Salumu Hassan Braver

Biography

Braver Heritage is a young man from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is 24 years old. He arrived in Malawi in 2013 due to insecurity issues in home country. He is currently working as a teacher, teaching different subjects at one of the private schools here in the camp, sowing hope and life through school.

He got inspired by poetry through reading the poems of his friend Frank. The friend later taught him how to write them. In 2017 he wrote his first poem entitled “Firefly.” He presented it to his friend who encouraged him. He now has more than 50 poems. He likes poetry because he finds many ideas in them, and it empowers and encourages him as well. He sits and observes everything around him and writes about them. He likes romantic and life poems, not those about despair. Poems encourage him through their different ideas. He started performing at Ubuntu auditions and got even more inspired.

His poem “Firefly” is the one he likes the most. It is a poem about relationships. When relationships do not get well and when a girl feels lonely and cheated on, he’s there to encourage her. He wrote the poem to assure her that he will be there. His second poem “Wake Up” is for youths. They are thinking uselessly, thinking that life will find them. The poem tells them, the more days are going, there’s a need to work hard, wake up, and plan for the future.

Books are romantic and about life. Readers should be inspired and never give up. God is with them through everything like the poem wake up.

Featured Poem: FIREFLY

I will be your firefly When the world will dazzle you When your eyes will be made blind Yes, I will be your firefly

As the world will be silent The sun will give no light The storm will appear in furious The wind will blow so strong The moon and the stars will fade

The day that no one will rescue your lives The day that all people act lives You will change to be inconsistent enemies

Baby, don’t despair Just close your eyes and say my name, yes Say my name with that angelic voice of yours

I swear, I will be your reflection And in rain, I will be your firefly

Biography collected and written by Lisa Gilman