Ekari Writes

My name in print... I reflect on this fact, hardly daring to believe that it has finally happened. Up until now, it's been one of those far away fantasies that begin with "One day..." Even though I know that I put in the research, the typing of each word, the editing, and proofreading by my awesome sister... Even though I know all of this, it's hard to believe that "One Day" has finally become "Today". I sincerely thank the production staff at Cottman McCann for printing my non-fiction article " The Clock Tower, the Gun, and the Boat: A Walk on the History Side of Mangochi " in Ulendo Magazine. I chose to write the piece as an alternative perspective of the Malawian lakeside town called Mangochi. I was fortunate to get an opportunity to spend some time in the area, taking in the sights and having a ton of fun finding stories! Malawi is a beautiful country, and I'm glad that a new corner of my country will be read abou...

"Welcome to Our Website!  (You can't leave. Ever.)  Enjoy!" Image: www.123rf.com There are countless websites that internet users can benefit from by becoming members. Some of them enable you to work and earn money, others are just for fun, and there's a whole myriad of other types in between. There are of course the most common sites like Facebook , Twitter and Linked In . But once you start wandering into lesser known regions of the world wide web, you may be in for a nasty surprise. I'm referring to sites which have a habit of making it very difficult or impossible to leave once you are registered. If the site ends up being less than what it promised, and you'd like to say "Thanks, but no thanks", they may go right ahead and not let you. The motivation behind this is unclear, but perhaps they want to be able to report that "we have over 100,000 members" without revealing the true story behind the statistics. If they do want committe...

Gone far too soon.  It seems that when we blink, another great talent disappears forever... Michael Jackson, and more recently Whitney Houston... It's a clear sign that our artists need to be wholly appreciated while they still share this Earth with us. Wisdom Chitedze was a Malawian musician whose talents were truly only just beginning to show their potential before he passed away in late 2011. Thought-provoking songs such as ' Tipewe ' brought him popularity, but what was less publicised was that he was also an extremely gifted writer.   He made many friends in the field of writing; colleagues who recognised the talent he had, and considered him " the most prodigious poet and writer of this generation. ", as well as " a genuine person, of integrity and without artifice ".  ~~~~~~~~ I myself had been looking forward to meeting him, as I am always eager to share experiences with fellow writers, mentors and comrades. At a point in time, it cam...

Some say it's a myth, that it's all in our heads. Others swear that its dark forces are undoubtedly real. And some even confess that it's really just an excuse they made up in order to slack off.  Writer's Block. The mysterious condition which occasionally befalls those who live by the pen/keyboard, where, try as they might, they cannot get a single word down. Plots escape them, characters refuse to reveal their nature to them, endings show no sign of happening, and a cold-sweated fear grips the afflicted writer... some have even been known to crave cookies when it gets really bad. But wait! There's hope! Fortunately, I have discovered a home remedy for this condition: Write! Something! By Ekari Mbvundula Forget the excuses You know they're all useless Stop over thinking Stop over researching Stop analysing in your mind's eye the story that does not yet exist. Write! Stop thinking about not having the time Just write. Don’t ask "will it b...

Previously, I wrote a post about some of the reasons why the X-men story works . In this post I want to focus on the characte r of Wolverine and why many X-men fans will choose him as their favourite.   Using example scenarios from the movies X-men, X-Men 2, and X-men 3, here are some of Wolverine's faults... and why we find ourselves so forgiving of them: Jerk Symptom 1 He looks out for number one. In all three movies, we hear other characters repeatedly complain about his tendency to ditch everyone at a moments notice. He often makes it clear that he feels he doesn't owe anyone a thing (lack of memory might add to this attitude), and is happy focusing on solving his own problems. But That's 'OK' Because : When push comes to shove, he will join, and even lead the team . Sure it may take circumstances to force him into leadership and teamwork... but he wouldn't, say, leave a bunch of school kids to fend for themselves outside when their school...

I am a big fan of the X-men universe. The comics, cartoon series (old and new), I dig them all... especially the movies!  The most attractive trait about the X-men is that it is about a group of outcasts. Anyone who has ever been a teenager knows the feeling. And everyone wishes they had hands that could freeze your opponent instantly... or a handy set of kitchen knives popping out of their knuckles when the going was tough, or any other number of awesome powers shown in the X-men universe. From a writer's perspective, I love the X-men stories because I can only imagine the effort and planning it takes to work with so many different characters, and yet allow them to all have their say (without stepping on each other's toes) in two cinematic hours.  So this is not a review.   It's my own subjective analytical view as to some of the reasons why the story works. Taking a look at one scene from the first X-men movie, (which personally, I would have called "Scene 7:...

There are times in life when one has the opportunity to be a part of something greater than oneself, and it just feels awesome . I was invited to perform at British Council's Go Green Malawi awareness event,  a gathering of artists from all mediums, adding their voices, paintbrushes and movements to one cause... climate change. It is a phenomenon which many of us may be aware of, but there are many more that are not fully awakened to the effects of it.  I was lucky enough to be given the freedom to come up with whatever I wanted to, as long as it was no more than 3 minutes long. I decided to write and perform a piece of poetry entitled "environMEnt". It expresses the reason why I choose to study the environment in the first place.  Here is the video - somewhat fuzzy unfortunately, but at least the audio is alright. Note: the first line was not filmed in time so it seems like it starts in the middle. The poem begins - " I woke up one day and realised, you can't...

Happy UN Day! I had the great fortune of attending my first UN Townhall meeting which was to commemorate UN Day on the 24th of October. The first thing I learnt about Townhall is that it doesn't take place in a town hall. After some speculation I came to the conclusion that Townhall was not a description of the physical structure, but rather a meeting of the minds of staff from all UN derivative groups such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, etc, to discuss current agendas.  This year, the main agenda was (suitably) climate change. Speaking on the issue was Professor S. Chiota, who teaches at Chancellor College (Chanco), and is the regional programme director of the Leadership for Environment and Development Southern and Eastern Africa - LEAD SEA ( http://www.leadsea.mw/ ) . What I had expected was a presentation of the facts and figures of the effects of climate change in Malawi, with graphs and pie charts showing how things have been getting progressively...

Hey, take a look at this: I am a woman in one of the poorest countries in the world, and yet, here I am in front of a computer, blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, instant messaging, Googling and much more. The odds say I shouldn’t know how to. I am one of the 48.6% literate women in Malawi. To put this in perspective, 72% of Malawian men are literate. I am one of the 31.4% of girls who finish primary school. I am also one of the 11.1% girls who finish secondary school. As for tertiary education - less than 10%. So, I have had about a 50/50 chance of knowing how to read at all, and the odds of increasing my education get slimmer and slimmer with every level. But here I am with 2 tertiary degrees, in the dawn of my career. Why? Why me? Because of my mother. And because of her mother. They recognised the importance of education, especially for girls, and two generations later, the girls in my family are smart, savvy, and paving our destinies with the choices that we have been give...

Back in my 2nd or 3rd year of university, my friend Ruby and I were living in a hall of residence (or hostel if you like). At the time, Ruby and I participated in student government (which I thought was a bit of an oxymoron), specifically in the sect that they called 'Health and Culture'. She was the elected head of this department and recruited me as a sidekick of sorts. What we were responsible for, amongst many other things, was welcoming the fresh meat- ahem. I mean, 'first years' into the residence. I remembered what it was like to be fresh from high school, transferred from the top of one system to the bottom of another in one day. Many of them were far from home and didn't know where to start when it came to making new friends.  That's where we came in! We began to brainstorm on several ways we could get them to come out of their shells, make friends, enjoy their new environment (as well as the food which, little did they know, would only be good during...