he recalls.
“At University of Zambia, I remained active in sports and entertainment. In my second year in Law School, I became the first choice goalkeeper for the University side (UNZA Bola), and I also released two singles as a musician produced by the late King Taliman and Mainza Chipenzi at West Wood Studios in Kalundu at Elder Shakarongo’s residence. My highlight of my music career was a performance at Miss UNZA 2004 at Polo Grill where I shared the stage with MC Wabwino, Ty2 and Namanje.”
With such a background, it is not surprising to see Chilembo pushing his way to better entertainment in Zambia through Elation Entertainment.
“Given my background with music and entertainment, and given the challenges I had experienced myself as an artiste, I believed that God had purposed me to become part of the difference in the entertainment industry and that saw me start Elation Entertainment in 2012,” he says.
“It took me quite a couple of years before things could really take shape as I was also building my legal career in the banking industry which is very demanding.
Nonetheless, I still managed to set up a Pan African Record Label with a focus on Southern Africa talent (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi).”
Currently, Elation Entertainment is managing award-winning artistes such as the legendary Maureen Lilanda, soulful Wezi, and Patience Namadingo from Malawi.
The other talented artistes on the Label include Jay Fuse, Mutemwa (saxophonist),
C.O.G, Dovey, and SoundBwoy from Zimbabwe who also happens to be the resident Producer, sound engineer and DJ. With Elation in mind, what does Chilembo want to see different?
“Artistes treating themselves as professionals, and the country reciprocating.
It is not all about hype and fame, it’s a business and it must be treated as such.
Once there is professionalism amongst the artistes, it will be easier to deal with external challenges. The difference has to start at individual level,” Chilembo advises.
“There are very few artistes that have well-established management teams in the country. This is a challenge every artiste must step up to, if they are to be taken seriously and get value for their talent. But in order to achieve this, the artistes themselves have to set the right tone to attract competent people who can invest their time and resources.”
Married to Sambwa Simbyakula – Chilembo, a Lawyer in the International Law Agreements Department at the Ministry of Justice, and his former classmate in Law School at UNZA and ZIALE, Chilembo has two children, a boy and a girl named
Lusungu Chilembo and Liseli Chilembo who are 8 and 6 years old respectively.
He therefore has fatherly advice for young people on career development and choice.
Meet Sokwani Chilembo: Lawyer with many talents
