African Celebrity: Zarinah Hassan

The educated lass (girl) in London native from Jinja, Uganda Zari The Boss Lady used to sing and She was nominated for a channel O award in 2007 for Oliwange in the best East African video category and in 2009 She won the Diva awards of the year in the "Diaspora" category. But most people know because of showbiz rather than her music.

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Zarinah Hassan (born 23 September 1980), commonly known as Zari Hassan or Zari The Boss Lady, is a Ugandan businesswoman, musician, socialite and celebrity, who resides in South Africa, where she runs a chain of schools and student hostels and other businesses, formerly the property of her late first husband Ivan Semwanga (12 December 1977 — 25 May 25 2017).

Background and education

She is of complex heritage; her maternal grandfather is of Indian descent. Her maternal grandmother is Ugandan. Her paternal grandfather is of Somali descent. Her paternal grandmother hails from Burundi.

She grew up in the city of Jinja, attending primary school in one of the local elementary schools. She attended Jinja Girls High School, where she attained a high school diploma. She then left for London in the United Kingdom, where she attended beauty school, graduating with a Diploma in Cosmetology.

Work history

In 2007 she recorded her first single, “Oliwange” (You are mine). The single was nominated for the "Africa Channel O Awards" in the category of "Best East African Video of the Year". The awards where held in South Africa, Johannesburg. In 2009 she won the Diva awards award of the year in the "Diaspora" category. She is an entrepreneur, with holdings including a tertiary education institution and a cosmetics store. She continues to pursue a career in music.

Music history:

Zari started singing at early age in her primary days where she performed in musical concerts organized by her primary school staff, school’s end of the year functions and other community competitions representing her own school in shining colours. When she gained entrance into high school she joined the dance, drama and music groups which helped her score best actress for 2 consecutives years. After years of brilliant stage performances and school concerts, She took a break after moving from Uganda to London and continued with her studies but still with the compelling passion of music on her mind.

Zari with support from family fans and friends who love her style of music and believe in her career took a bold step in 2007 recording her 1st single called oliwange (meaning you’r mine) .The single album luckily made it to the Africa channel o awards in the category of best east African video of the year. The awards where held in South Africa, Johannesburg. Since then Zari has released more and more interesting tracks with satisfactory acholades from her fans in the recent times.

Zari meets Diamond Platnumz

After dumping Ivan, Zari moved on and would then fall in love with another basket-baller, Farouk Sempala, with whom they had a short-lived relationship. Farouk then went on the rampage claiming that Zari aborted his kids and that was the reason for their breakup, according to Uganda Exposed.

In December 2014, a picture of Diamond, who had just broken up with his bongo movie actress Wema Sepetu, emerged showing him canoodling with Zari in South Africa. The two denied being in a relationship, with Zari saying that they were working on some music project which never materialised.

She said: “Diamond is just a friend of mine. It’s never been written that females and males can’t be friends. It is backward people that use that kind of perspective to blow things out of proportion, ” she insisted.

However, their union was confirmed a few weeks later when Zari graced the red carpet hand-in-hand with Diamond Platnumz during the Channel O Video Music Awards ceremony in South Africa.

Family, Marriage and Children

She returned to her native Uganda in 2000, after two years in the United Kingdom. She moved to South Africa where she met and fell in love with her first husband. For a period of over 12 years Zari was married to the late Ivan Semwanga, and together they are the parents of three sons, Pinto, Quincy and Didy. In 2013, she divorced Semwanga, whom she accused of physically abusing her.

Sometime circa 2014, Zari established a romantic relationship with Diamond Platnumz (Naseeb Abdul Juma), a Tanzanian recording artist, who is 9 years her junior. Together they are the parents of daughter Latifah Dangote and son Prince Riaz. Zari alternated time between South Africa and Tanzania and so did her new husband.

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Death Ivan Semwanga

In May 2017, Ivan Semwanga suffered a massive stroke, was admitted to Steve Biko Academic Hospital, slipped into a coma and died on 25 May 2017. He was buried in Uganda and following the funeral, Zari returned to South Africa to manage her businesses and some of her late husband's enterprises.

Divorce from Diamond Platinumz

14th February 2018, Zari declared divorce from her second husband, Diamond Platnumz. The announcement came via her Instagram page, citing infidelity as a major factor in the break-up.