TROUBLEMAKERS

Paul Musyimi on what social movements really are, why peaceful organizing wins, and how activists keep each other safe when the work gets dangerous. With Malemi, Paul talks about the principle "Seek Safety in Support Networks": when activists are threatened, national and international networks can provide support and deter violence. Guest: Paul Musyimi, who works with social movements through Glob...

Youth activist Nancy Siatwiko on why young Zambians are done waiting for permission to lead. Host Malemi talks with her about locked-out candidates, young women in politics, and using social media to organize. Guest: Nancy Siatwiko, Movement Manager for Youth for Parliament and the first female student president of Cavendish University Zambia. Twice locked out of party adoption for being young and...

Ep 55: Youth, Power & Political Spaces with Tilvas Ngosa Recorded at the Global Platform studio in Zambia, this episode asks why youth political participation across Africa stays so low, and what it takes to change that. Host Malemi talks with activist Tilvas Ngosa about systemic barriers, youth leadership, and the real cost of getting into African politics. Guest: Tilvas Ngosa, Program Office...

Politicians pass laws, but culture shapes belief, and belief shapes everything else. In this episode, Thompson Luzendi sits with Sefu Sanni to unpack the battle of ideas: how culture becomes the real terrain of power, and how the creative arts can move people where speeches and laws cannot. About the guest Sefu Sanni is a Kenyan musician, poet, and self-described communication strategist and propa...

What does an ideal world look like? Given Kapolyo answers without hesitation: one where inequality does not exist, and leadership is not a male sport. In this Smoke Signals, she lays out her feminist utopia, then grounds it in the everyday realities that prove the fight is far from over. It doubles as a passing of the mic, recorded as Given steps in to host the seasons ahead. What you'll hear Her...

What makes someone walk to the utility company with a placard instead of posting complaints online? Nalishebo Sinyama has been answering that since 2019, when a load shedding protest in her Lusaka suburb turned her into an organizer overnight. She sits with Given Kapolyo to trace her path from a grassroots ward organizer to national work, and now to feminist organizing in Somaliland. With Zambia's...

TM Smoke Signals: Silence, by Sylvie Baziga A spoken word piece by Sylvie Baziga on the slow deaths that leave no bullet holes: the swallowed cry, the smothered dream, the word never spoken because speaking means disappearing. Here, pencils forget. But stones remember. This poem is a warning and a promise. The silence is not empty. It is boiling. It is preparing. And when it finally breaks, it wil...

Host: Thompson Luzendi (Zambia) Guest: Joe Kobuthi - philosopher, public theologian, political analyst, and curator of The Elephant Pan-African magazine. The rules of the house were written by someone who was never supposed to stay. Thompson sits down with Joe to unpack the moral political economy — what it is, how colonialism broke it, and what Gen Z across Africa needs to understand before 2027....

Human rights defender, activist, and presidential candidate for the Republic of Kenya, Boniface Mwangi joins Smoke Signals for a direct, unfiltered conversation on what it will actually take for Kenya's Gen Z movement to convert street energy into political power by 2027. This is not a motivational talk. It is a strategic briefing. What We Cover From occupation to ballot revolution. Boniface break...

A spoken word piece by Frank Amani on the cycles we inherit and refuse to break. Same Stupidity confronts the ways human beings repeat patterns across generations, dressing up the same vicious circle in new clothes, chasing happiness while performing it, and calling it progress. The poem moves through denial, social conformity, collective forgetting, inequality, and the quiet violence of indiffere...

Guest: Wilson (Willynkya), film & TV producer, content creator, and influencer based in Tanzania Rodgers sits down with Willynkya to unpack "Put Your Target in a Decision Dilemma" (Andrew Boyd & Joshua Kahn Russell) through the lens of content creation and film and what it means for activists and organisers trying to move audiences toward action. About Willynkya Five years in film and TV b...

In this powerful spoken-word piece, poet Opolot Emmanuel Solomon paints a vision of an Africa that has moved beyond division, dependency, conflict, and limitation. Through repetition, imagination, and conviction, he challenges listeners to picture a continent where dreams become reality, borders no longer divide people, and Africans take ownership of their shared future. Meet the Poet Opolot Emman...

What does “development” really mean—and who is forced to pay for it? Meet the Guest Ziada is a climate and gender justice advocate working at the frontlines of renewable energy and community resistance. Trained in medicine, her activism was shaped by real encounters with inequality, environmental breakdown, and lives lost to preventable conditions. What We Unpack in This Episode What is EACOP, rea...

What happens when poetry becomes testimony? What happens when a voice carries the grief, rage, memory, and survival of an entire people? In this deeply emotional and politically charged episode of Troublemakers, we journey through “Vous allez où?”, a haunting spoken-word piece that confronts war, displacement, colonial violence, exile, and the persistence of hope in places the world often chooses...

How do we move from gathering stories to creating impact? How can we be more strategic about story gathering? And who truly owns the narrative - organisations or the communities themselves? In this episode of Troublemakers, we explore the role of storytelling in activism and development, featuring insights from practitioners working across Brazil and Nepal within ActionAid. This conversation unpac...

How do we defend rights in a world full of misinformation? In this episode, guest host Jesué Mutanava speaks with Steward Muhindo, a human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo and member of Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA). They explore how social media shapes activism, the dangers of disinformation, and how young people can push for change through peaceful action. Steward also sh...

In Super Hero, Phindu Banda honors the quiet courage of everyday people who rise, endure, and keep going. From childhood dreams to life’s hardest moments, this piece reminds us that survival, resilience, and showing up are acts of heroism. You didn’t wait to be saved. You became the hero. About the Poet Phindu Banda is a Malawian poet, performer, and activist whose work explores identity, feminism...

Why do movements that aim to transform the world so often fall apart from within? And what happens when the gap between our values and our actions becomes too wide to ignore?   In this episode of Trouble Makers, we sit down with Dale McKinley, a veteran activist with over 35 years of experience across South Africa’s most influential social movements. From the Communist Party to the Anti-Privatisat...

“The secret is numbers.” What happens when ordinary citizens decide to take democracy into their own hands? In this episode of the Trouble Makers Podcast, host Tatiana Gicheru sits down with Kenyan journalist and civic mobilizer Ademba Alanns, the mind behind the fast-growing Tukokadi movement, an initiative pushing millions of young Kenyans to register as voters ahead of the 2027 general election...

How does misinformation spread in conflict zones, and what are the consequences for communities and human rights defenders? In this episode, journalist Josué Mutanava speaks with Espoir Hamoni, a human rights defender based in Uvira, South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They discuss how disinformation, rumors, and fake news in eastern DRC can fuel hate speech, community tension...

What makes a workplace meaningful? Is it the salary? The office setup? The title on the door? Or is it something quieter? Something human? In this episode of Troublemakers: Smoke Signals, we step into the everyday spaces where we spend so much of our lives. From the vibrant grounds of MS TCDC, home to the Samora Machel Studio where The Troublemakers is produced, to offices, clinics and creative co...

How do movements shift people from neutrality or even opposition into active allies for justice struggles? In this episode of the Troublemakers podcast, Monica hosts Sungu Oyoo, a writer, educator, activist, and Pan-Africanist. Sungu works with MWAMKO (Pan-African Popular Pedagogy Collective) as Director of Special Programs and Organisational Development and is also part of Kongamano Lamapinduzi,...

What does it really mean to “build the nation,” and who pays the price for that work? In this Smoke Signals episode, Monica Kamandau reads Building the Nation by Ugandan poet Henry Barlow, a biting and darkly humorous poem that exposes the everyday hypocrisies of power, privilege, and sacrifice in postcolonial African states. This reading lands powerfully in our current moment, where ordinary peop...

What does it mean to fail forward in organising, and how do movements survive across generations? In this episode, recorded at Mashujaa Heritage Archives in Kibichuku, Monica Kamandau sits down with veteran Kenyan organiser and scholar Njuki Githethwa. With nearly three decades in resistance and movement building, Dr. Njuki reflects on the evolution of Kenya’s struggles, from the Mau Mau movement...

Ep42: Civil Disobedience with Faith Kasina When does breaking the law become the only way to survive? In this episode, we sit down at the Kayole Social Justice Centre with organizer Faith Kasina and members of the Centre to explore civil disobedience in moments when the state fails its people. Faith walks us through protest organizing during COVID, the realities of living under Article 43 violatio...