Author smiles from ear to ear after winning literature award

Azwindini Lutendo Masuwa is bubbling with excitement and joy after receiving a literature award for his debut financial book, Unshakable.

The AfriCAN Honoree Authors’ Awards ceremony was held at the Mozambik Restaurant in Fourways, Johannesburg, on 30 October this year, but Masuwa could not attend the ceremony. On 9 December, he drove to Johannesburg to collect his award, and AfriCAN Honoree Authors’ Awards’ project manager Anthea Thyssen gave him a warm welcome.

“She presented the award to me in what seemed like a mini-award ceremony, and I honestly felt so special as an author who still wants to write more books,” he said. “AfriCAN Honoree Authors’ Awards made me feel that I am acknowledged and appreciated as an author. They provided me with an impetus to continue to read, research and write.”

Unshakable seeks to assist and equip people, specifically Africans, with financial literacy in a social context. Masuwa believes that all Africans can realise their greatest financial heights, success and stability only if they emancipate themselves through reading books and seeking African solutions from books authored by Africans whom they can relate to.

“It is not surprising to find people who won millions through a lottery ticket and then lose everything in a short space of time,” he said. “This is because they lack financial education. Most African social problems are not perpetuated by the government, but a lack of proper understanding of how the world system has been contrived to keep Africa poor.”

A resident of Musholombi village, Masuwa writes his books with the aim to educate readers on investments. “The prime reason I wrote this book was to share insight with regard to financial intelligence and offer the best knowledge and wisdom that assisted ancient people and still do in our generation,” he said.

He believes that the education it gives cannot be taught at school and, no matter how educated people are and the extent of the salaries they earn, their money will not last long if they are not financially literate.

“Financial problems continue to haunt us because we lack financial management and other avenues of generating finances or monies, apart from the 7-5 strategised employment,” he said. “The book will actually allow one to graduate from working for money and begin to make money work for them.”

Masuwa holds a bachelors' degree in criminal justice from the University of Venda and an honours degree in criminal justice from the University of Limpopo. He currently runs the African Institute for Training and Consultation, a company that helps to train people how to invest their money on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Unshakable is available directly from the author and he can be contacted on 071 145 5231 or 066 009 1497.

Entertainment - Date: 25 December 2021

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]