LETTER TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF CHAMBISHI
CREDIT: FAZ MEDIA
The good people of Chambishi Township treasure Enock Mwepu’s football journey. And from where I am sitting not so far away there, writing this, I can feel just how deeply they are processing this news.
English Premiership club Brighton and Hove Albion on October 10 announced the Chipolopolo Zambia captains’ retirement at the age of 24 due to a congenital heart condition.
I will not go into the details of this very devastating news that has now reached saturation point on all media platforms.
With every passing generation, Chambishi Township , located just over 10 kilometres outside Zambia’s football crucible Kitwe, has been blessed and held its own as a talent factory.
From ex-Zambia goalkeeper Davies Phiri, the classy playmaker Emmanuel Siwale, the late 1990 AFCON star Webby Chikabala and Moses Chikwalakala who died in the Zambia national team 1993 Gabon Air Tragedy.
Interim Chipolopolo Zambia coach Moses Sichone was Chambishi’s biggest export when the ex-defensive midfielder joined Bundesliga side FC Koln in 1998.
Mwepu succeeded him as the next big thing to hit Europe from Chambishi when he arrived in the English premiership in July 2021 after three years at perennial Austrian champions RB Salzburg.
But the news today is a double blow for Chambishi.
Mwepu was one of two talents to emerge from the township over the last 15 years.
He began this journey with his late childhood friend and midfielder Changwe Kalale.
The pair was part of the historic Zambia U17 national team to make the country’s debut qualification to the U17 AFCON held in 2015 in Niger.
Elements of that team who included Mwepu and Leicester City striker Patson Daka would later make history again by winning Zambia’s debut U20 AFCON as hosts in 2017 and later that year reach their first-ever FIFA U20 World Cup quarterfinals in South Korea.
Kalale would not make it to the March 2015 U17 AFCON after he sustained injuries in a traffic accident in December 2014 that left him paralysed neck down and confined to a wheelchair.
The big teenage prospect was en route to the senior Chipolopolo camp where a dream debut at the 2015 AFCON that January beckoned as a bonus before heading to the U17 AFCON in February.
Kalale passed away on his birthday December 17, 2017, after a short illness while in Lusaka for his twice-yearly routine checkup.
Mwepu said at Kalele’s burial that they had big dreams.
"If I can start describing him I think I would even take the whole day. I was following his footsteps and I was his role model and we had plans," Mwepu said.
What is even more heartbreaking for Mwepu is that he too now is robbed of a debut AFCON appearance.
Today’s news just tore the heart out of the humble people of Chambishi to see a son carrying on his friend's legacy, and a role model for his neighbourhood kids, forced to hang up his boots.