By Faith Mudoga,
Oliver Mwanko also known as Holy Mwanko, is a gospel artiste and a remarkable fashionista. The Grove Award winner is also into eyewear fashion and practices this trade at Lapaire, a Pan-African eyewear brand.
We sat down with Oliver during our interview at Switch, where he told us that pursuing music as a career wasn’t something he thought he would ever take seriously. His strong interest in gospel music is something that developed and grew on him along the way.
Oliver pursued civil engineering at the university and practiced it for a few years thinking that was his career path.
“I have been a church boy all my life and I’ve been in musical bands all my life but during my aviation career, I met Nathaniel Bassey, we traveled to Nigeria and worked on a few songs together. This was the beginning of my professional musical journey,” Oliver said.
Since then Oliver has worked on other amazing projects with artistes like Guardian Angel, Eric Smith and Jimmy D Psalmist. Mwanko’s greatest achievement was winning a Grove Award alongside Eric smith of their song Patakatifu Pako.
Through his music he’s had the privilege of travelling to more than 29 countries with his journeys gifting him the ability to fluently speak more than six languages.
Not only does Oliver work as a communications officer at Lapaire, but he also interestingly, owns around 20 pairs of original glasses, which is something quite unique that he says fascinates many people.
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| Through his music he’s had the privilege of travelling to more than 29 countries with his journeys gifting him the ability to fluently speak more than six languages. |
“I like using my God given platform to educate people and I advocate for people to buy quality glasses because cheap glasses, especially those sold in the streets have no UV protection and can deteriorate one’s vision,” Oliver continued.
In 2017, he created a foundation called Hona that has helped about 12,500 street children and street families. Holy Mwanko created this foundation because he believes in giving back to society.
Through the foundation he also has a goal of inspiring and positively impacting the youths and society in general. Currently, Oliver has different projects that he is working on with the hopes of leaving behind something awe-inspiringly unforgettable.
“I feel like this is my calling, I’m on a mission to impact lives, to change destinies with my songs, to lift people when they’re down and also encourage and inspire at the end of the day,” Mwanko concluded by saying.
