YOTAM MUSABI, ALSO KNOWN AS (KAPIRI MPOSHI), IS CONSIDERED THE FATHER OF ALL SCAMMERS IN KAPIRI AND ONE OF THE FIRST SCAMMERS IN THE 1930S.
Mwansa Chama
Accomplished Historian and researcher.
In 1930, the first white explorers on their way from Broken Hill to Ndola rested in a village on a hill called Kapili Mukoshi, which means ‘the hill with a neck’ in Swaka.
Later, a man named Yotam Musabi, who was the spanner boy at Northern Rhodesia Railways and lived in that area, found an opportunity to deceive the explorers. He told them that the chief was very sick and unlikely to survive. He claimed that he would be next in line once the chief passed away.
Excited by the prospect of having a friendly chief for better deals, the explorers gave Yotam Musabi a map, watch, and binoculars before proceeding to Ndola. Despite his refusal of the gifts, Yotam Musabi requested to be called “Kapiri Mposhi,” meaning a ‘Lover of women and business.’ The explorers agreed and spread the name as they traveled across the country.
Upon returning to Kapiri Mposhi, the explorers realized that Yotam Musabi was a trickster working for Northern Rhodesia Railways. Despite their efforts to revert to the original name, the villagers preferred Kapiri Mposhi, and the name persisted even after independence. This is the kind of history they don’t typically teach.