By Gracian Tukula
When I moved to Blantyre on New Year’s Day in 1986, one of the things I looked forward to most was to watch Limbe Leaf Wanderers, the team I was indoctrinated to support together with Liverpool, in action. That was the year the Super League was born and, incidentally, the first game I had the opportunity to watch did not involve Wanderers. It was Bata Bullets versus Admarc Tigers at the BAT Ground. There is a story about that, but that is for another day.
One thing I noticed at the game was a man seated along the touchline with his radio/cassette player recording his own commentary of the match. I had no idea who it was, but I later learnt that this was the man I had been hearing presenting match reports on MBC’s sports programme which used to come at around 9PM on Saturdays and Sundays if the Ngwazi did not have any public engagement earlier in the day – your man on the touchline, Moses Dossi.
Dossi became a popular sight at various football venues recording his commentaries. It is only now that I am wondering what he did with the cassettes!
My personal encounters with the man came almost 10 years after that first glimpse of him at the BAT Ground. As sports editor at Nation Publications Limited I crossed paths with him many times and we became friends, sort of. We grew into even closer acquaintances during my time in Manja, where he also resided, between 1997 and 1998. He used to address me as Achimwene – quite humble for someone who, I later discovered, was almost two decades older.
Fast forward to 2002 when I returned to Nation Publications after a few years in Lilongwe. As a media house, we ran an essay competition on what needed to be done to improve the country’s football and, as Deputy Editor responsible for sports, I was at the centre of the competition’s management.
At the end of the competition, we decided to have a prize presentation ceremony for the winners at the Kamuzu Institute of Sports in Lilongwe and Dossi was invited to be the Guest of Honour as that time’s Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture. I remember him calling me to ask if I could do his speech for the event. The conversation we had after that event would inform what followed some months later.
After one Sunday service at St Pius X Parish where we both congregated at the time, Dossi asked if I could take him home for a “very serious” discussion. I was glad to host him and we met at my residence in Naperi. In that discussion he told me that he was seriously vying for the position of party president for the United Democratic Front and was getting “substantial” grassroots support. That support had prompted him to think beyond the party presidency, which he claimed was almost foregone, and start thinking about the state presidency. He was, therefore, already looking at his cabinet and one of the first names on that cabinet, I was told, was mine. He was, however, not sure whether I should be the Minister of Information, due to my media background, or Minister of Sports (because of my demonstrated interest in that field). He, therefore, wanted to consult me before finalising the cabinet list.
I briefly flirted with the thought of being Honourable Gracian Tukula Mbewe, but quickly got a dosage of reality. A minister under His Excellency Moses Tobias Dossi? That did not sound possible to me. The odds that he had to surmount to become leader of the UDF, let alone ascend to the state presidency, were humongous, in my view. I was so sure that he was not going to become the UDF leader, although part of me admired his steely determination. The problem was that I could not say that to my guest who had been so gracious as to consider me to be in his cabinet were he to ascend to the country’s highest office and I, therefore, did not know what to say. Eventually, I thanked him for the honourable offer and asked him to give me time to consider it.
As it turned out, he did not do well at the UDF convention as expected and with that ended the prospects of me ever becoming a cabinet minister. We have not met many times after that, but on the few occasions that we did, I have always admired his positivity. He was still always dreaming big and being almost sure of success. He was a man who never allowed defeat to make him have a low estimation of himself. Impossible did not exist for him. That is the lingering lesson that will stay with me as he sleeps.
For me, Moses Dossi was a legend and he will always be fondly remembered.
Sleep well Achimwene, Sleep well my President.
