It’s All About Love: A Tribute to Simbo Nyakwera Ntiro
20 August 1961-13 July 2008
Dearest
Simbo,
You must be so pleased to see how many tributes are
made to you from all over the world, now that you have passed on. If
you ever
doubted your impact on other people, you can now rest assured that you
were
loved and admired by lots and lots of people, around the world. As you
know, we
had our own story. So I want to post something online about us, in your
honour,
for the world to know a bit more about your life. I also want to
ascertain your
link to Sweden.
So here you go, sweetie, this is your page in .se. And now the Internet
will
never be empty again :-).
We
started off as colleagues, back in October 2002. It
was Nils Jensen, Senior ICT Adviser at Sida/Embassy of Sweden in Dar es Salaam, who first introduced
us. I was on a study
tour in Tanzania
as part of my work in developing an ICT for Development Strategy for
Sida’s
Department for Democracy and Social Development, and this was my first
trip to
the country. Nils made sure I met you and David Sawe, key people in ICT
in Tanzania.
You
were late for that meeting, but I was still thoroughly impressed by
your professionalism.
In the following years, I came to rely on you for input on various
matters
pertaining to ICT in Tanzania,
and with time we also got to work together on several projects. I’m so proud of our work at WSIS Tunis in
November 2005, what with the Tanzania National Pavilion, the Tanzania
Day and
the Multimedia Performance by the Bagamaoyo College of Arts. We blew
everyone
away, you, Mlaki and myself, placing Tanzania on the global ICT
map. You
wrote a splendid report about Tanzania
at WSIS Tunis, and we also published an article
about it, my only
co-publication to date. I don’t know how one of your latest projects,
Bridgeit
Tanzania, will fare without your technical and strategic advise, but as
I
continue my work with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
(MoEVT), to which you have always contributed behind the scenes, I will
do my
best to support that flagship project of the Ministry.
Simbo at
WSIS Prepcom, Palais des Nations
Geneva, September 2005
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Simbo with
Heads of Sweden’s and Tanzania’s
delegations to WSIS Tunis
in Tanzania’s National Pavilion, November 2005
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The TZ
team at WSIS Tunis: Simbo and Mzee Mlaki
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It
has always been great working with you, and no one
can replace your intelligence, vision, dedication, thoroughness and
vast
experience. You were a true netizen, connecting people and openly
sharing
knowledge and information. Your key role in ICT in Tanzania
has left an enormous gap.
Your ‘brother’ David Sawe and others will build on the foundation you
put in
place and guide the next generation of professionals to do their utmost
for Tanzania’s
future in the global information society. Come what may, you will
forever
remain one of the founding fathers of Tanzania’s ICT efforts, and
you
will continue to be a source of inspiration. The fact that the ICT
community in
Tanzania
(and beyond) have awarded you the title Father
of Internet Social Networking in Tanzania affirms your place in
this
country’s history. Knowing all too well how selflessly you worked for Tanzania,
I
note this recognition with pleasure and pride.
In
addition to working together, we became friends
very early on. Whenever I was in Tanzania, I made sure to
spend time
with you and David, typically over a drink at the High Table at
Jackie’s, where
you introduced me to so many people, friends as well as professional
colleagues. I always enjoyed those moments, and our friendship
certainly
contributed to my feeling at home in Tanzania. You were so much
fun,
charming, witty, and playful. And such a sophisticated gentleman, what
with
your RP English, and cosmopolitan manners. Most of the people I know in
Tanzania
I have
met through you, so you will always be part of my life here. Thank you
for
connecting us. Your friends are now showing just how much you touched
their
lives, and are generously repaying some of the love you shared
throughout your
life. God bless them all!
Simbo with Steve,
Frank and Robert at Jackie’s Bar
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Three
Simbos
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David
and Chris
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Paula and
David
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Simbo
performing at Q-Bar
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Three
brothers: David, Adam and Simbo
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With time,
we connected further, adding yet another
dimension to our relationship. Our love story began in Bagamaoyo on 27
May
2005. We opened our hearts to one another, and from then on, I got to
share
your life in the most intimate and intricate ways. Remember how Nils
carried my
bags to your car, as I moved from his and Mama Lucia’s house to yours.
You
liked calling me your wife, and hausfrau. Let’s keep my contact name in
your
phone a secret…You were my husbonde, my sambo, my mtamu macho man and
my bear.
Our love story was indeed grand, as it would be between a man of your
complexity and a woman of my character, whose lives intertwined in so
many
ways. You said I was the most important woman in your life, and I
believe I was
the one who could finally love you in a way you deserved. As for you,
Big Guy,
it took you to connect my heart and intellect, at long last.
Over
the three years that we were together our families
also connected. We spent Christmas with my family in Sweden
in 2005 and although you
never got a chance to meet my father, he thought of you as his son in
law. You
introduced me to your family in Kampala,
in August 2006, and I was received with open arms. We had such a great
time
with your mother Akiiki and your brother Joseph, and your relatives and
friends, who clearly loved and admired you. I was so proud when I was
given the
Runyoro pet name Adyeri by your mother, before we returned to Dar es Salaam,
so that your relatives could
greet me properly. I am also glad that I got a chance to spend some
time with
your children, Sarah and Sim Sim, after they were reunited with you as
of
December last year after a five-year separation, together with their
cousin
Wamuyu, who called you Pop. You were such a loving and caring father,
going out
of your way to make your children comfortable and happy, providing for
them and
protecting them, playing with them, and nurturing them with your love
and
wisdom. Sim Sim has now been made head of the family, and I know you
are proud
of him, as you showed so clearly at your funeral in Machame, through
that
strong breeze you sent us, with your love and blessings. I am now
getting to
know your relatives in Tanzania
better, and they are very loving and caring people. As for your
‘father’
Theophilus Mlaki and your mother in Tanzania, Mary Tolfree,
they are
living proof of the work of God. God bless them all!
In
sharing these parts of your life, I want the world
to know that you lived up to your name, Simbo Nyakwera Ntiro. Simbo, a
gift and
blessing, Nyakwera, light and immaculate (and which you also stretched
to stand
for pure heart, which I won’t contest). And Ntiro, the extraordinary
lineage of
late Professor
Sam J.
Ntiro and Dr Sarah Ntiro,
each an
outstanding individual who have played a significant role in the
histories of
Tanzania and Uganda respectively, and who gave you the intelligence, artistic talent, education, exposure, moral
backbone, faith and love that allowed you to achieve so many great
things in
life. You are now placed next to your late father in your family house
in
Machame, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. That is indeed the most
befitting place
for the final rest of such an extraordinary son of Africa.
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Simbo, in
sharing these stories, I also want to pay
tribute to our love, for that is what I will remember you by. Over the
years,
you have taught me so many things about life and love, and you have
made me a
stronger and better person than I used to be. Our close friends and
families
know how turbulent our relationship was, but only we know how deep our
love
was. I will not try to capture our love in words. It is better
expressed by
your song for me (Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed)
and my song for you
(Stevie Wonder’s From the Bottom of My Heart).
All I can conclude is that I do
believe I was a dream come true for you, and if you wonder just how
long I will
love you, try forever, that’s how long I’ll feel this way.
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I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and
even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a
noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired
preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may
have all the faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I
am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body
to be burnt – but if I have no love, this does me no good.
Love is eternal. There are inspired messages,
but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues,
but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our
gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when
what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
1 Corinthians 13
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God is
great, and God is loving. You always said I
would be the last woman in your life and that I would bury you one day.
God has
proven you right. I will always remain grateful for having had you in
my life,
and I will keep your love in my heart forever. You are now with God.
Knowing
that you are at peace, my heart is also at peace.
I will go
on with my life, and I will do so with a
smile, knowing that you shared with me the greatest truth about life: it’s all about love.
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Paula Uimonen (Adyeri)
Dar es Salaam 3 August 2008
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