The principal character in the book, "Fortune favors the bold", is a polygamous, heartless African man, although socially respected and perceived as cursed as a result of an unexpected bad turn on events.

The protagonist, Asweda, faces severe physical injuries while looking for a mid-wife to assist his wife to deliver. He becomes an embarrassment to society when his wife gives birth to a male child who turns out to be a product of infidelity. He struggles to cover up the shame and, in the process, breaks the laid down society norms, an act which angered the ancestors, marking the onset and manifestation of a curse in his life. His family is very affected by drought, hunger and famine. He struggles to sire a male child.

Asweda, being a romantic man, marries up to four wives, one of whom comes out to be a night runner and a magician.

On a migration mission, Asweda losses all his wealth to thieves, his gardener is killed, and his child becomes critically sick. He heartlessly butchered one of the thieves on a defense mission. Asweda makes a hard decision to bury his gardener in a strange foreign bush land and later haunts him and demands to be buried in ancestral land.

Asweda ignores the cleansing ceremony which comes along with serious consequences. The now poor African man plots rustling exercise in an attempt to gain wealth, killing an 'Oromo' man, in the process running away with a large, s number of cattle. The Oromo men attacked him on a revenge mission, chopping off his leg and throwing him in a cave where he spent quite some time eating rats for survival.

The African polygamous man later reunites with the family only to find all his wives already inherited. He struggled to own back his wives. Asweda sires a son at his old age. Twelve years later, he blesses his son Obulala and then dies partially satisfied. His brother Ocholi also dies mysteriously. Betrayal, cunningness wealth and poverty manifest in Asweda's lineage.

FORTUNE FAVOUR THE BOLD

The name given to any person has a meaning. Some names came out to be a burden to the bearer. Thishida Nasimalwa was named after the circumstances. His father was Asweda (though not biological), and his mother was Suzana. His birth was closely followed by challenges in the family, which earned him the name Thishida Nasimalwa. The name meant a person born when the family had extreme problems. Some of the causes that made him earn the name were the injuries he further faced during his birth and the dramatic seris of events that would have led to Suzana being stoned to death. 


THE NAMING BURDEN