Veteran rapper and media personality Wambuseun (Lownan Nangombe) has embarked on a new journey he believes will change the creative industry landscape forever.
The retired rapper has come up with the Namibia Film School (NFS), a long-awaited brainchild which he says has been in incubation for almost a decade.
“Until lions learn to write, stories of hunting will always glorify the hunter,” reads a quote from J Nozipo Maraire which featured in her critically acclaimed novel ‘Zenzele: Letters For My Daughter’.
The book is filled with a mother’s heartfelt confessions and life lessons shared with her daughter who had left Zimbabwe to pursue studies at Harvard University.
The main premise of the story is to remind the next generation of young Africans receiving a Eurocentric education to retain their authenticity and pride towards inherited values and tradition in an environment that will alienate those who appear to be indifferent.
Maraire’s quote inspired Wambüseun because he relates it to his journey as a facilitator of Namibian storytelling.
“I remember growing up and we would hear scary folktales and there’s one story in particular that I can’t forget. It is set in Oshakati about a woman who returns as a ghost after she is discovered dead near a popular bar in town.
“Her ghost roams the area to haunt those who dare inflict pain on others,” he says.
He believes mythical stories like these have tremendous cultural significance.
“I had stories like this in mind when I came up with the concept for the school. These stories could be alternate versions of the many Hollywood blockbusters we watched growing up, but unlike Hollywood movies, the production we will facilitate at the school will have faces we know.”
The NFS’s online presence gained popularity instantaneously, with inquiries for enrolment coming from as far as Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Asked what would make the school stand out, Nangombe said his long-term plan was to foster a relationship with movie theatres like the South African cinema giant Ster-Kinekor.
“Unlike many institutions who leave their graduates in the dark, I want my students to measure success through ticket sales. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to them.”
Wambüseun wants to emulate the classic Hollywood cinema model for aspiring film-makers that is fully dependent on promotion, theatre distribution and box office success. How this will play out only time will tell. All that students can do is cross their fingers and hope for the best.
The school will host Namibia industry professionals on a part-time basis, and it has future ambitions for exchange programmes with European film schools and a scholarship programme for star performers to do further studies in Europe and come back to contribute to Namibia’s creative economy.
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