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By Jesse Mugero In 2018 I enrolled in the Harvest Institute (H.I.) a yearlong leadership programme run by the Worship Harvest Ministries. The Institute seeks to help develop leaders and to skill them to bring effective change in their communities. We had three key assignments: starting and actively running a blog with bi-weekly posts; read at least two books a month and publish a book- a prerequisite for graduating from the programme. I knew my writing was weak and I needed to get guidance in meeting the graduation requirement. The class on mentorship and the importance of mentorship in helping…
By Irene Namara In a couple of weeks, my first novel, Scents of A Broken Mirror, a psychological thriller, will hit the market. It has taken me a while to get to this place where I will own the title: author. It has been a journey filled with uncertainties, but I am glad I did not give up because writing saved me. You see, discovering my love for writing did not start until adulthood. When I was a child, I loved reading books that were not literary texts set on the school curriculum. In my mind, I always imagined that…
Aga Sekalala Snr. A legendary household name on the Ugandan business scene, Mr Sekalala Snr shares about his early childhood, his first foray into business setting the mark for his vast business empire across different sectors. In this book, you will learn about the power of persistence, integrity in the service industry, knowing when to open a business and when to close one, building bankable networks, loyalty and betrayal. In most of his business ventures, Mr Sekalala treads where no one gone before and sets the standards and stage for the industry he invests in. Most of all, he shares…
By Rosemary Ssenabulya I have always dreamed of becoming an author. As a child, I enjoyed reading. I excelled in literature at Makerere University, but I dropped it after my first year and opted for Economics and Political Science. Much later in life, juggling work with motherhood meant that my dream of becoming a writer was paused. In 2012, five years before my retirement, I started planning for life after formal employment. I wanted to find ways of spending my time productively. Among the activities included in my retirement plan was writing. Three months to my retirement date in 2017,…
By Patricia K Rutiba (Author of Knights in Kampala) When I was a little girl, my mother insisted we read a lot. At first it felt like too much work, but it was not long before I started enjoying being transported to different times, places, realms and meeting many amazing people in those books. I consumed books by Enid Blyton, Hans Andersen, Grimms, classics like Little Women, A Little Princess, Wuthering Heights, and Anne of Green Gables. When I moved on to high school and began to read books by African writers, the stories did not give me much appreciation…
Taken from the TrueAfrica article dated May 05 2020 In 2005, I invested in a plot of land with the proceeds of a children’s book deal with UNESCO Namibia. The book, The Blue Marble, had been shortlisted for the 2004 Macmillan Writers’ Prize for Africa, and while it did not win the award, it later ended up as one of the set manuscripts that a group of writers and illustrators would work on at a UNESCO funded workshop. I dreamt of some sort of legacy project on the plot. Even though I had no concrete idea of the form it…
By Maria Birungi 22nd November 2018- Morning. It is the morning of 22nd November 2018. I am seated in a blue boat with a motor engine, whose sound is slicing through the quietness that engulfs Lake Victoria. I don’t know what I expected but I am surprised that the lake is silent; even the fishermen lack the boisterousness that I thought was a parcel that they carry with them to the water. Instead, they are serious. Everything is serious. Rather, every living thing seems to think that quietness is seriousness. Even us, in this boat. We are so serious that…
By Isabella Akiteng In the year 2017, I enrolled in Harvest Institute which is a yearlong rigorous leadership training. To be able to graduate from this institute, one must fulfill several requirements which included writing and publishing a book. In the beginning, it seemed easy probably because it has not dawned on me how hectic it was until I started. I started about four books in a period of a month and did not go past chapter two of them. Then I shelved the book idea and enjoyed my life a little bit. In the year 2017, I enrolled in…
By Gladys Chege Stepping out of the cab the first thing I noticed was the smell of the ocean air, the salt, a bit of humidity and how all these elements were well blended. The view of the ocean was beautiful, with a soft breeze flowing in. My mind was focused on where we were heading not realizing the so called ‘ferry’ we were told about earlier was just a simple boat that could sit a max of 6 passengers. I remember when I was about 10 years old I was out in a public swimming pool with my two…
By Frederick KQ480 touched down at Nyerere International Airport at 08:15 local time. It was a short flight from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International airport, another one named after a previous head of state. Ten minutes into the flight the cabin attendant had announced that a woman was on the controls and I remember that warm feeling of African pride. The cabin pressure had been extremely high and I was uncomfortable as we rolled over the Indian Ocean on the approach to the runway. The male chauvinism in me didn’t let it pass as ” a woman was in charge of…
Hello storytellers. Happy new month. This week of 5th June, we are holding our first Writing Retreat to Tanzania and are delighted about it. Follow our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to receive updates straight from the island. Seen our latest photos from the island?
Lunch was the ultimate spell. Everyone who ate Alex, the chef’s fish fingers with that mouth-watering white sauce was bound to never eat at the kafunda down the street again. It’s one thing to call yourself a writer and never have anyone scrutinize your work. It’s another thing to tell yourself that you will go for a writers retreat and willingly have the best of the best in the writing industry, with all their red pens talk about your work. It’s an honor, a daunting one at that. But I did just that.Thursday morning was nice and sunny; perfect beach…
Day 3My writing muse has no sense of time while on Bulago. It wakes me up at 3.30 am. Don’t ask me what a muse looks like because I have no idea! That's why I haven't assigned it a specific gender, all I feel is this persistent nagging anxiety envelope me. Eventually I give up the tug of war between the thoughts in my mind and accept the fact that I won’t be drifting back to sleep for a while. My muse knows we have an important topic to deliberate. The early hours of the morning are the best times…
Day 1I arrive at the beach house in a Special Hire an hour before the 8.30 am departure time. I am relieved. I silently mutter a prayer of gratitude that the Kampala morning traffic did not disrupt my schedule or my mood. The beach house is still the same as last year. My eyes are yet to see the ACTUAL beach house they refer to on the yellow dilapidated sign post at the entrance, but that’s another story for another day.Neglected outdoor furniture is randomly scattered across the unkempt lawn. The familiar naked headless lady statue is plonked right in…
“Write a story about your journey from the beach house to One Minute South” Jackee instructed. I sat at the back of the class because I had always found it easier to listen if my eyes could focus better. But, now, with this new instruction from Jackee, the back of the class presented more distractions than enabling me to focus. I watched some of the eager students like Maria and Leah sneakily start their stories and I saw how Sharon and Catherine became suddenly overwhelmed at this writing task. Their shoulders sagged and they seemed to have zoned out just…
 I recently had the pleasure of attending Jackee Batanda’s Success Spark Brand Writing Retreat on Bulago Island, and here are the top 10 reasons why I think you should be a part of the next one: 1. They will accept you at whatever level of writing you find yourself. You don’t have to be published, or be an active blogger. You just need to have a passion for writing, and be willing to share and learn.2. You will spend five days with people who are natural born storytellers like yourself. For four nights, you will no longer be the outcast…
As a writer, you pride yourself in the fact that you are able, on a higher level than the ordinary man, to put into words what exactly it is that you are feeling, what it is that you see, smell, hear, name it. Whether it is a terribly scrumptious heaped plate of spaghetti with a slightly orange tinge that tastes like ocean waves at sunset or a large tree with red and brown leaves that bends slightly to the right whenever the wind blows and has endless trails of tiny black insects harvesting sweet cold nectar up from its pale…
We held our first One Day Book Writing Masterclass of 2017 on Saturday 25th February. Six students joined us for a day of understanding the how’s of getting your novel going. This class delved a good deal into non-fiction, exploring how to make our real life stories produce the impact we want them to. We were so happy to have a full class and whenever we have a gentleman in the class, it’s an extra.We held our second Successspark Brand Writing Retreat 1-4 July 2016. Of course it was filled with several moments of helpless laughter, good company, fine dining,…
Sign up for one of SuccessSpark Brand's Writing Retreats in Tanzania or in Uganda to embark on your writing journey.See details in flier below.For more details on how to register, email us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +256-776-703445.3445.
Didn't start that writing resolution in 2019? A new year offers a new chance to dust up that writing dream. SuccessSpark Brand will walk with you to make that resolution a reality. Email us: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information on how to turn your writing dreams into reality. Our 2020 schedule is out. Don't let this year set before you fulfil your writing dreams
We held the first Successspark Brand Writing Retreat 9-12 October 2015 at Bulago Island. It was a small intimate group of writers committed to learning the writing craft. If you had travelled with us on the morning of 9th October, you would have had your heart first drop when we first sat in the boat that would whisk us away from The Beach House at Ggaba Beach to our destination- Bulago Island, one hour and twenty minutes away. You would have grabbed the boat sides for support, as Godfrey, our navigator started the engine.You would have listened to the anxiety…