Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed lotta people but it seems the good they die young
You know I just looked around and he’s gone
Anybody here seen my old friend John?…..
Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?….
Someday soon, it’s gonna be one day
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill
You know I just looked around and he’s gone
With Abraham, Martin, and John. — Richard Louis Holler
Last week this column started the annual roundup of the year’s Good, Bad, and downright Ugly. While on the Good list four items were listed, this week’s Bad list is a painful journey that looks at the people we lost locally and around the world.
A truly ndilira ine misonzi (I, me cry tears) trip, many agree with me it seems similar to our losses in 2020 at the height of COVID-19. From relatives, to world political and religious leaders to movie stars, sports legends and renowned journalists, the trip on this lane is painful to bear.
From the family and closes friends’ lane, we lost Zamatchecha Mbekeani, Chief Chanthunya, Ibrahim Chimwaza, two good friends Alice Konyani Johnson, Lizzie Brown (nee Chipendo), John Mataya, Frank Mlotcha, Gulam Pinto, Malawi football legend Yasin Osman, George Mvula, Roman Catholic University Vice Chancellor Professor Ngei Kanyongolo, Ernest Phiri, Gerald Nyamacherengwa, and Kester Kamphaizi.
Had I known that when Alice came on a surprise visit for my 70th birthday, would be the last time I would see her, maybe I would have spent more time with her, giggling along Virginia and Maryland streets as we exchanged jokes, or shared more prayers. Ndilira ine misonzi.
On the international platform there exists a truckload of the very known personalities who have also graduated to the heavenlies.
The list is not exhaustive but a sample of who is lost to us.
The list includes Pope Francis, Jimmy Swaggart, Malcom Jamal-Warner (Theo Huxtable in The Bill Cosby Show), my best friend’s sister Bonnie Chattey, former US Vice President Dick Cheney, Voice of America Straight Talk broadcaster Shaka Ssali, former Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga, late Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, and Joan Kennedy, former wife of late Senator Ted Kennedy.
From the music scene, the world lost a coterie of music giants; among them Dance to the Music man Sly Stone, I can see clearly now Jimmy Cliff, Roberta Flack (First time ever I saw your face), Black Sabbath leader Ozzie Ozborn, R&B star D’Angelo, Ike Turner Jr (son to music legend Tina and Ike Turner), and Connie Francis (first black female musician to hit the charts).
From the silver screen, gone are heartthrob Sundance Kid Robert Redford, Dianne Keating (The God Father, Annie Hall, Father of the Bride), Loni Anderson, Gene Hackman, William Shatner of Star Trek fame, and Polly Holliday.
From the UK, gone too are two splendid comedians Prunella Scales (wife of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers) and Dame Patricia Routlegde (famous Keeping Up Appearances as Mrs. Bucket – pronounced so as to rhyme with bouquet) and the laughter lingers long after the shows’ final curtains.
In sports, we have lost George Foreman, the boxing legend who fought the king of boxing Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire (now DRC), Manchester City boxing star Ricky Hatton and boxing entertainer Hulk Hogan.
Olympic gold medalist Laura Dalimeier passed away. Chess Master, Daniel Naroditsky also passed. He was 29 years old. From the moon people, legendary Jim Lovell who was Apollo 13 Commander, passed on; he was 97 years young.
In the research and fashion design sections, gone is Giorgio Armani, the very legendary Italian designer. He was 91.
Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, the 33-year-old Irish and fashion designer and entrepreneur known for her Manhattan-based brand resort wear unexpectedly in August 2025 died while on a boat in Montauk Yacht Club in New York.
Lastly, the world also lost Dame Dr. Valarie Jane Morris Goodall, the ethologist who revolutionized science.
She was the world-renowned English primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian who revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees and their relationship to humans through her groundbreaking, decades-long study in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.
One of her research projects revealed that chimps use tools, hunt, and have complex personalities; she later became a tireless advocate for animal rights and environmental protection through the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots program, advocating for hope and individual action to save the planet.
Next week the downright Ugly of 2025 will be paraded.
Merry Christmas: Jesus is the reason for the Season
–
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.