‘My son is a drug addict, please help’ - the actor breaking a Zambian taboo

But he says you have to forgive your children to help them, turning to an African proverb to express himself: "Your child is like an axe, it will hammer you and you pick it up and put it on your shoulder."

Mayamiko is now back in touch with his father, but it is always on his terms as he uses different phone numbers, making it difficult to contact him.

But it has given his father hope that things can change - though he realises that for any rehab to work, Mayamiko needs to want to change.

When we met for our interview, Mwape had managed to coax Mayamiko to come along too. It was a frank conversation that at one stage turned into a moving discussion between father and son.

"Maya, if we found you work to do and you start getting paid, are you going to work extra hard?" Mwape asked him nearly an hour into our session.

Mayamiko, whose speech was somewhat incoherent and punctuated by long pauses, admitted he would like some help to change his lifestyle and be able to earn money.

His dad followed up with this question: "Are you promising us that you will stay away from drugs?"

Mayamiko hesitated and said: "Yeah."

For his father it was a relief to hear that he has aspirations - it is something that he can build on.

But the most frustrating thing for Mwape is that his second-oldest son is never explicit about what drugs he is taking, how he gets hold of them - and often obfuscates when asked a question.

"When you're trying to speak to him, you can tell that things are not adding up, so that's why for me I really need that sort of... intervention."

When probed more during the interview about the drugs, Mayamiko said he mostly took "cheese" - a reference to marijuana - or "anything".

That is why Mwape, who is currently starring in popular Zambian soap opera Zuba that airs on DStv, took to Facebook, because he wanted to know about rehab centres that have proven examples of success - stories not widely shared in a country where drug addiction is such a hush-hush affair.

There are several private facilities in Zambia - but no publicly funded one - and he says some people have even reportedly sent their children to China.

"I couldn’t believe [it], there were a number of parents who came into my inbox with similar problems," he said.

Mwape’s experience has also influenced the films his company has recently produced - with subject matter considered to be "un-Zambian".

"Girls 2 Ladies is about drugs in boarding schools," he said.

"I'm not saying boarding schools are not good, but I think it's important as parents now that we put a keen eye to try to find out what type of schools we're sending our children to, [which is] one of my greatest fears even with what type of rehabilitation centre I should send him [Mayamiko] to."

His oldest son, Maxwell, has just directed The Flask, a hard-hitting account of an alcoholic’s downward spiral into addiction that will be released next month.