Buy a plot of land. Get married. Learn how to drive. Quit smoking. Eat healthily. Go to the gym. Do any of these sound familiar? People often create a list of what they feel are attainable New Year’s resolutions. In his article, 5 steps to setting and keeping New Year’s resolutions, Bob Seebohar expounds on setting and keeping resolutions as some goals never see the light of day. "Were you successful at the one you set this year? Did you get in over your head with too much ambition and not enough execution? Perhaps you simply didn’t understand the commitment to your resolution,” he notes.

"2022 was better than last year, I have been able to work with other artists and storytellers, landed good writing gigs, and collaborated with international artists,” says Sandra Nadege, an author and poet.

She notes that she partook in a couple of national and international competitions, such as Storytelling Lab organised by Merck, a pharmaceutical company, and Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) to find solutions for awareness on Bilharzia. Nadege also participated in the iAccelerator challenge and travelled to some East African countries.

As the countdown to 2023 draws near, like Nadege, many people are reflecting on the current year, plans accomplished, those that weren’t and why, and goals going forward.

"I wasn’t able to fix a healthy schedule because I was busy grabbing every opportunity coming my way, thus ending up with a number of deadlines to meet. This became worse with academic commitments too,” she says.

For the New Year, Nadege is planning to complete her academics, and infiltrate corporate content creation and storytelling projects. She looks forward to travelling a little bit more, especially within East Africa.

Slow start, great end

For Evans Mwendwa, aka Deejay Spin, the year started slowly, though he has been able to achieve seven out of 10 of his goals.

He explains that the achievements are that his business grew tremendously, and spared time for family, but most importantly, got time off work to go on a vacation outside the country.

Although he had plans to pursue his second Master’s degree, time wasn’t on his side as he had a lot on his plate. Though he was invited to Dubai for a gig, he had to turn it down, as the event collided with other commitments.

Moving forward, he hopes to visit several countries, boost his Innovation DJ Academy, and enrol for his Master’s degree.

Digital goals

According to Aime Albert Sangwa, a professional photographer and entrepreneur, 2022 has been an amazing year, both professionally and personally. He launched his digital marketing agency dubbed ‘Sassuo.’

Sangwa says that he also inaugurated his first Masterclass for business owners, whom he teaches to grow their businesses with content creation, especially YouTube and short-form content. The course is live now, and he has over 632 business owners from all over the world signed up for the programme.

"I also managed to open a community online hub, where students can access and share knowledge on several ways to grow and scale their businesses. So far, it has over 3,500 subscribers worldwide,” Sangwa says gleefully, adding that he also launched an E-learning platform ‘version two’, where he targets big markets from the US, Canada, and Europe.

"We have now opened our new office in Montreal, Canada, and Boston in the US, and recently, we also launched a business and entrepreneur podcast, which is live on all podcast platforms, ‘Sassuo podcast with Sangwa Aime’, where we share so many insights, testimonials, and strategies from different business owners all around the world on how to grow and to scale business and the tools to help them do so,” he says.

Though he has accomplished quite a lot, his target, he says, wasn’t met as there was a lot to do in a short period. He was supposed to launch his first business book but decided to first build a wider audience first.

Sangwa adds that he failed to launch his marketing campaign and conferences due to a busy schedule. He is, however, anticipating creating more products for his users and increasing awareness in Africa, specifically in 2023, and contributing to the future of technology in every sector of business.

Music

Eloi Muhoranimana, commonly as ‘Eloi El’, is excited about the deal he scooped with producer Kygo’s label. Kygo has been his inspiration since the start of his career.

He highlights that he tried various genres of music and is grateful that he released music that portrays dissimilar sides of his life.

"Also, this year I was able to start a production company called, Blooming Visual together with Ayo Merci and El Celestin. This company will be the one directing all my music videos,” Muhoranimana says.

2023, he expects to showcase his music in front of audiences through live shows and performances since his dream is to also help popularise Electronic Dance Music (EDM) in Rwanda. Besides that, he is writing and working on new music that will be released next year.

For the love of art

For Brave Japhet Ndamukunda, this year has been one for celebrating successes as he opened his art and interior design gallery called La Lune.

The brand’s tailoring department has sold 20 suits, 30 shirts, 15 dresses, more than 100 kitenge kimonos, and more than 100 pairs of sandals.

The interior design section, Ndamukunda says, has sold more than 100 pieces of furniture, while La Lune’s art gallery has sold 13 art pieces.

He has also offered art classes and taught more than 100 people. Ndamukunda says he has worked with Greenhill Academy’s primary section where he has shared knowledge in art and fashion.

He wasn’t able to open more galleries as expected. "I want to organise a fashion show, start guitar classes, and collaborate with different artists, he says, adding that he hopes to conduct more art and guitar classes starting in January, and anticipates organising four to five art exhibitions.

Among other plans, Ndamukunda also wants to teach the history of art, enhance creativity through interior design and create many partnerships with local carpenters, exhibit his first Made in Rwanda acoustic guitars, plus release his collection of sandals.

Books and more

Fred Mfuranzima, a poet, writer, and artist, says he was able to publish his new book titled ‘The Lonely Soul’ and participated in an art exhibition on mental health and peacebuilding, performing on different stages, which helped him to connect and develop his poetry/music performance. He recently developed a network to be able to use his talents to inspire a culture of peace in the region.

"I think of learning from what I did and also developing what didn’t go well, it’s better to trust the process. I anticipate planning to digitise my works and expand to the local and international outreach.”