After praying together, eating, and half-arguing over who’d do dishes, the two friends had laughed their way into the late evening. Japheth had convinced Luyando to stay up and watch the replay of the Chelsea match from two weeks ago, Ham had scored a beautiful header. It was surreal, watching his kid brother on the […]

The top floor of the Nezelcom building was quiet in that expensive, padded kind of way, where even the silence felt expensive. Many have worked for years in the company and never even seen a picture of what it looks like.   Japheth stepped out of the elevator and gave a polite nod to the […]

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – Present Day   Company retreats were not the kind of reward you could quantify. They didn’t show up on payslips or annual reviews. But they were a kind of currency, one that bought loyalty in subtle, silent ways. A few days away from office noise, dressed in strategy decks and […]

Lusaka, Zambia – Fifteen Years Ago   Japheth Mwansa was sixteen the year everything collapsed. He was the first son in a house of three boys, and the only one still trying to keep the walls from crumbling. Shem, his younger brother by two years, had fists for hands and fury in his eyes. And […]