Saidi Ally Masimango: the unsung hero
It was the morning of Monday July 22, 2013 when I received a brief but chilling email from a close relative. The relative wrote and I quote verbatim:
"Msiba! Saidi Masimango amefariki asubuh hii, TMJ hospital! Innaa Lillah wainnaa ilayhi Raajuun".
This is literally translated as "Misfortune! Saidi Masimango died this morning, TMJ hospital! We are all from Allah and unto Him is our return".
The time was 7.54 am. I was taking my wife and two daughters to Dubai International Airport to catch their flight to Dar es Salaam. We were coming from the UK to attend graduation ceremony of our son Luqman Dau, who the previous Wednesday, earned his BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology from the University of Sheffield.
As with all sudden deaths, my initial reaction was that of disbelief. I asked myself several questions. Is this the same Masimango who is my Director of IT at NSSF? What might have happened to him? As several questions were racing through my mind, I quickly made an international call to Mrs Chiku Matessa who was taking charge of my office while I was away. At the time, Mrs Matessa was already at the TMJ hospital and confirmed to me that our beloved colleague Saidi Ally Masimango is no more!
In keeping with Islamic teachings and tradition, I knew that the funeral will take place not later than the following day, i.e., Tuesday July 23. I found myself utterly helpless because I was halfway to the airport to drop my family and the flight was only 2 hours away. I didn't have a booking for the flight and didn't have my passport with me at the time. I had no option except to throw the towel because there was no way in those 2 hours I could have catch that flight to escort my colleague to his eternal home. What was left for me was to pray for the departed soul.
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