The Last Despatch 2023
Dear Fellow,
I am writing this despatch at the University of Jos Library, the setting for my book The University Library. Today is Wednesday, 14th December 2023. I have to start writing this early so that I don’t forget anything that should be communicated to you. This is the last despatch for this year. This despatch will show you all that has happened since the first despatch for this year.
The History
The first despatch from me on Substack was published on 14th August 2021. I still love the first piece. It read thus:
A Welcome: First Random Despatch
Welcome fellow learner, student of life.
Random Despatches can be seen as a carriage or postal; the former for anyone who joins in the seeking of uncharted territories and the latter for anyone who seeks to keep track of the news from this end of the world of a fellow learner.
Either ways, let’s have a fun ride. Here’s a welcome to you mate! Come along as we ride into discovery of the unseen and unheard of.
Cheers to discoveries and learning.
A lot has changed about this newsletter since then. Now, you receive personalised letters every week—precisely on Saturdays. In 2021, the pieces went out haphazardly. I published only when I felt I had something to write. The major change over the years for me was the name change.
As you can tell from the excerpt above, Random Despatches was the initial name for this newsletter. Last year, it took on a different image in the eyes of onlookers—a lot of people began to see it as a publisher. Well, the activities happening under the name gave the impression. There are now seven electronic books bearing the RANDOM DESPATCHES colophon. This means the name is no longer a personal, individualised entity. RANDOM DESPATCHES is evolving into a publishing entity—and is currently reserved and registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria. Due to that change, it became difficult for me to write in a more personalised way. Hence the emergence of LetterMan Despatches.
The Year in Focus
The new LetterMan Despatches, now a publication of RANDOM DESPATCHES, is a more personalised newsletter. The first despatch under the new name went out on the first Saturday of February this year—Saturday, 4th February 2023. The piece was titled “The LetterMan Welcome.” Altogether, I have published 43 despatches (including this one you are reading now) this year. From the first in 2021 to the last in 2022, I have published 77 pieces. Cumulatively, I have published 120 articles on this space provided by Substack.
As of the last despatch in 2022, there were 1,244 folks subscribed to this newsletter. This year, the subscriber count grew by about thirty per cent—at the time of this writing, there are 1,624 folks subscribed to this newsletter. Thank you, good Fellow, for being a part of this journey so far.
The Year Ahead
This year closes in the next two weeks. It is important to retreat and prepare to launch, again, but better, in the new year. Around this time of the year, I get excited and expectant. I am more excited about this newsletter when I know I showed up each week, except for the three weeks even though not consecutively. You are the reason I choose to stay awake some Friday nights; because I know that you are waiting to read from me the next morning, I am encouraged to stay up. I have received private feedback, comments, criticisms, and applause. I have not gotten any suggestions on how to make this place look and feel better for you. However, I am still grateful for what has been given to me already.
In the coming year, I hope to make a few changes, especially to the form, structure and aesthetics of this newsletter. You will see more changes in the content. Perhaps I have not mentioned explicitly the purpose behind this newsletter—however, that excerpt from the very first despatch above goes a long way. Fundamentally, this newsletter is my public practice of writing as a craft. I hope you are excited as I am more grateful to carry you along on my journey of evolution into a better writer over time.
The Close
Last week’s despatch revealed a bit of what is going on in my head concerning this newsletter in the coming year. You may do well to check it out, as I will not like to discuss it here again. But you should expect more and better in the coming year, God willing. I feel very hopeful for the adventure ahead. I hope you feel the same.
I am glad to say that my numbers grew in part because of the recommendations and referrals by other publications here on Substack. They are as follows with the number of subscribers I got from their recommendation in parenthesis: Little Ends (1,083), Mental Health Notes (75), Happy’s Newsletter (33), Reader’s Journal (31), Ban Dashan (21), The Scriber thoughts (20), Rhythm (8), Mackenzie Andersen’s The Individual vs The Empire! (4), Royal Rubies (3), The Extra Mile (1). They brought in a total of 1,279 to this newsletter—that is, about 78 per cent of the total subscribers on this newsletter.
The Side Note
Perhaps this encourages you. This newsletter was my CV for getting the role of a staff writer at Walking Together. It has been a year of significant improvement for me, learning about each task from my gracious editor. I hope this encourages you to show what you do. Maybe you already have something to share with the world but have not because of fear or doubt. My encouragement for you is that you should not regret not sharing in your latter years. Your gifts, talents, and abilities are not meant for you alone—they were given to you for the benefit of the rest of us.
I pray you have a restful and wonder-filled holiday. See you stronger and more hopeful in the coming year. Thank you, good, good, Fellow!
Your LetterMan,
Tongjal, W. N.
Postscript: I would love to know which of this year’s despatch titles is the most interesting for you. Choosing titles is probably the most exciting part of running this newsletter for me. Below are the archives for this newsletter since 2021. Kindly check the catalogue of the titles for 2023, and share your favourite title in the comments of this despatch. (My favourite title for this year is: “Man, Purpose and Becoming”)
Here are the archives for this newsletter:
Publications in 2021: See
Publications in 2022: See
Publications in 2023: See
This is awesome.
I loved how you kept track of so much data.
My favorite titles would be:
1.My Grandfather's notebook
2.Three points and a response
3.Not much for today.
I think I picked those based on how much I connected with the content.
Thank you for showing up always
Enjoy your holiday. We look forward to more from you.