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19-11-2024
LUSAKA: A grandmother in rural Zambia has become a style icon and internet sensation – after agreeing to play dress-up and swapping outfits with her fashionista granddaughter.
Margret Chola, who is in her mid-80s, is known to the world as “Legendary Glamma” and adored by 225,000 Instagram followers for her striking and playful fashion photographs.
“I feel different, I feel new and alive in these clothes, in a way that I’ve never felt before,” Ms Chola tells media. “I feel like I can conquer the world!”
The fortnightly Granny Series was created in 2023 by her granddaughter Diana Kaumba, a stylist who is based in New York City.
She came up with the idea when she was visiting Zambia to mark the second anniversary of the death of her father – the person she says inspired her passion for fashion because he always dressed well.
During that visit Kaumba had not worn all her carefully curated outfits, so she asked her grandmother or “Mbuya” in the Bemba language, if she wanted to try them on.
“I wasn’t doing anything at the time, so I just said: ‘OK. If that’s what you want to do let’s do it why not?'” Chola said.
“You will miss me when I die and at least this way you will be remembering me.”
Kaumba wore Mbuya’s top and “chitenge”, a piece of patterned cloth wrapped around the waist. And Mbuya’s first outfit was a silver pantsuit.
“I thought it would be nice to dress up Mbuya in high fashion and then take photographs of her in her natural habitat,” Kaumba tells media.
That natural habitat is a farm in the village of 10 Miles, just north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
Most often Chola is photographed in all her glamour outside often sitting on an elegant wooden chair or lounging on a leather sofa.
In the background are exposed brick buildings with corrugated iron roofs, ploughed fields, mango trees and maize crops.
“I was so nervous when I posted that first photo. I left my phone for 10 minutes and in those 10 minutes there were 1,000 likes,” Kaumba says.
“My mind was blown. The comments were flying in and people were asking for more.”
It was in April 2024 that the Granny Series really took off after Kaumba posted a series of photos of her grandmother in a red Adidas dress, several chunky, golden necklaces and a glittering jeweled crown.
“It surprised me to hear that so many people around the world love me,” Chola says who does not know her exact age because she does not have a birth certificate.
“I didn’t know I could make such an impact at this age.”
Chola poses in clothes that are a mix of vibrant colors, textures and styles.
From a green American football jersey, combined with a layered frilly red dress styled as a skirt in the colors of the Zambian flag to pay homage to 60 years of independence.
To a blue, black and green sequined top, complete with a golden snake necklace and bracelet.
And Mbuya’s personal favorite jeans, a graphic T-shirt with her image on the front and a blonde wig.
“I had never worn jeans or a wig before – so I was happy, and I was dancing.”
Kaumba, who has been a stylist since 2012, says that her grandma has “courage, grace and nails every look”. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
