{"id":9618,"date":"2014-02-20T11:35:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T15:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/newyork\/?p=9618"},"modified":"2014-02-20T11:35:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T15:35:18","slug":"q-africa-mafoya-dossoumon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/q-africa-mafoya-dossoumon\/","title":{"rendered":"Q & Africa | Mafoya Dossoumon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"QandAfrica\"<\/a>Also listed on this week\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Africa\u2019s Top 5\u2019<\/b>, we are featuring a savvy author by the name of\u00a0Mafoya Dossoumon<\/b>\u00a0for today\u2019s\u00a0\u2019Questions & Africa\u2019<\/b>.\u00a0 This adept writer & communications professional composed the book\u00a0\u201cAfrican Expectations\u201d<\/b>.\u00a0 The book offers tentative solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our times based on his worldview and life experiences. Having lived and worked professionally in several African countries, Mafoya offers a distinctly different perspective while challenging people to consider new paradigms. His passion is to encourage Africans to tell their own stories. Learn more about him below!<\/p>\n

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<\/a>AFWNY.com: What is your writing style?<\/b><\/h4>\n

Mafoya:\u00a0<\/strong>My writing style is honest. I write from the heart and I am not afraid to take a stand. My first book\u00a0\u201cAfrican Expectations: Musings From Where I Stand\u201d<\/b>\u00a0is a collection of essays about how political, economic, and socio-cultural issues retard Africa\u2019s development and how the most important factor for this failure is the lack of good leadership.\u00a0 My proposed solutions are based on my worldview and experiences.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>AFWNY.com:\u00a0What have been your challenges as an author?<\/b><\/h4>\n

Mafoya:\u00a0<\/strong>The main challenge has been attempting to accomplish much with limited resources. I self-published my first book because I wrote it as much for myself as I wrote it for an audience; I had neither the time nor the temperament to go the traditional publishing route. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with the outcome. It has been hard finding resources for the different stages of publishing and promoting the book. The self-publishing industry is a wilderness of sorts. Most self-published authors have small or nonexistent marketing budgets. They have to rely on themselves and other freely available resources for promotion. For African authors who tell stories that are different from what mainstream media tends to gravitate to, the challenge is amplified. Thankfully, organizations such as\u00a0Africa Book Club<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Adiree<\/b>\u00a0are filling the gap.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>AFWNY.com:\u00a0Where are you from? How has this influenced your writing?<\/b><\/h4>\n

Mafoya:\u00a0<\/strong>I am from Benin, but, I lived in a few countries in West Africa. I also lived in France and the United States [where I currently reside]. Travel provides invaluable education. My writing is colored by travel experiences. West Africa as a whole has a greater impact on my writing than Benin. For example, many of the issues addressed in\u00a0\u201cAfrican Expectations: Musings From Where I Stand\u201d<\/b>\u00a0are informed by my cross border experiences in West Africa. I find that travel liberates the imagination.<\/p>\n

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Thank you Mafoya! We look forward to more of your work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Also listed on this week\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Africa\u2019s Top 5\u2019, we are featuring a savvy author by the name of\u00a0Mafoya Dossoumon\u00a0for today\u2019s\u00a0\u2019Questions & Africa\u2019.\u00a0 This adept writer & communications professional composed the book\u00a0\u201cAfrican Expectations\u201d.\u00a0 The book offers tentative solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our times based on his worldview and life experiences. Having lived…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[72,73,75],"tags":[89,170,2545,2546,2547,2588,2589,891,201,2548,94,553,2590,621,2591,2148,2592,2593,2594,2595,2596,2561,2179,2597,2598,2599,2190,2600,1725,2450,2451,2601,2602,2603,2604,2605,2606,2607],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashionweek.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}