Patrick Mphaka: The voice behind Five Moba

Not long ago, there was one renowned programme on MBC Radio 1. It came with a famous crystal clear, highly audible and inviting voice. And these two came with prominent signature mantras: Kodi mwamva? and Ndikuti Tsalani.

That programme was 5/Moba and the man was Patrick Mphaka. Those who grew up in the 1990s will attest to the fact that 5/Moba was a must listen to programme. The juicy, dramatic and at times confusing stories kept many abreast with what was happening in the other parts of the world.

Third born in his family, Mphaka was born July 16 1966 in Kadula Village, T/A Mlonyeni in Mchinji and grew up loving listening to the radio.

“I listened to three radio stations: Chichewa Service of Radio RSA which later became Channel Africa, Chinyanja Broadcasts of Zambia National Broadcasting Services and, of course, our own MBC. I admired the presentation styles of some broadcasters such as Joe Dawe of Chichewa Service of Radio RSA and Brown Tembo of ZNBS.

“I started emulating these presentations such that I took advantage of every opportunity to practice my own presentation,” he recalls.

For the young wannabe broadcaster, who went to Kholoni and Kamuzu Primary schools from 1974 to 1982 and then Mchinji Secondary School from 1982 to 1986 before going to Chancellor College the same year, Chichewa language classes were his best times.

And then naturally, the desire to be on radio grew.

“When the teacher would ask us to read aloud paragraphs from the class textbook, I would gladly go for it. My classmates knew that I enjoyed reading aloud, and I think I also knew that they enjoyed listening to me read. They nicknamed me MBC. Naturally, I desired to work in radio.

“After completing third year at Chancellor College, I got a vacation job at MBC where I seized the opportunity to demonstrate that I wanted to make MBC my home after graduation. A year later, I was at MBC. It was a long dream coming true. I started working for MBC as an Editor at the Chichewa News Desk on July 16 1990. Please note that it was on my 24th birthday, and therefore, a very symbolic birthday gift,” he recollects.

Mphaka worked with MBC for nine years. His services were terminated for what he believes were political reasons.

“I worked for MBC until June 25 1999 when, sadly, my services were terminated. The termination letter did not give any reasons. But as I was not the only one relieved of my duties at the time, it is alleged that it’s due to political reasons because we did not appear to support the party that was ruling at the time,” he says.

But those nine years were enough for Mphaka to make a name in the broadcasting industry. His expertise and gifted voice saw him excelling and come up with the 5/Moba programme. But what gave birth to 5/Moba?

“I think the programme that gave birth to 5/Moba was Nkhani Za Uku ndi Uku. What happened is that after serving in the newsroom for almost two years, I was transferred to the Current Affairs Section.

“The section was responsible for sports programmes, news extra, special news events and current affairs. Among these programmes was Nkhani Za Uku ndi Uku which was broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“I was given charge of these programmes every week. It is here that I decided to be broadcasting what I considered news that listeners could not get from anywhere. These news pieces were not my creation as such, they were news items that MBC continuously received through its Reuters machine based in the newsroom, but fellow editors did not think they could use because, probably, they considered the news items not newsworthy. For me, these are the items I thought listeners needed to hear also so they could widen their perspective of the world,” said Mphaka.

So popular was the programme that when the Current Affairs management removed Mphaka from Nkhani Za Uku ndi Uku, there were loud protests from the listeners.

Said the broadcaster: “Chaipa Hiwa, who was producing and presenting Morning Basket at the time, approached me and asked if I would be interested to be contributing my presentations into his programme. I accepted and I called my contribution into the Morning Basket 5/Moba. This was a code name that identified the contribution.

“It meant a programme on a 5 inch reel/tape for the Morning Basket. This is how the name 5/Moba was born,” he explains.

Morning Basket was and until today broadcasts between 7:10 am and 8 am. Back then, strategically, Chaipa played 5/Moba no earlier than 7:50am. It garnered so much feedback from listeners as many people fell in love with it.

The undeclared motto of 5/Moba was to give an opportunity to listeners to have in-depth news of the news, local or international, they could not get from anywhere else and Patrick nailed it almost every episode.

He got the stories from the Reuters News Agency machine in the newsroom. For local stories, he used to broadcast direct audio interviews with the subjects.

“Additionally, I constantly bought magazines from the then Times Bookshop to ensure I did not run out of stories, and also to make sure that I was able to update my stories,” he says.

What happened to the programme?

Moving out of MBC did not only mean the end of Mphaka’s career as a broadcaster. It also marked the end of 5/Moba.

“The programme was ‘murdered’ in 1999. I have heard some versions of 5/Moba on a number of Malawian radio stations over the past few years, but I think they have just died a natural death,” he says.

After leaving MBC, Mphaka immediately, for a year, worked for ADRA Malawi as a Monitoring and Evaluation coordinator of an HIV/Aids intervention project in the Northern Region.

“I became jobless for close to three years and I did ‘matola’ with my pick-up from CI to Chikhwawa; later I did ‘hires’ with the same pick-up from the ‘pick-ups’ place opposite Blantyre Bus Stands. Later I worked with Wildlife Society of Malawi under a Jica project for close to a year until 2004. I was hired by the Usaid’s Compass project based in Blantyre in 2004 where I worked until August, 2007.

“In September 2007, I was hired by ADRA Denmark to be a Great Lakes Regional project manager for a communication project implemented by Adra offices in Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC. I was based in Kigali, Rwanda. I am still in Kigali now, but working for a different programme now as programme manager of what we call Action for Social Change Programme within Adra Rwanda,” he said.

Married to Grace Khulungira, and blessed with two daughters and a son, Mphaka is currently in the fourth year studying for a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) with Walden University.

“Every cloud has a silver lining. We should always be positive even when the future looks bleak. I studied and obtained my MBA at the Polytechnic while I was working for Usaid’s Compass project from 2005 to 2006. I studied and obtained my Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from Malawi Polytechnic in 2003 and 2004 while I was worked for the Wildlife Society of Malawi. It was on the strength of the additional academic qualifications I obtained after I was pushed out of MBC that enabled me to compete for the jobs I am doing now,” says Mphaka.