112-year-old Oitamong can still read and dig
David Oitamong and his wife Eseza Alenyo in front of their house in Otaama village, Kumi District. Oitamong credits his wife’s fortitude as one of the things that have kept him strong.
Photo by Richard Otim
What you need to know:
David Oitamong says what has kept him alive all these years is living a peaceful life, loving his wife and depending on God
He is barely four feet tall and walks with a slight stoop. He is, however, not frail. He walks without a cane and the centurion still reads without the aid of glasses and unlike many of those in his generation, he has a good memory of every event in his life.
This is David Oitamong, a resident of Otaaba village in Kumi Town Council, Kumi District and he is 112 years old.
Mzee Oitamong as he is fondly called, has a sharp recollection of his childhood. From the moment he was told his age, he has kept good memory of every detail about his life.
“My boss, a white man helped me (then) to calculate when I was born from my baptism records. It was long ago and I still know my age very well,” Oitamong says.
He might be very old but Oitamong seems to be growing stronger and stronger, rarely falling sick, save for the occasional cold.
A father of 13 children with only eight surviving, Oitamong also a lay-preacher at one of the local churches in the neighbourhood still does garden work on his own and spends at least two hours tending to his crops each day of the rain season.
His inspiration
“The Bible is my weapon and source of inspiration. We have failed to heed to God’s guidance and that is why a lot of disasters and diseases have continued to befall humankind,” Oitamong says.
One of his favourite quotes from the Bible reads: “A donkey knows its master’s home but you, my people, have forgotten where you belong.”
In the seclusion of his humble home, Oitamong draws satisfaction from living a life of detachment from the material world that many are always anxious about.
“I live a simple life. I am contented with what God has given me and I don’t like beggars,” the old man who lives in a cracked mud and wattle hut says.
On love and marriage
His wife, Eseza Alenyo, 82, who he has been married to, for more than 60 years is all he cherishes and is the fortitude of his life.
“Love is very important and it is the key to harmony in a family. She has been my only wife and we are still in deep love,” Oitamong says.
He detests polygamy and argues it is the cause of much of the domestic violence tearing away the unity of many families in Teso.
Oitamong says he reads at least two pages of the Bible, three times a day, and this helps him to shed off most worries about many things.
“Sometimes we have no sugar to put in our tea. It does not worry me because the Bible tells me man does not live on bread alone,” Oitamong says.
What others say about him
Maj Kanuti Akorimo who is about 80 years old and a resident of the neighbouring Omatenga village, says he grew up and began going to school when Oitamong was already an adult.
“I am not sure if that is his age but when I began school, he was a grown-up,” Akorimo, the first man to hoist the Ugandan flag on independence day at Kololo in 1962, said.
Kumi LC5 chairperson Ismail Orot said the district is soon coming up with a special fund for the elderly like Oitamong to enable them cope with challenges associated with old age.
“This old man [Oitamong] is capable of living up 120 years only if he can be helped with the basics required for such elderly persons,” Orot says.
According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Masao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman while the oldest verified was Jeanne Calment from France who died at 122 and 164 days in 1997.
If Oitamong’s claim could be verified, this will make him only three years younger, than the world’s living oldest person.
