Melody from the depths strikes global chord

When Nkhoma Blessings, 43, a cost control staff member at Zambia’s Chambishi Copper Mine, opened Google one day in mid-May, a recommended video immediately caught his attention.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh, a World Cup song? Let me give it a listen’,” he said. Curious, he clicked the link.

As he listened, he was stunned and thought, “Hold on, this is our song!” Blessings recalled.

Katongo Chipasha, a logistics staff member at the mine and the song’s lead singer, had a similar surprise when her brother called excitedly after seeing the video online.

“I saw you on YouTube. We have seen you — what’s going on?” the voice on the other end asked.

“That was an amazing feeling. I am doing something that brings people together,” she said.

Released in early May during a company ceremony, the anthem named after Chambishi Copper Mine soon went viral on social media, attracting hundreds of thousands of likes from viewers who responded to its upbeat, stadium-style energy.

Some online users recast the Chambishi Copper Mine song as a mock World Cup anthem, replacing the lyrics with Championship Will Be Mine.

Behind the online sensation is the NFCA band. NFCA refers to NFC Africa Mining Plc, a China-Zambia joint venture that owns the mine.

Formed in 2025, the band has about 20 members from different departments across the mine. They are not professional musicians, but employees with a shared passion for music, including heavy-duty underground miners and surface administrative staff members, according to NFCA Deputy Manager Xu Laixiang. The company provided funding for instruments such as bass guitars, keyboards and drums.

“I’ve always been obsessed with music, but the real spark hit me in my dormitory here in Zambia,” Xu recalled.

“I looked at the long history of this mine and thought, ‘Why not write our own anthem?’ So, with an AI tool assisting with the lyrics and arrangement, I just started composing. It was born right there on my desk.”

Drawing on the mine’s history, Xu blended the melody with African rhythms and motifs. The song was originally intended for the commissioning ceremony of a tunnel boring machine, or TBM. No one expected it to become such a hit, he said.

Ivan Zyuulu, Zambia’s ambassador to China, said at a recent cultural event that the song is a testament to China-Zambia cooperation in the mining sector and to people-to-people exchanges. He described it as “danceable and engaging”.

“Chinese and Zambian workers worked together to produce the song, which is very informative and encouraging, reflecting the spirit of people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa,” he said.

‘Rise again’

The lyrics carry the grit and hope of the mine’s history: “Chambishi Copper Mine, rise again, rise again; Chambishi Copper Mine, we build, we bend, we mend. Chambishi Copper Mine, from the dark to the shine …”

For Stephen Ndegwa, executive director of South-South Dialogues, an African think tank, the lines have strong emotional resonance.

“When Zambian workers sing about rising again, they are singing their own history. These are the lived experiences of workers who have watched a dormant mine come back to life through their own sweat and cooperation.”

As the lyrics suggest, Chambishi Copper Mine itself has fought its way back from decline. Discovered in the late 19th century, the site was later abandoned by Western operators because of technical challenges and financial difficulties. Equipment rusted, thousands of miners lost their jobs and surrounding communities saw their hopes fade.

The turning point came in 1998, when China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group acquired the dormant mine. It was the first nonferrous metal mine invested in by a Chinese company overseas. In 2003, the long-silent mine resumed operations and produced its first batch of copper concentrate.

Today, Chambishi has been transformed. The recent launch of Africa’s first ultra-small turning-radius TBM for underground mining marked a milestone for Zambia’s mining sector.

Intelligent mining

Zambian Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Paul Kabuswe said at the ceremony that the TBM launch represented a critical step toward an “intelligent and green” mining industry in Zambia.

He expressed hope that the technology would support Zambia’s goal of producing 3 million metric tons of copper by 2031, while improving livelihoods and supporting economic development.

China and Zambia are jointly building Africa’s first digital intelligent mine, with remote control systems, smart monitoring and safety warning technologies fully implemented. The systems reduce high-intensity, high-risk manual labor and are reshaping mining operations through Chinese technology.

Xu, the deputy manager, said the TBM was custom-built for Chambishi, with an excavation diameter of 5.63 meters and a minimum turning radius of 50 meters. Its efficiency is three times higher than conventional drill-and-blast methods, he said.

“It marks a shift away from traditional drill-and-blast excavation toward mechanized and intelligent tunneling technologies,” he said.

According to the company, more than 6,000 jobs have been created, with over 90 percent of employees being local Zambians.

Runny Kaunda, a housekeeper in her 30s who has worked at NFCA for two years and is one of the band’s lead singers, said: “NFCA has contributed a lot to the community through job creation and support for vulnerable residents.

“There is a line in the lyrics that encourages me — ‘there are some scars that turn into sweets’. I am very happy. Before I joined NFCA, my life was difficult. After joining NFCA, my life has improved.”

Daniel Mukulumoya, 38, a materials coordinator who has worked at NFCA for seven years, said he is particularly moved by the line “we build, we bend, we mend”, which reflects both his work and personal experience.

He said the song is “not only about the mining sector; it shows how NFCA’s copper production has transformed lives, not just inside the mine, but also in surrounding communities”.

According to NFCA, the company has supported local schools, donated supplies and assisted orphanages and hospitals. Sanitation facilities donated by NFCA were delivered and put into use in the Fitanda community on May 20.

Bertha Mulenga, a representative of the Fitanda community, expressed gratitude, saying NFCA has improved local infrastructure by building residential housing, churches, schools and clinics. The company has also addressed local water shortages by drilling wells, installing pumping equipment and providing fuel to ensure daily water supply.

Xu said recent corporate social responsibility initiatives include building a girls’ dormitory for a boarding school, constructing classrooms for a primary school and drilling a water well for a secondary school.

According to Zambia’s Daily Nation newspaper, cooperation around Chambishi also helped develop the Zambia-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, China’s first overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Africa.

By 2025, it had attracted more than $2.7 billion in investment, hosted nearly 100 enterprises and created over 10,000 local jobs, the newspaper reported.

Ndegwa of the South-South Dialogues think tank said the model of using an anchor investment to catalyze a wider industrial ecosystem has been replicated elsewhere on the continent.

“This model — using a single anchor investment to catalyze an entire industrial ecosystem — is visible from Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway, which has transformed freight logistics and created thousands of engineering jobs, to Nigeria’s Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is reshaping African trade,” he said.

He criticized some Western attempts to stigmatize the Chinese model as a “colonial narrative”, saying colonial models were based on a fundamental asymmetry in which external actors extracted resources while local populations remained passive and marginalized.

“The viral song performed by proud, joyful Zambian workers is human testimony that carries a different kind of persuasive force.”

Grassroots story

For Xu, the most moving moment came when he saw African workers dancing and swaying to music he had created. He said it was his most profound encounter with the China-Africa community with a shared future, felt at the grassroots level.

Blessings Kamanga, 30, a local mechanical fitter with NFCA who enjoys singing, said he feels fortunate to work in a mining company where he can also express himself musically. During breaks underground, he sometimes sings a few lines.

“I really love this work, and I feel it is destiny that brought me here … One thing about underground mine — you get a nice echo when you sing. It feels like it is backing you.”

“Development that does not produce human connection remains fragile. Cooperation that produces a band of miners singing proudly about their workplace is cooperation with roots. It cannot easily be disrupted by geopolitical winds or hostile media narratives, because it lives in people’s memories and identities,” Ndegwa said.

This year marks the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges, as well as the 70th anniversary of China-Africa diplomatic relations. Over these seven decades, diplomatic ties have built frameworks for cooperation, investment and infrastructure development.

The singers from the mine are excited that, at this special moment, the NFCA band has been invited to a Chinese TV program to showcase their talent, with a possible visit to China later this year.

“The Chambishi song reveals that beneath that scaffolding, something more intimate has been quietly growing — a genuine mutual curiosity and respect between ordinary people on both sides, and a durable bond built not only in conference rooms, but also in shared daily experience,” Ndegwa said.

“That is the lesson Chambishi offers at 70 years.”

Contact the writers at houchenchen@chinadaily.com.cn