Dr. W.W. Chakanika (“Papa Wanga”) dedicated his entire life to uplifting Africa and her people. While he was our founder’s father first and foremost—playing the role of both mum and dad after Mwai lost her mother at a tender age (and refusing to leave her with anyone else throughout her childhood, so much so that she became lovingly referred to as his “handbag”)—he was also a dad to anyone who had the privilege to know him. He was a fierce family man, protector, advocate, and, perhaps most importantly, educator.

He was best known as an unmatched champion of the African education system— and shaping countless minds across Africa as vice chancellor.

Ask any one of his students, and they will all paint beautiful variations of the same picture: his lectures were filled with laughter; he never professed from a book but, rather, from the seemingly infinite knowledge he possessed within his mind and could draw upon at any time; he linked subject-matter to reality, rather than to tests; he taught students about their rights and how to fiercely protect those rights; and if you ever fell off track, he was the first person to encourage you to dig deep within yourself to see through your education and secure the freedoms that came with it.

Passionate, loyal, brilliant, empathetic, encouraging—while all of these words accurately describe Papa Wagna, they still somehow fall short. What, after all, do you call a man who gave countless minds the opportunity to learn, grow, and achieve their dreams? Who dedicated his life to uplifting his home country of Zambia and helping the world esteem Africa in higher regard? Who taught our founder to not work for herself, but to work for Africa and all of its people?

We do not know that we’ll ever find one right word to encompass all that Papa Wanga embodied—but what we do know is Africa is forever enriched because of his time on this Earth. It is our honor to carry on his legacy through our work here at Exalt Africa.

Exalt Africa is dedicated to the memory of our founder’s father.

OUR INSPIRATION

Because of you, Papa Wanga, we are forever inspired to share with the world the potential that lives within Africa’s soil, across her plains, in the hearts and hands of her people, and—perhaps most significantly—in the promise of her minds.