My biggest influence is The Deity H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I.  And also some of Africa's giants (not in any order) Bessie Head, Alex La Guma, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Mordecai Hamutyinei, Dambudzo Marechera, Shimmer Chinodya, Kalu Opki, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Cyprian Ekwensi, Makeda Barbara Blake-Hannah (who wrote the first work of Rastafarian fiction). I am also a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Stephen King and English classics authors such as the Brontes, Dickens etc.