diaspora success magazine

Diaspora SuccessComplimentary Copy

Managing the Realities of inteRRacial MaRRiages

MOBILE MARKETING MADE EASYBy the end of 2014, the numBer of moBile-connected devices will exceed the numBer of people on earth

The DiasporaExperience

Lessons from

LUPITAon sPeech mAkIng

In ThIs IssUePage 03Starting your Business in Africa from the DiasporaBy Caroline M. Munywoki

Page 052 Simple and Proven Techniques for finding the best talent in Africa!By Elisee Okonda Loma

Page 08How Many Children Should We Have?By Ernest Mwaba

Page 09Managing the Realities of Interracial MarriagesBy Ernest Mwaba

Page 10Mobile Marketing Made EasyBy Jack Kogera

Page 13How to raise a financially literate childBy Chuks UC Ukaoma

Page 16Letter from South Africa,Cape TownBy Bob Marjawar

Page 18Lessons from Lupita on Speech MakingBy Paul Achar

1The Right View of Competition in aRelationshipBy Ernest Mwaba

Page 23Understanding The Principle of DestinyBy Dr Myles Munroe

Starting your Business in Africa from the DiasporaBy Caroline M. Munywoki

When I decided to go back home - I thought I had figured it all out. I had been away for too long, got home sick and depression was playing games with my head making me completely confused as to whether I should go back to Africa and leave America and its comforts. But, I packed some bags and I left. I find out now, that what I thought I knew - I know nothing at all.

Individuals change without realizing it and every second counts. Almost everything is quantified by minutes and seconds. One gets used to a schedule and it is relatively possible to tell what you will be doing tomor-row and what you will be having.

The culture too is so different and changing is involuntary. The analo-gy I use for my experience moving between continents is this. Imag-ine you have gone fishing with friends on a small boat and you are all relaxed and hoping to catch bait, then you feel a tug on the line and start pulling but the fish seems to be too big to reel in, you decide to jump in and catch that fish yourself - your friends pensive-ly watch and when you jump in, all you can see is that big fish getting away but you are determined not to let it go, you swim and swim and when you catch it you emerge on the other side covered in oil; look back at your friends smiling, but your friends look at you differ-ently. You are smeared in oil but you just do not know it. You think you never left, yet, you have been

swimming for years experiencing so many convoluted things in your mind but you do not realize it.

When one decides to come back and embark on their business ven-ture please keep this in mind.

Your plan means nothing. You have to be on the ground to really know what goes on and how it goes on.

TIPS:Ask as many questions as you can to as many people as you can but before starting out make sure you do everything yourself. Do not trust anyone and at the same time do not harm anyone.

Your patience will be tried many times and it takes extra strength not to give up. If you struggle with patience, you will hurt on a daily basis and for a long time. You get used to everything happening so fast out there, that it takes mental strength to sit back and relax.

Remember you are smiling back smeared in oil and the people you

left back do not understand what is going on in your head and they do not know why you have changed; try as hard as you can to control your temper as it is easy for your heart to grow weary because you too, do not understand why you are not being understood.

Change is the hardest thing to deal with for anybody no matter how much we have to embrace it; in fact, studies in the US state that depression is caused by change in profession, moving or death. It is equivalent to starting your life all over again. You started it where you were born, started it again when you left your birth country and will start it again when you decide to go back.

Make a point of coming back on a regular basis to do your homework on what you would like to embark on.

Practice humility, it is tough and it will only get tougher when you think you know it all. Come back expecting expectation altering les-sons on how it is done. If you have

Life in the fast world is in many ways different than life in Africa.

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Caroline MunywokiDirector - Business Sense Africahttp://www.businesssenseafrica.com

Visit us on businesssenseafrica.com or you can like our page on https://www.facebook.com/BusinessSenseAfrica?ref=ts&fref=ts Kindly spread the word. Thank you and have a good day.

a good network tell them what you are going through and try make them understand, some people change in less than a year - so, the longer you are out there, the more you will have changed culturally, mentally and physically too.

They say home is where the heart is and east or west home is always best as long as you stick to your in-tegrity and honesty in all the busi-ness you conduct no matter what you are presented with.

Abraham Lincoln on his job could not have been clearer “I desire so to conduct the affairs of this ad-ministration, that if at the end, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend and that friend shall be down inside me”.


2 Simple and Proven Techniques for finding

the best talent in Africa!

100%Guaranteed

This economic growth comes with a consequent need for labor as a lot of foreign com-panies are expanding into the continent.

Anyone could reasonably ex-pect that this good news would significantly help lower the unemployment rate of the con-tinent - estimated at 8.2% in 2009. But the reality is quite different: Africa is unquestion-ably a land of opportunities but the African dream is turn-ing into a little “nightmare” for many companies.

If you are currently working in Africa as an HR professional, you know what I am referring to! Although there is a great deal of unemployed African people, your HR team is cer-tainly experiencing difficulties

in finding qualified candidates and retaining current employees.

Each day you ask yourself the same questions: Where I am going to find suitable candidates to fill our vacant positions? What can I do to keep this high-potential talent within the company? And so on.

As if that isn’t enough, your com-pany puts pressure on you because this shortage of talent is increas-ingly constrained the success of the company. As a result, managing talent has just not become a chal-lenge, but also your first priority!

To help you sleep better at night, this article is going to reveal you techniques to recruit and retain skilled workers in Africa. Based on some companies’ best practices, it will give you some practical tips to improve your way of hiring or

to broaden your thinking to ad-dress your talent issues. Thanks to it, your productivity will en-hance, and at the same, the per-formance of your company. It is a pretty good deal, Right? So stop employing the same strategies than your competitors are ag-gressively using without real re-sults. It’s time for your HR team to develop counter-strategies.

As all companies operating in Africa are looking for the same kind of workers without thinking about the reasons of the short-age of skilled candidates, they end up in the same place: no-where. My first recommendation is to focus on the external or in-ternal factors which may attract (or not) qualified workers within your company. These are always good indicators and are often the beginning of the answer!


Believe me.

For example, you already know that Africa has suffered a huge brain drain, as a result many Af-rican countries have lost some of their highly skilled profes-sionals. Where did they go? They have left the continent to work in countries with more stable economies and possibilities such as USA, Canada, France, the UK, Australia and the Gulf States.

Why not go over there and bring back them to Africa?

Let me explain.

Instead of poaching skilled workers from competitors (too expensive!), you could focus on the new generation of Africans that have studied or worked abroad and who want to re-turn to Africa to contribute to the development of the conti-nent. You will be surprised to know how many initiatives that attract talented African expa-triates are started by Africans living abroad.

Moreover, there are currently over 300,000 highly qualified Africans in the diaspora and 30,000 of whom have PhD’s according to the Unesco.

So taping into the African diaspora is honestly the first thing you have to do!

If you don’t know where to start, you can contact the World Bank to ask them to have access to their “Database of Professional Skills in the African Diaspora.” It’s a da-tabase which captures the diverse skills and experiences of profes-sionals throughout the global Af-rican Diaspora. Take time also to learn from their program called “The World Bank’s African Diaspo-ra Program.”

There are also plenty of other asso-ciations dedicated to the same goal.

The shortage of talent in many Af-rican countries is also due to the problem of the education system which produces not enough qual-ified graduates. In reality, many graduated African have advanced qualifications but not in the skills set required for many jobs. This

skill mismatches points up the absence of linkages between candidates’ profiles and the skills needed by companies. Why?

Because the African university system has traditionally been focused on educating for public sector employment and not for the needs of the private sector. A lot of companies complain about this reality and wait for governments to fix the problem. Don’t do like them. Instead, take action. How?

By creating and strengthening partnerships with schools at all levels of education. Your HR team should develop training programs such as internships or apprenticeships to allow African students/graduates to apply the theories learnt at school into real work situations. By offering these kind of programs, African students/graduates will have the opportunity to develop pro-fessional skills and gain practi-cal experience.

Consider the following num-bers: in 2030, it’s estimated that


12 million of young African people aged between 20-24 year olds will have a tertiary education. It will be a huge pool of talent.

I recommend that you contact the African Network for Interna-tionalization and Education to give you tips to build partner-ships with schools. The goal of this network is to develop ex-pertise to meet the professional and practical needs of individu-

als, institutions and organizations interested in the international dimension of higher education in Africa.

You can also look for other net-work organizations.

I hope these two proven tech-niques will help you to develop the best talent program ever! In a future article, I will share with you other ways to find and recruit Afri-can talent.

In the meantime, always keep in mind that talent manage-ment is a process, not a prod-uct to implement. It’s also a journey, not a destination. So be patient and refocus your energy on the right strategies.

-> Any comments, questions or suggestions? Feel free to Ask Me Anything by sending me an email at [email protected] will be glad to answer you!

Elisee Okonda LomaWho am I?

My name is Elisee Okonda Loma and I am an HR Talent and Thinker specialized in understanding and managing HR in Emerging and Developing Markets. I provide organizations and HR counterparts with latest insights and tools to turn people risks into HR opportunities in a risky and challenging environment. For more useful arti-cles and information, visit my blog HRinEmergingMarket.com [http://hrinemerging-markets.com] and follow me on Twitter.

You can also reach me at [email protected]

To advertise in this magazine or submit an article for publication: Contact: jack at 7176082406 or email at [email protected]


Perhaps you have already decid-ed to have two children. But some family and friends are suggesting that you need at least four, while others are also saying that you should just remain childless. Why do people decide to have children? What factors influence the number of children a couple should have? What is the right number of chil-dren for almost any couple?

Why have children, anyway?One of the commonest reasons why some couples decide to have children is to ensure that their family name lives on long after they are gone. Others also fathom the very idea of having a biological product of their own. The idea of having someone who calls you ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ is yet an-other small but powerful reason why some couples are motivated to have children.

On the other hand, there are cul-tures around the globe that have adopted the practice of associat-ing every marriage with children. Therefore, when a couple gets married, the clock starts ticking. The society around them will be expecting them to have a child. If a child is not coming forth, rela-tives will step in to find out why. In some cases, a marriage can even be annulled on such grounds! A good number of couples also re-member that when they reach or

approach the 90s, those children will be there to take care of them.

Factors to consider before having childrenIf you are a married woman, you need to know how responsible the father of your children is be-fore you can decide on the right number of children. Otherwise, if you have noted that your husband has, for many years, been failing to live up to his responsibilities, lim-it the number of children to what you can manage. The same princi-ple applies to men. Conceiving a child is as simple as sleeping with someone and ensuring that you have unprotected sex. But father-ing or mothering a child involves years of training and bringing up that child into a responsible adult. Therefore, your financial stability as a couple is also very important. If you cannot support a culturally preferred number of children to go to school, pay the medical bills and attend to other needs, then you are not ready to handle that number. Unless the culture that is making such recommendations will bear part of that responsibility or cost. But what is the actual number of children for almost any couple?

The right number of childrenUnfortunately, the right number of children can not be cast in concrete. In some communities it can even be ten. But in other places it can be one

or zero and there are even pieces of legislation to guide in that area. However, before you decide to have one child or ten children, you need to answer these questions: 1. If I died today, how would my

children be raised into respon-sible adults without problems?

2. Will I manage to meet the needs of all my children and myself with my spouse with my sources of income?

3. With the unstable economies hitting hard, will we reach a point where we will be forced to put our kids out of school or give them up for adoption because we cant handle the number?

4. Is the number of children we intend to have within the pro-visions of the law of our state?

5. As a couple, are we fully comfort-able with this number of children?

Remember, this is not a decision you have to make alone. You need to decide as a couple. No one should feel compelled to make this decision for you because in the end it will be the two of you who will have to live up to your responsibil-ities. Therefore, the ideal number of children for any couple is the one each couple exhaustively agrees to safely maintain. If you decide to have no children, no one should co-erce you to change your stance be-cause you, as a couple, are the best people to make that decision.

HOw MANY CHILDRENSHOuLD wE HAvE?By Ernest Mwaba


In ancient times, interracial mar-riages were not common in many societies and cultures. But, when migrations started, these marriag-es became inevitable and people learned to accommodate them. However, to this day, interracial mar-riages have usually sparked off dif-ferent reactions from many societ-ies around the globe. What common reactions do interracial marriages face? Why do people react to such marriages? How can an interracial marriage succeed happily?

Common Reactions Interracial Marriages FaceThe most challenging reactions start in the families of the couples. Some communities have not yet accept-ed the mixing of races in marriage. They believe that, such actions can dilute their traditions and values. Therefore, families do all they can to prevent an interracial union from succeeding. In some communities, racism is so high that a couple can never live in peace. In other places,

such racists have even gone as far as assaulting, maiming and killing peo-ple of a particular race. Therefore, if a couple decides to get married, it should prepare to handle such reali-ties. The recent case where a named denomination stopped a couple from singing in church because it comprised a black man courting a white woman sparked off heated debates around the world. But it only showed the seriousness of the reactions such couples go through.

Why Do People React To Interracial Marriages?Every society reacts to new develop-ments conservatively with the view of maintaining its values, and culture. But, these reactions can either be negative or positive. If a community has associated a particular race with a negative trait, act or incident, it will have a negative reaction to any in-termarriage with such a race. In vio-lent communities, the reactions vent anger, frustration and vengeance on the victims. Therefore, intermarriage

does not solve all these outstanding issues. It only brings them to light.How Can Interracial Couples Suc-ceed Happily? When given warnings, it becomes easy to face the future with cer-tainty. Instead of merely singing the love you have for each other as a couple, find out before hand how others are likely to react to your relationship. Most important-ly, allow your family to adjust to your union in time by letting them know in advance. Being a couple, you are one flesh. Thus, be ready to deal with any harsh realities that the victim race goes through.

The world has many interracial cou-ples which have thrived through their share of reactions around them for many years. Therefore, why not find time to interview them, and find out how they managed. These unions have succeeded before, and they will continue succeeding even under the most fatal reactions be-cause ‘love never fails.

Managing the Realities of inteRRacial MaRRiages By Ernest Mwaba


mobILe mArkeTIng mAde eAsy

Mobile Marketing is simply marketing your Products or Services on Mobile Devices. Statis-tics show that as of 2014 there are about 7 bil-lion cell phones being used all over the world. Every one of these phones is a potential client or customer, and that’s why mobile marketing is such as important venture for businesses.

Mobile Marketing is being used by many busi-nesses to market and sell their products and ser-vices instead of, or in addition to, the tradition-al marketing methods of print, broadcast, and word-of-mouth. Even though those mediums are not dead, they aren’t doing as well as mobile marketing because everyone is now online and connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and in the palms of their hands.

By Jack Kogera

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Mobile Marketing is an exten-sion of Internet marketing, es-pecially with just about every-one carrying around their smart phones and checking them sev-eral times a day.

Mobile phone usage is exceed-ing the use of other Internet ca-pable devices like laptops and desktops. People are glued to their phones and seemingly al-ways doing things like using so-cial media sites, checking emails, and sending texts. Therefore, businesses need to get on board using mobile marketing effec-tively and efficiently.

This means that if you want to

reach your audience and get more prospective customers and sales, you need to contact them in a way that they are al-ready using more, and that way is through mobile marketing.

This type of marketing is less costly than traditional methods, and you are hitting right where everyone is bound to get your message since nearly everyone owns a cell phone these days.

Why Mobile Marketing?Both business owners and their customers are using mobile de-vices in different and new ways daily all over the globe. The mobile devices we have today

are capable of allowing users to communicate in many ways such as texting, talking, check-ing email, sending messages, and going onto the Internet.

People are emotionally attached to their phones…People use them for everything from checking in on FourSquare to sharing a selfie photo or up-dating Facebook, etc. Most peo-ple literally feel naked if they leave their homes without their phones, so that means there are huge reasons why mobile mar-keting is not only smart to do, it’s seriously vital for all businesses if they don’t want to lose ground with their clients and customers.

Mobile Marketing is also cheaper than other types of advertising…That fact, plus the direct access to the customer seen with it makes mobile marketing results impossible to achieve through other media. It doesn’t matter if your potential customer is out jogging, at work, out shopping or just lounging on the couch

in their home, mobile market-ing gives you a very personal and direct way to contact them about what your business can do for them.

Let me show you some crazy, eye opening facts about Mobiles that will help you understand why these little by extremely

powerful devices are something that can add unlimited value to your business:

Eye Opening Mobile Marketing facts:By the end of 2014, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of peo-ple on earth.

Click below to get the full mobile marketing made easy 50+ page report with detailed steps and cheatsheet on how to go mobile.

By the end of 2014, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth.

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THE AfRICAN ExpERIENCEIn this video series you will get various responses from various people on their experiences in living in the diaspora. Get challenged, motivated, inspired, informed with this documentary…Coming soon in the next issue of the Diaspora Success magazine.

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cLIck The ImAge beLow To vIew The AfrIcAn exPerIence vIdeo TrAILer

How to raise a financially literate child

By Chuks UC Ukaoma

Chuks U.C. Ukaoma and his wife and children reside in Austin, Texas, USA. He’s a Senior Market Manager for Drees Homes. He has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from California State University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree from Emporia State university in Kansas, and an “Old Boy” of Methodist College, Uzuakoli, Abia State, Nigeria. Email me at: [email protected]

About Chuks UC Ukaoma

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Every parent starts out with an in-extricable desire to raise a child who is more successful than the parent. Regardless of how good that parent had it growing up, he or she wants the child to have an easier path than the one the parent trav-eled. This aspiration is as ageless as time itself. It transcends religion, race, culture, and nationality.

Parents everywhere love their chil-dren as much as parents anywhere. Just don’t tell that to offspring of African parents; we believe our par-ents are the most loving parents on earth. That mindset is largely based on the fact our parents overcame multitudinous hardship to raise us. However, history teaches us, some (if not most) of the difficulties peo-ple experience in life are self- or society-inflicted. The afflictions come in form of corruption, civil war, having more mouths than one can feed, broken homes, intolerance, avarice, poor health and financial habits. There are things one can do to ameliorate these problems and attain successful individual results. One of the keys to a better outcome is practicing sound financial habits. It’s not only a matter of one know-ing what to do but also implement-ing what one knows.

Even in this Eden we reside in with modern conveniences such as 24-hour supermarkets and ATMs, in-house refrigeration, social safety net, reliable electricity, and accessi-ble health care, many of us in Di-aspora have come to realize the in-herent thrills of being parents. We’re waking up to the truth in the Alayi’s adage that all roads to Arochukwu are fraught with challenges; that the Hot Chocolate did not mean it when they sang that “heaven is in the back seat of my Cadillac”. In my humble opinion, people don’t be-gin to truly appreciate their parents until they themselves become par-ents, even under the best of circum-

stances. Any way you slice it, raising a family is a monumental financial endeavor, albeit it a rewarding one.

Part of being better parents is teaching our children the skills they need to live successful lives. In this global village we now live in, it’s paramount to learn and prac-tice sound financial life lessons. If a child wants to become financially endowed, she or he needs to learn the positive habits of the rich. Those who ignore these facts of life often pay a heavy price. Yet studies show parents would rather prattle about the birds and the bees than teach money lessons to their children. It does not help when some parents misinterpret the Bible quote: that “the love of money is the root of evil” to mean money is the root of all evil. Some say that “lack’” of money is the root of all evil. If a content person has some reserves, he or she would be less inclined to do just about anything for money. On the other hand, a hungry and desperate saint would sin in no time for that steaming porridge.

A friend Raymond Matthews said it best when he stated: “often in life, what money cannot buy, the indi-vidual does not need”. That might sound harsh or extreme, but if you rationally think about it, it makes sense. According an antipoverty YouTube video, “At the start of the 21st century, 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry and 50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes”. Na Shakara (lack of money) be dat o, to paraphrase the Great One Fela.

Each child ought to acquire basic financial skills before entering high school. In these times of joblessness, excessive student and credit cards debts, your child is likely to rebound to home and cause you lots of prob-lems later on if you don’t arm them

with these life-long skills. One of my bicycling buddies once told me that the best thing any parent can do for a child is to help the child become financially independent as soon as possible. Having a good paying job is no longer good enough; your child should know how to manage his or her resources. Per Jim Rohn, “if you work hard on your job, you can make a living [live paycheck to paycheck]. If you work hard on your-self [by acquiring prudent financial skills], you can make a fortune” and have true financial freedom. It’s not how much you make that matters, it’s how much you save.

As parents, we should be care-ful about sending mixed financial messages to our children. Parents should not calumniate the impor-tance of money. Desperate persons do desperate things. Some let op-portunities pass them by and in desperation they spur their children to accumulate immense student loans or play dangerous sports to fund their college education. What seemed like a good way to “beat the system” today may haunt them and their children for years to come. Ask a few retired athletes or former high-income earners. Google my ar-ticle: “Should You As Parent Encour-age Your Child To Play Dangerous Sports”. I laid it all out there.

Start early! “One important thing to remember about children and financial literacy is that it is more helpful to begin teaching children about money early on instead of waiting until high school”, per Sara Berthiaum. It is amazing what the human mind can absorb when it is open and eager to learn as chil-dren’s minds are. That’s why they learn languages and new things quicker than most adults.

I credit my parents, particularly my father Lawrence Okoronkwo Ukao-ma for teaching me early in life the

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virtues of saving money. One partic-ular teachable moment is engraved in my mind. I was around 8 years old and the brutal Nigeria-Biafra civil war was raging. I had done chores for a neighbor and was paid in wrinkle-free Biafran notes. Think-ing I had become rich, I went to my father and asked him to safe-keep the money for me. He asked me why I could not keep my money. I responded that I did not want to be tempted into spending or losing it. He told me “it was okay to be tempt-ed but I should learn how to control my money because how I manage my resources would determine my altitude in life”.

My father also taught me about sav-ings account, stocks (shares), and real estate investment. He made sure I learned that how much one saves counts more than how much one makes. In my early teens, I had an account with then Federal Sav-ings Bank where one could “open an account with just ten kobo”. The reader from that era might remem-ber that jingle. The bank was inge-niously operated via post offices. During my teenage years my father would send me to collect rent from his tenants and deposit the funds (and coupons/dividends) in his bank account as soon as possible to earn interest. He taught me to remove

my “going out” clothes and put on my “stay at home” clothes as soon as I got home so my good clothes would last longer. He taught me how “a stitch in time saves nine” and how to defer gratification. If it could be done during and shortly after a civil war, it can be done today. Say what one may about Nigeria, I am very grateful for my Nigerian her-itage. Most of what sustains me and other folks like me today were learned in Nigeria. I learned good work habits, independent-thinking and content-living from my up-bringing in Nigeria.

Developing money saving hab-its should not be misconstrued as depriving one’s self. Rather saving money is a way to develop a nest egg for you (not someone else) to use when you really need it. It is something everyone should as-pire to accomplish. Money may not be everything; nothing is. No one should diminish its importance. Like good health, many people may not realize its essence until they don’t have it and need it.

Who says sound financial skills are not important in life? Studies show fi-nancial issues are at the core of most marital discords. These problems are exacerbated when warring parents use money as ammunition in the bat-

tles over their children. Financial ed-ucation is the beginning and lasting casualty in that no-win war.

Some financial institutions now have a no-minimum saving ac-count. Take your toddler to a finan-cial institution and open a savings account for her or him. Start with doing an online or telephone re-search to find out the incentive for new accounts. Some banks will give you $25 to $250 for opening an ac-count for your child. Several online as well as brick and mortar financial institutions want to have life-long financial relationship with young people. Let these banks pay up to earn your child’s business.

The decision as to how much to give your child in allowance, if any, is yours as a parent. Some give al-lowance to their child for household chores like cleaning their room, toi-let or washing dishes, etc. Others give allowances for no reasons at all. Personally, I give an allowance for chores beyond what my children should be doing as members of the family. And I would make sure the money is deposited in the child’s account to “cool down” and earn in-terest for a while before spending any of it. And if the child needs to spend some money, he or she needs to research it before buying.

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Letter from SoUtH AfriCA, CApE Town

Cape Town, in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, ‘is not Africa’. That’s what they opine. ‘They’ meaning the thousands of tourists, including a few Kenyans, who flock the metropolis annually and the millions of dwellers who call Cape Town home. It’s easy to see why. What with the relatively extravagant infrastructure, the sense of order on the roads so elusive in the rest of Africa, the roads, all neat, wide and clearly delineated, the shopping malls – full of shoppers all month round buying first-hand merchandise - dotting every corner of the city, the variety of recreational activities available to all, from the cable car going up the table mountain to the boats plying the short distance from V&A Waterfront to the famed Robben Island? But perhaps the single most convincing argument is the racial composition, with the so called coloreds as the majority, followed by whites. The

black African peoples who comprise 80% of the country’s population are relegated to the minority in the city. Some people suggest that this could be the reason for the high quality of life. Welcome to the ‘mother city’, where the explorers of the yesteryears first docked their ship and began incursions into the rest of South Africa.

My journey to South Africa – my second home now - began early February 2012. The confluence of activities that had led to this day included a job application to our regional office in Cape Town, an interview and a job offer. That bit was now relegated to the recent history. Still recovering from the farewell party the night before, we gathered the few belongings we could stuff in the suitcases and headed for the airport, a few family and friends in tow. It turned out to be a false start.

By Bob Marjawar

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Contact Bob

The Kenya Airways check-in lady was not going to let me through without a yellow fever certificate. I had one, but I had inadvertently left it back. The consequences were grave. We missed that particular flight, but managed to get on to the next flight four hours later. Unfortunately we could not make it on time for the connecting flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town. A good college friend now living in Johannesburg saved the day for us, accommodating us in for the night and sending us on our way to Cape Town the following day.

Cape Town turned out to be nothing we have known or heard about any African City. With its fine restaurants, functioning speed camera, beautiful roads, latest car models, sprawling suburbs with architectural masterpieces, it really has been a pleasant surprise. Cape Town’s Table Mountain is included in the new 7 wonders of the world, and Western Cape boasts the meeting point of the Atlantic Ocean the and Indian Ocean. Cape Town is home to University of Cape Town (UCT), arguably Africa’s best university. It is also home to Cape Town International Convention Center – which holds the continent’s premier events, including the Mining Indaba.

There are many Kenyans living in Johannesburg, South Africa’s Capital and Commercial City – but I didn’t expect many Kenyans in Cape Town. The enterprising spirit of Kenyans thrive in locations where informal businesses are easy to set up. Cape Town on the other hand is organized to mainly support the formal economy and hence my low expectation. And other than the 10 or so Kenyans who I came into contact with – my assumption that that Cape Town was home to very few Kenyans held true. That was until Kenya’s current president Uhuru Kenyatta visited Cape Town for the World Economic Forum in early 2013, few months after his election. As is the custom with such official visits the trip organizers included a meeting with Kenyans in Cape Town at the Sun Hotel on Strand Street. I didn’t think there was a need to arrive very early as there was no competition for limited space as there would be very few people after all. I was wrong. I arrived about an hour before time only to find the place teeming with hundreds of Kenyans, pushing and shoving to get in and secure a spot closer to the front. There could easily have been about 2000 people there. That was a big surprise for me.

Three years down the road I have built a list of things to know when thinking about moving to Cape Town.

1. Being in Africa – and having the standards of Europe – you get the best of both worlds.

2. South Africa is still struggling to get its footing, with the displaced minority controlling the economy and the ruling majority having been sidelines for so long struggling to get governance right, albeit with many mistakes along the way.

3. Immigration laws have since been revised to make it very hard for casual immigrants to get in. For you to be allowed in, especially on a work permit, you must have a very strong case.

4. Official apartheid was done with in 1994, but the after taste remains strong in the air of Cape Town and Kenyans coming to Cape Town must be prepared to handle the a place where your skin color does seem to matter.

5. It is very easy to start and thrive in formal business. The idea of home-based companies is common place in Cape Town especially for professional vocations especially medic, architects, music teachers and IT gurus.

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Lessons from Lupita on Speech Making2014 has seen a deluge of Lupita Nyong’o’s speeches on the international scene. Her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress finally cemented her place as a Hollywood A-Lister and its not too far-fetched to predict her star on the Hollywood walk of fame. The Oscar win effectively transformed her into a strong recognizable international brand and a major asset of “Brand Lupita” is her ability to communicate and connect with Audiences through the Power of her words. From her speeches we can learn a lot on how to make those moments of presentation memorable.

Lupita has mastered the Vocal, Verbal and Visual aspects of delivery and deploys this knowledge to great effect with the result that audiences across the world have connected and fallen in love with her. Her mastery of the Vocal aspect of speech making first featured prominently during her acceptance speech for the critics’ award in which she used her voice to project great emotional energy which powerfully connected her with the Audience, in fact you could see Oprah and a section of the Audience tearing up. The tone of our voice normally shows our intention to the audience and helps

determine in their minds whether or not we are authentic.

During the Critics Awards speech she deployed the Vocal technique of pausing prior to emphasising her appreciation to different people who had helped her along the way and this had the effect of signifying to the audience that what she was about to say was very important, and you could almost hear the anticipation in the room as they awaited her words. In delivering her Oscar acceptance she also used the Vocal speed variation technique; you notice she speeds up her introduction and this is

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intended to show excitement, and at various points slows down the rate in order to make her voice more compelling. Her mastery of vocal control teaches us that exhibiting the appropriate tone of voice for our content ultimately makes our presentation more impactful.

Her Verbal mastery of speech making is expressed through deploying various techniques of language. Lupita’s Oscar acceptance speech was a fusion of celebratory rhetoric and deliberative rhetoric delivered in a conversational manner weaving the history of slavery by mentioning Patsey and connecting it to her own personal story. In this she was able to offer the perspective of historical continuity and eloquently gave her speech that transcendence quality which I predict will be memorable in years to come.

In the Critics Award speech, she positions herself as a master of

the personal anecdote through humanising her narrative by mentioning her Late Uncle Aggrey Nyon’go’s recognition of her abilities and ultimately dedicating the award to him.Her verbal mastery also finds expression through her use of soundbites; sample this reference to Director Steve McQueen “you charge everything you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.” and when she concludes the Oscar acceptance she says,“When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.” memorable speeches use punchy soundbites. Lupita teaches us that mastery of language, great delivery and good soundbites hold a revered place in speech making.

And finally on the Visual aspect of delivery, Lupita and her stylists have ensured that her dressing and make-up are just right as evidenced

by her presence on every list of the best-dressed personalities in the world. Something significant you will notice is how she radiates positive body language when she stands up, graciously walks up the podium and takes an upright confident posture behind the Lectern. When she begins her speeches she smiles and uses vivid facial expressions with bigger gestures as she gets emotional. Lupita does this because she knows that a confident positive good looking presenter has the effect of connecting with an Audience. l guess the old adage still holds true for speakers; make sure to dress and look good, walk up to the lectern confidently and ensure that your body language is positive and complements your words.

As we admire and celebrate Lupita, may we also appreciate the lessons she so vividly teaches all those who speak in public or aspire to be great presenters.

Paul Achar is Managing Director at Jade Communications Ltd. Jade Communications Ltd delivers innovative and practical Communication Skills Training Programmes and Consultancy services. across a diverse range of individuals and organizations including government Agencies.

Jade Communications Ltd specializes in three main areas, soft-skills training, communication consultancy & the speaker’s bureau. Our wide ranges of open courses are also tailored to offer in-house solutions.

To view our range of programmes, services and information about working with you to develop and deliver tailored in-house solutions please visit our website. www.jadecommunications.co.ke

AbOuT PAul ACHAR

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ThE RighT ViEw of

CoMpETiTion in ARElATionShip

BY ERNEST MWABA

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On their engagement day, Joseph bought a very expensive car for his fiance. The following day, his best friend also went and bought two of the same expensive cars for his wife! Was this expense really necessary? Is competition always wrong? When can competition end up going too far? What is the balanced view of competition in relationships and marriages?

IS COMPETITIOn AlWAyS WROng In RElATIOnSHIPS?Competition, when used to focus on improvement, can produce excellent results. Generally, it has been used to boost performance and improve quality effectively. Therefore, instead of wasting time watching what your neighbor is buying his woman, why not focus on what you can learn from that act. The right type of competition in relationships involves viewing certain couples as models in a particular area. This is not with the view to end up doing the same, but with the view of making your relationship better. If, for instance, your friend has received a car from her fiance, why not just appreciate that love is supposed to be creative. In future, you could find a way of incorporating creative acts of kindness in your relationship too.

WHEn CAn COMPETITIOn gO TOO FAR? Competition in a relationship can start going too far when you start comparing every aspect of your relationship with another couple with the view of outdoing them. In this case, you may not even care that much about what your partner feels when you make a decision as long as you end up on top of the

competition. The scenario cited on the outset of this article is a typical example of competition being taken too far. Therefore, you would notice that you have taken competition wrongly when you see the following:

• The sniffing sensation: You always want to find out what the other couples have done for their spouses or what they plan to do in the near future with the view of beating them.

• Deep feeling of defeat: You usually feel defeated and betrayed when you fail to outdo what one of your friends did for their partner recently.

• The matchless couple: When it comes to staying on top of the competition, you can do whatever it takes to show your contemporaries that you are the hottest and incomparable couple around

• Exaggerations and bragging: You find it very easy to lie often times when bragging about your relationship and what you have achieved as a couple.

• Extreme superiority complex: You usually feel that no one can ever do the awesome things you do for your partner, however hard they try!

• no regard for the cost: Even if the cost of challenging some of your friends may look too distant, you care less about such as long as you are pronounced the best.

In one way or another, we exhibit some of these traits occasionally, and it is normal. The problem comes when one or more of these qualities repeat themselves in your

character several times. In fact, it is better to start working on them as soon as you notice any of them.

THE bAlAnCED vIEW OF COMPETITIOn Whether you are still in a relationship or you have been married for some time, competition affects you in one way or another. But instead of feeling that you are not a victim, it is better to balance its view. As earlier stated, you can look at what other couples are doing with the view of strengthening your relationship, not winning the competition. Since no man is an island, there is nothing wrong with listening to advice as other couples openly tell you how they have managed to overcome certain challenges. Do not allow competition to turn a cherished relationship into a business partnership which constantly keeps an eye on the other competitors so they remain in business. Use the right competition to better your relationship or marriage.

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Understanding The principle of DestinyPOWER POInTS In THIS MOTIvATIOnAl TAlkIn this motivational talk, you will discover your reason for existence by answering 5 questions. These 5 questions (1) control your teenagers, (2) control everything you do, (3) cause you to choose a career, (4) determine which neighborhood you live in, (5) control corruption in the government and church, (6) determine the crime in your neighborhood, (7) produce every problem in the world. Everyone is doing something to try to find answers to these 5 questions.

Find out what these 5 questions are by listening to this powerful message. Click the image below and then press the arrow head in the next page. The message will then play.

by Dr Myles Munroe

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