About Me — DP Mavia
Once Upon My Short Story ….
Graduation
I graduated with a Degree in Education and was legally given power to be a High School Literature teacher. I met one of my Lecturer years afterwards and she confessed that the Degree was designed to nurture us to be Literally Critics not Teachers of Literature. It did not matter because the good damage had already been delivered securely into my cerebral DNA. Tucked under every pursuit was the germ for a Socio Cultural Critic, which was inspired by the remaining dregs of my Linguistics and Phonetics lessons. It was difficult to observe and mitigate case studies without asking the Why of things. I became officially a private Philosopher (Philos — Friend and Sophos — Wisdom).
Novelty
From 1998 to 2002 a time when Kenya was at the precipice of a turn over political and historical shift I began Writing for a living (or was it for life?). Time is not enough to narrate the mustard seed moments of online publishing and my first public published essay on an American Post Modern Philosophy website (Thanks to David Hopkins — who later became Graphic Novelist). I sat in a Café (Mandy’s) on Koinange Street — in Nairobi. A friend of mine breathing hard on my neck to finish my essay from his borrowed laptop and carry it in a floppy disk to a cyber café to email it to David.
Bytes and Speaking
Shortly after that I got to be a Journalist for a construction Website Building Africa for a full year officially and more thanks to (Mr. GitauWaweru). I cut my teeth writing and covering events. Meanwhile I was also Speaking I remember my first talk to DESK (Design Society of Kenya at ICEA House 1998) and subsequently to a Graduating Cohort of Evelyn’s College of Design and another gig at Three Mice the Famous Web Design Company that was — I spoke on Developing an African Website. My most Challenging one yet was to be a curtain raising Keynote at the Museums of Kenya a function hosted by Google and my Topic was How to Tell the Kenyan Story and also at the UN Women/Kenyatta University School of Leadership (thanks to Dr. Christine Musisi)
A Pinch of Projects
Back to Writing, I started a personal blog (National Insanity) that exhibited small works of satire. I swam into short story fiction wrote two pieces for Kwani Journal just when it was starting. I was exploring codified lingua (sheng to be specific, which is codified English doused in contextual Kiswahili) and that got me to work with Doreen Strauhs (now Dr. Doreen) on Post Colonial Development of English in Africa — my two stories were deeply critiqued in Aurelia Journo and I eventually got published in Kunapipi a renowned Journal from University of Wollongong — English Literatures Program (thanks to Dr. Doreen and Dr. Anne Collett).
Once a Upon a Time
I remember running a creative hustle. After cold calling Ad Agencies to write copy for them I had a five-month stint at Ideas and Places (Cauri Wamae — that was my compressed MBA) I was tutored into the world of Design and the Business of Design. I left to stand-alone. A friend of mine (Salmon Kitololo of Bulcirfa) and I decided to answer the big question everyone was subliminally asking. We would get design briefs and everyone would say ‘Make it African’. So we went round interviewing Creative Practitioners and henceforth published a small booklet of short Essays on our findings titled African Identity.
The Point
The point of all these snippets is to jigsaw the journey. I am a collective make-up of the places, circumstances and personalities I have encountered. Life is a long living school. Learning is still happening. I have grown not just from my schooling but from my intentional education and especially collaborative projects. I like it when I see initiative and transformation that comes from turning information into applied Wisdom. When I teach, train, write or coach I believe that anybody with a willing mind and resolve can be transformed and lead a meaningful life. We are beings of information and conscience, understanding and practice. Let us meet and start your next and my next collaborative learning and transformative cooperative — I stand for Culture, Crafts (Arts), Trends, Philosophy, Thought Leadership and Entrepreneurship.
