As one of the people who had met and interviewed Momo in my past life as a newspaper scribe and eventually took our relationship beyond the newsroom, I felt the urge to jot down this piece and share with you my experience with this humble but much celebrated music legend. Sometime in the summer of 2001 the then Monitor newspaper Editor, Gideon Nkala, requested me to hold fort for Morongwa Phala (now Morongwa Phala- Goodwill) in coordinating the entertainment section, Showtime. Phala- Goodwill was on leave for a three week period. By then I was a stringer on the sports section and a third year student at the University of Botswana. Since I had a passion for the entertainment beat as well I accepted the challenge.
My first point of call was to strategise on how I was going to run my show as the entertainment section coordinator. The first step was for me to map up a possible line up of stories (especially lead stories) for the three-week stint I would be taking care of the beat. Immediately I put pen to paper to start on my list, three possible interviews came to my mind. First was Momo because his debut album that featured what went on to be his all-time hit song Oule had just been released and was raving the airwaves countrywide. Second was an up, close and personal interview with the late South African Brown Matsime (may his soul rest in peace) of the Selimathunzi fame. By that time he was a regular at local gigs and the intention of the interview was to, apart from profiling him, understand what attracted him to the Gaborone night life. The third one was Peter “Bisto” Maunge of the Bisto Mari fame because his album was doing well in the market though released a year earlier in 2000.
