Favour Umar’s second book ‘The Best in the Worst’
Being published on Amazon and set for launch soon, Favour Umar’s second book, ‘The Best in the Worst’, inspires young minds to take head-on all storms of life that will assist them to come out best on the other side.
“‘The Best in the Worst’ novel is about how we all go through the worst moments in our lives, but we need to walk through such storms safely and become the best,” she said in an interview.
“Some people give up in their worst moments -$ they don’t fight back their worst until the worst swallows them. So, the best in the worst is about walking on the storms and coming out safely on the other side in a much better form.
“It’s my real-life story and in it I have featuring [performing artists] Faith Mussa, Thoko Suya among others, sharing their lives’ experiences.
The holder of the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Communication — obtained from the Malawi University of Business & Applied Science (MUBAS) in 2022 — did her primary school education at Mpakata from standard 1 to 3 before relocating to to Lilongwe where she completed Standard 8 Nkhumula Primary School before being selected to Chipasula Secondary School.
She said during her spell at MUBAS, she used to write inspirational posts on social media until she was inspired by an admirer to consider writing a book for her ideas to benefit the next generation
“That’s where the inspiration came from,” she said of her first book ‘Hope in my Singleness’, published in 2021. “Singleness had significance in my life because that’s the stage young people get themselves into pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancies as well as getting sexually transmitted diseases.
“Of course, these didn’t affect nay lifestyle compared to some of my friends and relatives who rushed into relationships but are now holding two or three babies and some contracted sexually transmitted diseases.”
The bitter experiences of her peers made her concentrate on her studies, saying her primary and secondary school were day releases and she could not risk her valuable time with sexual relationships.
She discourages the girl child to resist peer pressure, saying having relationships with boys is done to please others, adding that waiting to be mature enough to make such a decision is the best that can be done.
And Favour Umar is also into music and has one track she recorded last year entitled ‘Merry Christmas’ and wants to produce singles every now and then up until she attains some financial breakthrough to come up with an album and videos of their tracks.
“Apart from that, I will be performing the song, ‘Merry Christmas’ at various church events,” she said.
She also disclosed that she manages a charity under the name Favour Umar Foundation, which supports the needy in various ways — the first being Queens Elizabeth Central Hospital’s eyesight department where she encountered first hand the trauma children face with eye cancer.
“I donated toys for the kids, clothes, cooking utensils, milk for the parents, and prayed for them through the help of Mercy Chome who contributed the items.
“I also went to Steka Foundation at Nyambadwe where we supported its students of clothes and the shoes as well as motivating them to look ahead with positivity by concentrating on the academic studies.
“The Lord has blessed the Foundation with 5 volunteers now and we plan to visit a prison on my birthday, 22 November.”
It does not end there, she is also an entrepreneur and designs marketing posters, does catering by baking cakes, produces carpets using wool and the tapestry, designs calendars and carries out motivational speeches at various primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
She also edits other people’s books, novels on top of writing her own stories, composing songs and other daily pursuits.
For the girls child, Favour Umar says: “Girl, get up if you would like to go higher beyond your imagination. Get up and push yourself further because there’s no one else who can do it, but you.
“Don’t look down upon yourself — if God knew that you were not capable of, He wouldn’t have given you the talent and there was no reason to breathe you into the world apart from that you are endowed with talents that can transforming your lives.
“Don’t listen to those that tell you that you cannot do it, because if I, Favour Umar is doing it, you can also do it. Start now, don’t wait until you grow up because life is short — your future can only be bright when you nurture it well.”
She disclosed that her idol has always been former US First Lady Michelle Obama through her book titled, ‘Becoming’ and Favour quotes her favourite statement: ‘Your story is what you have. You will always have it. It is something to own even when it is not pretty or perfect’.
She also had something to share with prominent members of the society, saying they need to write their autobiographies to share their life’s experience, saying: “It’s about time you realized that your past is someone’s present.
“If you don’t write your autobiography, no one is going to learn from your experiences and what pushed you to be successful in order to be encouraged from, be challenged from and learn the mistakes from.”
She thus offers to help those interested that she can help edit their work because it is only through a book that people’s legacy can live hundreds of years.
She also encouraged the citizenry to develop a reading culture and to inculcate it on their children and to support younger authors like the way the other countries do that encourages authors to write much and even better.
“Award them the way you award others in various industries. There’s a lot that is invested in writing —-time, editor’s fees, printing costs, launching costs, of which if someone lack such resources, the urge to write becomes history.
In December 2021, at the posthumous launch of the autobiography which Malawi’s first neurosurgeon, late Dr. Andrew George Nga Mtafu
wrote before his tragic death following a car accident, Dr. Levi Zeleza Manda — who edited the book, urged Malawians who have played a huge part in the country’s history to emulate Nga Mtafu’s effort in writing their own autobiographies.
Amongst guests present were Prof. Edge Kanyongolo (renowned former law professor at Chancellor College); Principal Magistrate, His Worship Viva Nyimba; political analyst Humphrey Mvula; politician and former diplomat Ziliro Chibambo — whom Zeleza Manda challenged that they have in their heads historical stories they needed to share with the rest of Malawians.
And Kaminjolo, who was guest of honour, took up the challenge that he too and many other Malawians who played a part in Malawi’s history need to write their own biographies.
He had said: “If we don’t write our own history, someone else — a non-Malawian — will come and do it for us but it cannot be as accurate as what is in Mga Mtafu’s book.”
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
