I LEARNED HOW TO SWIM, DRIVE, PLAIT HAIR AND PUT NAILS THROUGH DREAMS SAYS AUNTY MILLY AS SHE TALKED LIFE, MARRIAGE AND MORE
PLEASE NOTE: This article is an adaptation from Aunty Milly’s interview with Kenny Tonga on Kenny T 1 ON 1 podcast, episode twelve(12).
The episode started with Aunty Milly and her host Kenny Tonga exchange greetings. Aunty Milly then thanked Kenny T for bringing her on the podcast. She then complimented him on how good he looks, “Ma compliment muvomelesa? You are well built,” nonchalantly, Aunty Milly told Kenny Tonga who then responded while shock of what he just heard with, “Heh!”
AUNTY MILLY’S EARLY LIFE
Socialite and beautician Mirriam Kaziya who is popularly known as Aunty Milly of Milly Beauty Products told her life story on this episode. After a cordial exchange as they laughed off the, “Well built,” compliment by calling each other brother and sister. The enterview proceeded with Kenny T asking about her early life.
Aunty Milly responded saying she was born in Lusaka at University Teaching Hospital(UTH) and raised in Kaunda Square. Her existence came after her father who was born in Mansa moved to Lusaka in his pursuit for a better life – then meeting and marrying her mother.
She continued narrating as she said after her father married her mother, he started staying at his in-laws place and providing for the whole family. It was during that time that she was born. Her father’s determination as a ‘Mambwe man’ saw him breakthrough, becoming fully independent and settling in a one roomed house where Aunty Milly and her half sister were raised.
A year after moving to the one roomed house, her go oriented father scaled up buying a four bedroomed house in Kaunda Square. Aunty Milly praised her father for being business minded as she said she takes from him. Aunty Milly’s father went on to have eight children. Five with her mother, one from the previous relationship as the woman died in labor and two out of wedlock.
From watching television at the neighbor’s house to owning one. Her father’s determination to succeed landed him in politics as she said he was former president Kenneth Kaunda’s right hand man.
She narated that her father who was famously know as ‘Simusokwe’ was engaged in government investigation in Zaire(DRC) where it was found that former president Dr. Fredrick Chiluba’s father was from Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) which was a very controversial story at the time. This political atmosphere traumatised her and her mother as several headlines would read that a bomb was planted at Simusokwe’s house.
Aunty Milly further narrated that her father died on April 30th 1999 whilst she was in boarding school. She recounts going to Mwata Kazembe’s palace as he summoned her to inform her about her father’s death. Oblivious to the rules of the palace and filled with Lusaka manners, “We are the kind of people who had drivers and cooks,” she said, the excited young Mirriam upon seeing her uncle on the throne, broke palace protocol as she ran to hug him, only to be intercepted by the guards whom at the orders of the king let her free as he said she was his daughter.
Kenny T asked as he sympathised with her over her father’s death, “I’m so sorry, was he sick?” Aunty Milly who was elated a moment before seemed emotionally stricken and lost of words as silent moments filled the room. She then said she didn’t know what had ended her father’s life.
AUNTY MILLY’S FIRST MARRIAGE
“I got in a bus, I’m getting in a bus now. Nabwela naona chi dude icho, chitali ah! Choina. Madaliso(her friend) abwela anidiniza pa kwendo ati Milly the guy is hard. Eeeh ine nati boi ichi nichameme chameme,” Aunty Milly recounted meeting a man on a bus while on her way to rewrite nineth grade exams at Chankunkula which she had failed. The man who would soon become her husband, stating that, “It was love at first sight.”
“Chioneka che ndalama, dalama vimilomo ati (illustrates kissing) niganiza che nati ninga chi kising’e ichi, but mwandi!” Aunty Milly who was a virgin at that time describe the man who she would only meet a year later. “Ngati ufuna mwamuna, nikumulanga fenshi, wazilanga na fenshi yako, muza bala mwana wa bwanji,” she added as she calculated what kind of children she would have with the man.
Aunty Milly recounted being called ‘BEAUTIFUL’ by Shimonde, words she had never been called before after being introduced by her sister to the man she had met on the bus a year later.
Her love for the man was so strong that she dumped her Nigerian boyfriend for the new catch. After inviting the man to her millennium party, the two heated it off, “That man used to leave Kabulonga and live outside my yard, wait for me when I wake up, takes me to school, brings me back home.”
At 18 years old after completing high school, the love striken young Mirriam got married to the man of her dreams, her first love Shimonde alias B.I.G who was only two years older than her and they later had her first born child David after a year of marriage.
“Ba muna baja bezo sebenza (that man used to work),” Aunty Milly sent praises for her husband who provided fully for her family. She further joked how her and her husband had children almost every two years before he passed in 2011.
Aunty Milly continued narrating about how before her husband’s death, she had a dream about his passing as she is a seer(she see things in her dreams that come to pass). Narrating how her husband died, she said her husband collapsed at a filling station(in Zambia)on his way from South Africa where he had bought her a brand new Benz and died a week later leaving her with a 3 months old baby. A Benz she’d exchange for a bigger house they were planning to move to like she had dreamed.
“It was really hard because this is a man that I saw, my darling, you know ahh, this is a man that I loved and things like that. And after he died you know, I was really traumatised(cries), my sister was my anchor,” an emotionally stricken Aunty Milly sobbed as she reflected on her husband’s death.
After her husband’s death, Aunty Milly was left stranded with no finances to keep her and her four children going. She was at the mercy of her landlord but fortunately as earlier mentioned, she traded her new car for a two bedroomed house with the help of Makebi Zulu.
“Niija Kenny yakweba ati bana babapisha pa private, batate babo bezo kwanisa ku lipila, baleka batate babo bafa and they are being chased from school. Do you know how painful that is? Babwela bana nama bag iwe! So I say to myself, mulungu help me,” Aunty Milly continued to reflect on her struggles post husband’s death and adopting several orphaned kids from the streets.
AUNTY MILLY BECOMES A BEAUTICIAN, REVEALS LEANING HOW TO DRIVE, SWIM THROUGH DREAMS
“And that is where elohim took me, to the things of beauty,” revealed Aunty Milly on trying to find finances after her husband’s death and being a house wife. “And now elohim gives me knowledge, he teaches me how to plait through the dreams, he teaches me how to put nails. You know, he taught me a lot of things, even how to drive, I learned from my dreams.”
Kenny T peplexed asked, “Is it? Kubwela kulota chabe no ziba keyenza motoka?”
Aunty Milly in affirmation responded, “Kulota uenza motoka, pa round about ni ku tening’a so, ni ku tening’a so, I see that in my dreams. Even swimming, I never learned kunyaya, I dreamed from my dreams, I learned how to swim from my dreams.”
Aunty Milly further said that people might not believe her but she knows how she talks with elohim. She would put lashes and people would think she went to school for it but on the contrary, it was through her dreams. She further mentioned that, together with the business mind inherited from her father, she succeeded as Milly Beauty Products and Sarah Juice businesses came through prophecies.
Aunty Milly with initiatives, mobilized resources with her sisters and started a saloon. With a source of money, she went on to adopt four kids from the streets to make it eight living under her roof. Aunty Milly further revealed that she now houses 25 kids in her home and some include relatives’ children. A gesture Kenny T acknowledged as being nice.
AUNTY MILLY’S BEAUTY PRODUCTS
A sobbing Aunty Milly reflected on loosing her sister Eunice, her mother being diagnosed with breast cancer, heading into depression, and resorting to alcohol and smoking to deal with her issues highlighting a dark time in her life.
“I’ve been through a lot,” cried Aunty Milly as Kenny T acknowledged her struggles saying he appreciates her more after hearing her story. She went on to reveal her struggles with substances.
Aunty Milly’s redemption came after a Pastor Banda who she had known for quite a long time came back from Malawi specifically for her. Upon meeting him, he told her, “You are a very big woman!”
“Nichani mwebantu ba mulungu, mwaonapo chani pali ine?” Aunty Milly asked the pastor to which he responded, “Nikuona pa mall, and them I’m seeing you building, I’m seeing you having shops all around the world. Your name will be known all around the world.”
With the word of the pastor on her mind, Aunty Milly fixed her lost self. Using lightning creams and with a smartphone gadget purchased by her white partner at the time started going live on Facebook in mini skirts enticing views into following her propelling her into a prominent media personality.
In fulfilling the other pastor’s prophecy, Aunty Milly with driving instructions from her dreams, set out to West Gate Mall to trade on the street. For three years, she worked alone Freedom Way servicing her online clients and passersby customers.
When Aunty Milly’s life was about to recieve some light, tragedy struck as her brother Kachinga died and two weeks later, her mother also succumbed to breast cancer at UTH. “Nisebeza pa street Kenny, brother wanga afa – nilibe olo coin, I have to look for money for the funeral, I go home… you understand, and telling her work was okay, I go in the bathroom, I get ice and put on my eyes,(in the) evening I go to the funeral, I find my sister, we are mourning and my mother is at home,” said Aunty Milly while crying as she reflected on the period she lost her brother and hid it from her sick mother.
Despite passing through a difficult time, Aunty Milly braved the odds, moving her business from the streets into South Gate Mall and becoming a famous figure just like pastor Banda had prophesied earlier.
VIRAL SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT THAT PROPELLED HER INTO FAME & MEETING MR MULWANDA
“I used to do malongo, you know malongo? I stayed in marriage for 11 years so I used to advise people on how to take care of their marriages,” said Aunty Milly on her rise to social media fame. Aunty Milly further said it was raw delivery and lack of a sieve when delivering her marriage teachings that was key to her success on social media.
On meeting Mr. Mulwanda, Aunty Milly revealed that it was after she went to a bar with money given to her by her white boyfriend that she met and saw potential in him. “Kaili colour inangu yenzo nitoba mumenso… nati aka niga kachinjile ko life, you know,” she said on her first impression after meeting Mr. Mulwanda.
When Kenny T asked what their first conversation was, Aunty Milly responded, “Nina muuza ati nikukonda, kaili nili nanzelu zama white men.” She further revealed that, after that he gave her his number. The following day they met at Keg, East Park where she bought him beer and a marriage followed that would last 6 years and two children.
For a man she loved and had married her at Lusaka Civic Center, Aunty Milly only complained of him having an addiction during the time they were together. An addiction she tried helping him get out of by taking him to Great North Road Rehab Center more than three time using her money but to no avail. The two are still married despite having new partners she revealed and living separately.
AUNTY MILLY SPEAKS NEW AMERICAN PARTNER “SUGAR”
Like a baby who has seen candy, Aunty Milly’s mood lightened up after being asked about her new partner SUGAR as she excitedly repeatedly said “Shu Shu!”
Aunty Milly narated how she had passed through a tough time emotionally before meeting her American man, Prince Emmanuel on an online dating site. The two who started as friends went ahead to be in a relationship because they got so along due their religious beliefs.
Aunty Milly acknowledged how helpful SUGAR has been to her family as he has been helping her first and second born children who are studying law and medicine respectively at Unilus. “He provides for everyone at home,” she said.
The enterview ended with Kenny T having a brief conversation with SUGAR on phone, and Aunty Milly explaining some things in their spiritual beliefs.
