The Red Bulletin December 2019 (UK)

Sampa The Great
Homecoming
queen
Born in Zambia and based in Australia, the
rising star of conscious rap explains how
returning home can shape your future
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography BARUN CHATTERJEE
In March last year, Sampa Tembo,
better known as Sampa the Great,
won the Australian Music Prize for
her mixtape Birds And The BEE9.
Winning the accolade – which,
much like the UK’s Mercury Prize,
is awarded for creative excellence
rather than album sales – is a
prestigious achievement for any
musician Down Under. The thing is,
Tembo isn’t Australian; she moved
there from her home country of
Zambia in 2014 to study audio
production. However, when the
rapper’s first release, 2015’s The
Great Mixtape, began gaining
positive attention, many Australian
magazines conveniently named her
one of their own. The topic of home
runs throughout the 19 tracks on
her official debut album, The Return,
released on UK label Ninja Tune.
Here, the 26-year-old explains why
she shot the video for her single
Final Form in Zambia, and how she
overcame her insecurities…
the red bulletin: What inspired
you shoot the Final Form video
in Zambia and feature your friends
and parents in it?
sampa the great: I’m based in
Australia and started my professional
career there, but at the same time
I’d never performed at home, never
had a song on radio [in Zambia].
All of a sudden, I’m being played on
the radio in Australia, doing live
shows there, and people are calling
me Australian. And Zambians
are like, “How come she never
performed here in front of us?”
How did it feel going back?
It was like coming full circle, that the
place I grew up in could eventually
experience me as an artist. I have
no qualms about people saying I’m
Australia-based, but it’s only half
the truth. My friends at home are
like, “We know where you’re from,”
and I say, “I’m not controlling this!”
So it felt important for me to tell
people the story of who I am, rather
than having other people create this
narrative for me.
What does returning home
mean to you? Does it make you
feel more grounded?
The way we were raised, there was
no space to be big-headed. As soon
as it happened, my parents were
like, “Cut that down.” Going home
reassures your growth. It’s like, this
is where you came from and this is
what you’re doing. That’s important,
because sometimes we forget to look
back and see how much we’ve grown.
How have you grown in the
past few years?
The assurance within myself has
grown a lot. I’m doing what I know
I was born to do. In the beginning
there was so much doubt, because
no one in my family had attempted
a career in music. Now that I’m
doing it – and enjoying it – there’s
a bigger sense of assurance. Within
the process, confidence and self-love
have grown as well. And also the
willingness to learn and work on my
weaknesses, instead of just being
like, “Yeah, nah!”
How did you overcome any doubts
you had?
Definitely though conversations with
people. The one thing that creates
insecurity is the feeling that you’re
going through something alone.
Whoever I meet, I always want
to converse with them about life,
because it helps you to appreciate
that we all share many fears and
insecurities. When you see these
are common things that people
struggle with, you know that it’s
OK to feel that way and to seek
knowledge to get better.
You once said a good student
not only tries to master the things
they’re good at, but also the things
they’re really bad at. What have
you attempted to master while
working on The Return?
So many things. For time’s sake, I’d
say perspective. With The Return, it
was like, “Oh, I can’t get to go home,
because of this and that.” I was
consumed by it, until I met people
in situations where they couldn’t go
back home so they had to create
a new one for themselves. I had to
step back and see that the small
discomfort and displacement I was
feeling was nothing compared with
theirs. My perspective of how I’m
blessed was definitely challenged.
Did you take any action as a result
of that realisation?
I asked myself the question: “What
do you do with this privilege?” For
me it’s like, if I have an opportunity
to go home, I’m going to share what
I know. If I have the opportunity,
I’d like to teach Zambians who’ve
never been there about our home
and culture. It’s that perspective of
knowing that you have something
someone else doesn’t, that they
would [gain] value from. It feels like
a duty to the diaspora, being able to
teach these things.
Sampa The Great’s debut album,
The Return, is out now on Ninja Tune;
sampathegreat.com
28 THE RED BULLETIN