Zomba Arts Platform (ZAP) was founded in March 2021 to ‘support artists to support themselves’.
ZAP organised Zomba City Festival in May; a multi-arts festival at 8 locations in town to showcase the beauty of the town and talent on stage.
In June the organisation officially launched with a seminar for an exclusive audience .
Contact us on bhobho@zapmalawi.com
Meet the team
Annelies is originally from the Netherlands and has been living in Malawi since 2015. She has worked in the music industry for many years. In Malawi she worked at Lake of Stars (2014-2016) and at Sand Music Festival (2015-2019), she gave training at Music Crossroads in Lilongwe and collaborated with Blantyre Arts Festival in 2015. Annelies is a qualified career coach.
Before she moved to Malawi she was a lecturer in Event Management, teaching students about how to organise and manage events. Her first business was in tour management; driving bands and DJs around the Netherlands to venues and festivals, and touring with techno band the Human Beings in Europe. She worked at Hope Recordings, a record label and Management Agency in Bristol (UK) where she worked for UK top-10 DJ Timo Maas. After that she worked for Firm Bookings, a booking agency in Amsterdam.
She ran her own business MYA, working with African artist to support them in DIY management. She has been very lucky to work with the amazing talented band Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC) from Soweto who have been very successful and mesmerise people worldwide with their ‘music for the people with the people by the people’. She worked with many other musicians from Southern Africa like bFake, DJ China, Teba (the Original Social Worker), Mr Sakitumi and EJ von Lyrik.
As a board member she has worked with Sauti Sol from Kenya. As Senior Project Manager Annelies supported offices of Music Mayday in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Tanzania in HR, financial management and reporting. One of the Music Mayday projects was the B-Connected festival; one festival at 3 locations (Addis Ababa, Dar es Salam and Amsterdam).
Her latest ventures are Zomba Arts Platform (ZAP) and Zomba City Festival. ZAP aims to support Malawian artists.
Laura is a true multi-potentialite. With a background in communications and marketing, she has worked with several online and print magazines as an author. She is passionate about the arts, natural family wellness, nutrition and eco-living.
She is a self taught master chocolatier with a passion for local ingredients and owns a cafe, shop and bed and breakfast in the mountain city of Zomba. Laura lived in several West, Central and Southern African countries over the past 12 years and currently resides in Malawi.
Linnie Mbirimtengerenji is a creative and an aesthete. She is a freelancer working with Zomba Arts Platform.
Lin believes all creatives in Malawi deserve to make a living off of whatever form of art they like to do thus working with ZAP. She believes in being in a generation that pioneers creatives who have professionalised their work, opening up the Malawian creative industry.
She is very driven, well organised and goal-oriented while being strategic and efficient.
Lin is a creative (a sketch artist and part-time painter) who has worked with Zaluso Arts and is a member of PEPETA Feminists Malawi.
She graduated in May 2021 from Pentecostal Life University with a Bachelors Degree in Public administration in June 2021.
