By Irene Kiiza
WEEKLY OBSERVER
When former Attorney General and Speaker of Parliament
Francis Ayume died in a motor accident after a golf tournament
in Masindi on May 16, 2004, Samuel Wossita, who had covered
the event, was more than saddened.
He mourned and eulogised for what seemed like eternity.
It is therefore ironical that Wossita died the same way,
almost four years later.
Samuel Wossita was a photo-journalist who loved children,
sports and his work. We shared working space at The Monitor,
in ‘Newsroom Two’. On a good day, Wossita would
buy plenty of fried cassava chips and everybody would tease
him about trying to eat a basket of cassava alone.
Usually, Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, Lillian Agasha, or David
Kibirige, would start the ‘fire’ and he would
eventually let each one of us eat some of the cassava. But
however much we made fun of him, Wossita kept a glow on
his face.
Wossita was a man of the people; he had friends both in
the high profile offices and among lowly citizens whom he
sat with in the evenings to partake of his favourite malwa
and sometimes waragi in Nakawa.
Although we teased him about his malwa associates, Wossita
simply laughed it all off. In the evening he would feel
his pocket, his bag hanging off the right shoulder and he
would pull out a few thousand notes, then declare, “This
is enough to buy Bush (his son) milk and get me a kolo kolo
of malwa; see you guys!”
That was him; he took life in his stride. In 2003 when
he had a brush with death after suffering a bout of diabetes,
Wossita joked about the disease trying to cut him short
from the joy of being husband to the most beautiful woman
in the world, Faith.
Most of the time he walked around with pictures of his
children and when you asked about them he would pull out
a picture and begin discussing Rachel, Jackie, Nambafu or
George Bush; talking about them as the most brilliant and
healthy children he had ever seen.
But his passion did not stop at his own children, if there
was any story to write about a child, he was the first to
volunteer. No wonder his last story was the Budo Junior
School tragedy. Wossita also made sure he attended most
schools’ Sports Days, Speech Days and even birthdays.
From these events, he wrote stories and took pictures.
During the time I was Children Editor at The Monitor, he
would haggle with me for hours just to make sure I included
the smallest detail of his children’s stories. And
if he chanced on a child that needed medical attention or
sponsorship to study, he made it a point that such a child’s
plight got space in the paper. Maybe he understood them
better than many of us.
Wossita, was not only a keen journalist, he was a good
person. He did not want to see people stressed. In the morning
he would greet everyone and if he realized you were wearing
a sad face he would probe and urge you to take it easy,
occasionally offering to get you a drink or anything from
the canteen on him, if it could make things better.
So involved was he in everybody’s life that I once
took it upon myself to stop him from smoking. I kept telling
him that since he was so worried about other people, then
he should be worried enough about himself and just quit
smoking – he never took offence even when the rebuking
was sometimes too harsh.
The negative about this Mugisu man was his fast nature;
sometimes he did things so hurriedly, and it resulted in
him losing property or letting silly mistakes into his stories.
He probably liked the way his death came. So fast! His
very nature would probably be irked by slipping through
coma first and languishing in a hospital before dying. In
the accident at Nyendo, he died on the spot. And the funeral
too was ‘express’; some of us missed it even
when we wanted to attend.
He joined The Monitor in 1996, marking his debut with the
scoop on Kabaka Ronald Mutebi’s intention to marry
Dr. Catherine Ssozi. An introduction ceremony was reportedly
in the offing.
“I went with him to Ssozi’s home in Kisugu
and Prof. Senteza Kajubi was the MC and we sneaked in for
that story, and it was a good story. That is how he joined
the paper,” recalls Hassan Badru Zziwa, a colleague.
What more do we say? Rest in peace yaya!
ikiiza@ugandaobserver.com
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