The Endless Journey: From a liberation struggle to driving emerging technologies in Africa | Jabulani Simbini Dhliwayo


The Endless Journey is a story of one man’s journey from a revolutionary to a renowned ICT [Information and communications technology] professional. It is written with great honesty, incorporating pathos and humor intended to ease some of the heart-breaking and chilling accounts. It is an interesting perspective of a slice of African history that has seldom been recorded in such a personal way. The book elaborates the author’s life as a poor black man in racially segregated Rhodesia and his subsequent journey from Rhodesia to join Robert Mugabe’s liberation movement in Mozambique.

While in Mozambique, he lived in the refugee camps which were constantly under attack by the Rhodesians resulting in the death of his sister and thousands of others. When it was decided that the author would have to swap weapons for books, he ended up in Sierra Leone where he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics and went back to Zimbabwe. Circumstances in Zimbabwe that saw the deterioration of the country a decade after independence-with inflation of up to 80 percent-drove Jabulani to live overseas from where he supported Africa’s development primarily through advocacy of the adoption of modern Information and communications technology.


About the Author

Jabulani Simbini Dhliwayo was born in Chipinge, Zimbabwe in 1960. Fifteen years later, he crossed the border into Mozambique to join Robert Mugabe’s ZANU [Zimbabwe African National Union] guerilla movement that was fighting for liberation. In 1978, Jabulani was one of twenty-two ZANU youths to be awarded a United Nations Development Program scholarship to study in Sierra Leone. He completed his high school and earned a bachelor of science degree in physics with education from Njala University College–a university college of the University of Sierra Leone. In 1985 Jabulani returned to independent Zimbabwe and took up teaching positions at Chindunduma High School and Harare Polytechnic. In 1989 Jabulani left Zimbabwe for Laurentian University in Canada where he studied for a master's degree in physics before moving to the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in physics, specializing in fiber optic sensors.

In 1997, Jabulani joined Ando Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of test instrumentation for optical communications in the USA. As a technical marketing engineer for Ando Corporation, he supported leading telecommunication companies in North America–including Lucent Technologies, SIECOR, WorldCom, Bell South, CIENA and New Brunswick Telephone–with their optical fiber measurement requirements. In 1999, Jabulani joined Corning, the world’s largest supplier of optical fiber as a senior research acientist. In this role, he developed measurement systems for next generation photonics components and optical fiber, at Corning’s Sullivan Park research complex in Corning, New York. After five years in research and development he took up a variety of commercial roles, including senior worldwide application engineer, product line manager and market development manager for Africa. As the market development manager for Africa, Jabulani promotes Corning fiber to operators throughout the continent–from Cape to Cairo. In 2004 Jabulani joined NEPAD [New Partnership for Africa's Development] Council, an organization of African professionals in the Diaspora whose mission is to support the African Union. In this organization, Jabulani persuaded African policy makers to embrace technology, including modern ICT and deployment of optical fiber in the continent as vehicles for sustained economic development. Jabulani is the father of two daughters, Sinikiwe Stephanie and Tinashe Irikidzai Chelsea.



Jabulani Simbini Dhliwayo (Author)
Price: $15.00
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available
Publication Date: July 5, 2012


Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 5, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1475024584
ISBN-13: 978-1475024586


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vitabu features the memorable sixth chapter of Bakar Mansaray's new book

Image
Bakar Mansaray, the founder of the Mandingo Scrolls blog and winner of the 2017 Writer-of-the-Year, Afro-Canadian Heroes Award, is known for his riveting short stories and tales of life in his native Sierra Leone. In his new book, My Afro-Canadian Chronicle , published by Sierra Leonean Writers Series, the author sheds a personal light on the devastating effects of underdevelopment on a country that went through one of the most atrocious civil wars in modern history. "For those who have read books of literature, history and anthropology from Sierra Leone and yet harbour the sinking feeling that there had to be a missing link between narratives, Bakar’s book provides that missing link to complete the national narrative," writes novelist and poet Oumar Farouk Sesay in the Foreword. "This autobiography is a portrait painted on a canvas of memory in vivid and sometimes dark hues, telling a story only a mind as lucid as the author’s can tell. This excerpt was used wi
Read more

Summer hangout with Pede Hollist's So the Path Does Not Die

Image
Pede Hollist, a native of Sierra Leone, is an associate professor of English at The University of Tampa, Florida. His interests cover the literature of the African imagination—literary expressions in the African continent as well as in the African Diaspora. So the Path Does not Die is his first novel.  His short story "‘Foreign Aid" was on the shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. Vitabu : I found So the Path Does Not Die a remarkable book. The story travels from a graphic, mystical past to the present time, through almost impossible and sometimes hidden cultural, social and economic issues. How did you come up with the idea for the Musudugu chaper? Pede Hollist: Among the Kuranko, Musudugu refers to a woman’s dwelling, but it also describes a mythical place where only women lived, happily and in sisterhood.  The story of Kumba Kargbo’s confrontation with the elders of Musudugu suggests that the conflict between old and new ways and the tension betw
Read more

Susan's Bay, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Image
An undated aerial photo of Susan's Bay, Freetown by Wallin Eleazar Riebel of Otterbein University. The postcard was digitized in March 2006 and the digital publisher is the Otterbein University Library. The original photo is stored in the repository of the Otterbein University Library Archives. Postcard captioned, "Susan's Bay, Sierra Leone." Aerial view, looking inland. ( Susan's Bay, Freetown, Sierra Leone ) On Wednesday, March 24, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr Mayor of Freetown wrote on Facebook :  "J ust left the scene of a terrible fire at Susan’s Bay. The entire community has been burnt to the ground. Thousands are affected. We won’t know the full scale of the disaster until tomorrow when we conduct an assessment with NDMA and other partners. Many children are missing, separated from their parents in the chaos. Twelve children were at the FSU at Eastern Police station. We understand that other children might have boarded boats moored on the wharf. Devastating to w
Read more