Afrika Redefined Indie Book Prize: A striptease

The Winner/Chief Guest: Jerusha Kananu Marete, 'Echoes of Military Souls'

Your truly, Sant Mark, 'A Funeral Dress for Nyasuguta', with the esteemed writer and musician, Tee Ngugi

24^th/August/2023

Venue? Alliance Française, Nairobi. The event? Afrika Redefined Indie Book Prize. The organisers? Mystery Publishers. The forward thinking companies that have come on board as the sponsors? CLAVIS Fashion Hub, U.M. Gallery, kamaNu, GL, Sayari Insurance Agencies, Alliance Française (and the French Embassy), and Nuria Bookstore. Subsequent stories will reveal why these are forward thinking companies.

Well, you can always tell how big an event is by looking at the list of speakers and the notable attendees therein. The speakers: Prof. Mugubi, Prof. Wangari Mwai, Prof. Ngugi, Prof. Austin Bukenya, Alice Kairichi, Hon. Dr. John Kanyuithia Mutunga, Prof. PLO Lumumba, Prof. Mohammed Bakari, Justice (Retired) Aaron Ringera, Dr. Muthomi Thiankolu, Dr. Gameli Tordzro, Vincent de Paul, Ezekiel Machogu… eminent persons through and through. Notable attendees: Tee Ngugi, Smitta Smitten, John Sibi-Okumu, Empress Ciku…

Of course, an excellent event is also judged by the quality of scheduled entertainment: Kamanu Band, Humble Buoy Dancers, Sant Mark (yours truly), Swinton Nkatha, Qibuchi, Obert Dube, Dr. Gameli Tordzro, Jerusha Marete, Kimani Gichau…

The nominees to the prize: Dancan Ouma (City of Cannibals), Vincent de Paul (First Love), Jerusha Kananu Marete (Echoes of Military Souls - is a power-packed package of art that promises to keep you on the edge of your seat. It is a roller coaster stream of emotion. The poems forcefully remind us that soldiers lay down their lives for fellow humans. But do we really value this singular sacrifice?… )

And to the finale (fireworks), the winner of the 2022 Afrika Redefined Indie Book Prize… (more stories around the event next week)

(Meanwhile, get my short stories collection at: https://nuriakenya.com/product/a-funeral-dress-for-nyasuguta-by-mark-mwangi/)

Comments

My Once-Molly (Political versus Business Ethics),

Dear Molly. How are you? As always, I hope you are well. You know, there is something about you, something that made me inspire for better. Was it that rich smokers’ laughter of yours? The daring twinkle that flashed in your eyes when you were angry? The tight curl in your lips when you were about to lash out? Anyway, Molly, I continue with my business training. I am now thinking of business as warfare – the honourable kind of warfare; chivalry, observing the rules… not the Machiavellian 48-Laws-of-Power warfare where there is no honour, but only winning. Politics of deceit, our president calls it. Well, these past couple of days have been chilly… a precursor to June’s biting cold? Anyway, I am more often sad than happy during the cold months of June and July. I totally blame this on Sam Kahiga’s short story, ‘The Last Breath’ – if my memory serves me right. Off the ‘Encounters from Africa’ anthology. There is a way he made June and July sad. Pretty much like you wouldn’t tai...

My Once-Molly (The Job To Be Done),

My dear Molly, how are you? I hope you are good. I am well as well can be, with the flooding, the inflation, and all. Anyway, grapevine (or maybe, I am a stalker) has it that you are nowadays into the beauty business. Very soon, I too will be emulating you. We may be compatible at all, conquer the world together as business icons. My dear Molly, it may interest you to know that I am doing business training – my bank, UBA, and its founder, Tony Elumelu, is that special. Always seeking to empower African entrepreneurs. The excellent thing about the training is that it is very practical to today’s and the coming future business needs. As a matter of course, we also are directed to additional reading to widen our entrepreneurial minds. The Job To Be Done. Clayton M. Christensen. In the words of Johnny Nash, ‘I can see clearly now that the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles on my way…’ What a beauty this is! It is something you should look up, understand what is it you are selling to...

My-Once Molly (Praying for a Rainbow),

Dear Molly, I hope you are ok and are keeping safe in these floods. As for me, I am heartbroken. I am in pain. My mind, my body, my spirit aches. I am numb with grief. As is the nation of Kenya. The picture just won’t get out of our minds – the father, trudging stoically, his dead, muddy son slung over his shoulder. It’s a devastating image… the screams, elsewhere, as a boat capsizes, the swollen river swallows a lorry… Izrael has visited the land. Dear Molly, a while back, the nation faced drought. Then, images of dead livestock, emaciated men, women and children, parched, cracked earth, haunted our screens. Elsewhere where there was a glut in food production, the farmers cried for their fellow starving countrymen. They demanded for lorries to traverse the rutted roads and take the produce to their brethren… collectively, we prayed for rain. Dear Molly... will we ever catch a break as Kenya? The Covid-19 pandemic that paralysed lives and livelihoods in 2020 as we recovered from th...

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