The premiere Toastmasters Challenge, contest between poets and public speakers and curated by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, was held during the #Babishai2016 Poetry Festival in Kampala in August .
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| Jordey Lonyo, contestant |
The contestants, four speakers from the Kampala Toastmasters Club and four poets, prepared for this challenge of a lifetime not knowing what was on the other side.
Phillip Matogo, the most immodest, hilarious and witty moderator in Kampala, led us through the landscape of poets vs. public speakers, the first ever challenge of its kind.
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| Phillip Matogo |
With an audience weaving through highly tense moments, biting their nails as one after the other contestant rose to present, each of the three rounds of this challenge was mentally exhausting, intellectually stimulating and entertaining too.
The first round left all of us on the edge of our seats and it took the judges a while before deliberating the two eliminated participants. Beatrice Lamwaka a Ugandan writer, Tom Jalio previous Babishai poetry winner and Lekpele Nyamalon a poet from Liberia, who judged the first round went through a painstaking process.
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| Connie Nshemereirwe, contestant |
With two eliminated, three poets and three public speakers remained.
The second round which required each contestant to use a prop was highly
creative. From tree branches, to ties and singing phones, this
round too brought out the best.
As with every competition, there's always a winner.  |
| Stephano Kiyemba |
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| Davis Tashobya |
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| Judge Beatrice Lamwaka receiving a certificate from Lynda Nabayiinda, Kampala Toastmasters President |
Paul Kavuma emerged the favourite of the Toastmasters who made it to the final round. Winnie Apio Kavuma, the love poet, was the judge's favourite finalist too. Both bore eloquence, appropriate language and imagery, clever lines and unusual anecdotes.
In the final round, the audience selected the topic which was water bottle. In her love poetry style,
Winnie manouevered her way into the audience's hearts with poise and surprising elements of spontaneity, given she only had 2 minutes to prepare for such a bizarre topic, Water bottle.
Paul Kavuma likewise elevated the meaning of public speaking with clever rhetoric and grace.
In the end, the audience was left with the arduous task of voting for the winner.
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| Paul Kavuma, first runner-up |
It was an evening of tremendous orature, incredible talent and immensely creative dialogue.
Congratulations to Winnie and Paul who won dinner cards to the #Babishai2016 award-giving dinner and festival books of their choice.
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| Winnie Apio Kavuma (winner) |
This Challenge, curated by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, will be an annual event and if any Toastmasters club world-wide is interested in using the same for their events, they should contact babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
