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Showbiz Writer 

Gwanda-based author, journalist and broadcaster Robert Mukondiwa, whose new book The Delilah Protocol got a Roil Bulawayo Arts Award nomination, fresh from its release is basking in a sea of excitement and trepidation in equal measure.

 After his book Oliver Mtukudzi And Me won last year’s gong in the Literary Awards English section, the first non-fiction to ever win the award, a back-to-back nomination for the awards means he has extra pressure in a wide field with four other nominations.

 This comes after he was crowned reigning journalist of the year and the Unicef Gender-Based Violence journalist of the year at the National Journalism and Media Awards held early this year in Harare.

“To say I am excited is a serious understatement because this also coincidentally comes in my birthday month, making this extra special,” he said.

 “I have never minced my words on the value I place on the BAA’s as they are, in my candid opinion, the best awards ceremony in the country as well as the most inclusive and intelligently put together,” he added.

 Yet he throws in the trepidation; “I have deep respect for the other writers in the category and I would like to break the record in this category with a back-to-back win. I know I have my work cut out for me.”

 The book, The Delilah Protocol by the proud Milton boy is a riveting read with a new home-grown special agent serving his country and yet is troubled and has his demons to deal with. The lead character, Spesha, is a hot, troubled, beautiful specimen of a man as much as he is flawed, but in him, Mukondiwa creates a character people sympathise with, love and trust and often, get mad at.

 The Delilah Protocol

 The hot-blooded excerpts of passionate love-making display the prowess of Mukondiwa in full force, himself known as a dramatic and vividly descriptive writer.

“I put little elements of myself in Soesha and made sure he too learnt from Milton so that I could mold him and identify with him more. I hope the readers love him and perhaps, like James Bond, Shaft, or Simon Templar, he can become a beloved household character whom anyone from anywhere can identify with and look up to as a model of defending one’s country.

“They can also learn a lot from him on how to treat a good girl real good,” he said.

Delilah Protocol was briefly pulled from shops with a handful of first copies bearing a print error but is now available in bookshops.

 It is Mukondiwa’s third book after The Judas Files (2016), and Oliver Mtukudzi and Me (2022).