Malawi Wire

The 2023 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards announced Nelson Mlambo, Natasha Uys and Namafu Amutse as this year’s judging panel, while Clara Mupopiwa and Erik Schnack, are the commissioned artists.

The panel of judges features a diverse selection of award-winning literary professionals and enthusiasts from Namibia.

Bank Windhoek in a press release issued on Tuesday said that the chosen panel brings considerable experience to the adjudication process.

It said that they are committed to recognising and rewarding Namibian literary artists who have produced resonant works in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art.

“As for the commissioned artists, each edition of the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards carries a theme built around a specific concept. The idea is finally translated into physical form. It takes shape as unique trophies awarded to each year’s winning literary artists,” it said.

The statement indicated that Mlambo has degrees in literature and communication from the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Namibia (UNAM), and Stellenbosch University. He is a Senior Lecturer at UNAM; his areas of interest are literary studies, with a particular focus on African literature.

Uys is a Namibian writer and editor from Windhoek. She has worked in the media industry for 17 years and regularly writes about her lifelong love: books. She works as a sub-editor for The Namibian newspaper and holds a postgraduate diploma in media management from Rhodes University.

Amutse is a multidisciplinary artist from Namibia pursuing a Bachelor of Education Honours degree in English and German at the University of Namibia. She is a photographer, film director, and writer.

Mupopiwa is an award-winning multidisciplinary designer and educator from Namibia and Schnack, born in Windhoek, Namibia, is a Michaelis School of Fine Art graduate with a BA Hon (FA) specialising in sculpture.

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards are awarded every two years to celebrate the works of four Namibian literary artists published in Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia’s first and only literary magazine. As part of Doek’s mission to foster a robust literary community in the country, the awards seek to bring a wider Namibian and international audience to the selected works and literary artists.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)-accredited referee Vistoria Shangula, encourages females to start refereeing, saying it only requires physical and emotional fitness.

Shangula told Nampa on Monday that all it takes is training to be fit so that when the opportunity to represent Namibia abroad arises, you take it.

“If there is someone out there who wants to become a referee, the Namibian Football Association’s (NFA) doors are open,” Shangula said.

However, match officials require sponsorship for refereeing attire because local referees who are not accredited by FIFA wind up sharing clothing with referees who are accredited to officiate matches, which is a challenge.

The Head of Referees at the NFA Referees Department, Absalom Goseb, said that the NFA encourages young referees to apply in order to train and become quality referees.

“We require at least 100 referees in each region, yet often there is not even one. Further, we are working hard at the NFA to groom female referees as much as possible. One of the main criteria is to pass the fitness test for both males and females,” Goseb said.

He also urged female referees to join the NFA.

The NFA offers free refereeing courses so that match officials can be eligible for FIFA nomination when they are fit and ready.

Shangula officiated her first official game in 2018, an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP and UDA interim Vice Chairman Hassan Omar has stated that the time has come for the country to focus on the economic revolution to end the cycle of poverty among the citizenry.

Speaking Saturday during the launch of a youth empowerment project in Junda ward, Kisauni Sub-County, Hassan challenged leaders to focus on empowering local youths instead of endless politics.

‘Ghanaian founding President the late Kwame Nkrumah said after the political revolution, it is an economic revolution to uplift his people from the vicious cycle of poverty,’ added Omar.

Hassan advised Junda youth to take up any opportunities that would uplift their livelihood, saying that gone are the days when leaders only engaged them for political expediency.

Hassan, who has been launching a series of empowerment projects, announced plans to allocate Sh2 million in each of the 30 wards in Mombasa County to support economic empowerment of local youth.

He announced that the government is exploring grassroots talent development geared towards identifying talents to restore the country’s lost glory in various sporting disciplines, including football, netball, cricket, and volleyball.

Hassan challenged Mombasa leaders to desist from politics and instead focus on empowering the local youthful population grappling with hard drugs.

He said that whereas the national government has drawn various grassroots development agendas, there is a need for local elected leaders to complement them through meaningful development agendas in Mombasa County.

Meanwhile, Hassan scoffs at the recent street demonstration in Mombasa, which he argues is aimed at derailing the revival of port and maritime businesses.

He said the objective of the organisers of the demonstration is to kill economic revival in the country.

‘These demonstrations have nothing to do with the interests of common people. We prevail upon Mombasa leaders to stop killing our county’s economy, which is recovering,’ he observed.

He vowed to mobilise the residents to stop further demonstrations so as to ensure development plans such as the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone will thrive.

Omar added that the national government, through KPA, is planning to purchase new ferries to ease congestion at the Likoni Ferry crossing channel.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Garissa County Commissioner Boaz Cherutich has urged area residents to work closely with security agencies in the area as government steps war on the Somalia based Al-Shabaab militants.

Cherutich asked residents to take a leading role in ensuring that they provide information on suspicious characters in their midst.

Speaking yesterday at Garissa High during the school’s education day celebrations the County Commissioner said that the government will continue working round the clock to ensure that the region is peaceful, locals too have a big role in actualizing the same.

‘Security has badly affected the education sector in the region, which has in turn affected results in national exams. We must all come together and join hands in eradicating the Al-Shabaab menace in the region. It’s possible and we can do it,’ Cherutich said

On security of teachers, Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed who was the chief guest challenged the residents to take upon themselves the responsibility of protecting the tutors saying that when they are attacked it is their children ‘who lose’.

‘Security is paramount. Its absence means that our children will not go to school. They will not have teachers to teach them. This will bring forth a generation that will be challenged in coping with the modern world. Let us jealously guard our security,’ Dekow said.

Garissa KNUT Secretary Abdirizack Hussein on his part said the issue of teachers’ security should not be left to the security apparatus alone saying that all community members should be involved in ensuring that they are ‘safe and secure’.

‘The security of our teachers should not be taken lightly. It should be a combined effort between the parents, the national government, the teaching fraternity and everybody else to see how best we can be able to secure the lives of our teachers,’ Abdirizak said.

‘If the teachers’ lives are under threat, then I don’t think we will be able to go forward as a region, we will lose big time as a community we will be doomed,’ he added.

Last week’s killing of a local teacher in Mandera County has reignited calls for more protection of non-local teachers amid sustained attacks by the militants in the region.

During the two attacks in Wargadud and Iresuki in Mandera South, two police officers and a non-local teacher were killed. A Safaricom mast was also destroyed.

Leaders who spoke among them politicians, clerics, security officials and education officials all emphasized the urgent need to ensure the safety of non-local teachers especially those working in remote areas.

Source: Kenya News Agency