Former Uganda international boxer Franco Wanyama laid to rest
Kampala, Uganda (PANA) – The curtains have fallen on Franco Wanyama, a man upon whose death in the United Kingdom The Independent of the UK described as an “Olympian, Commonwealth champion and quality boxer”.
The casket containing his body was lowered into the grave at midday Saturday at his ancestral home to the farthest-east end of Uganda, at the border with Kenya.
He died on 21 March 2019, aged 51.
He fought for Uganda at the Seoul Olympics of 1988, then turned professional after moving to Belgium.
His life was in the end wrapped in tribulations, as described by The Independent: “He also met the usual crooks, chancers and liars on the road and fell victim to the usual curses like any vulnerable fighter. He beat champions, lost to champions and was a decent man: married with three kids, polite, respectful and too nice for the sharp end of the sport.”
The man who The Independent said died alone after he had “a heart attack one afternoon in his tiny room at a sheltered housing facility” had ended his boxing career in 2000, having bagged 20 wins from 29 fights.
The tribulations he suffered denied him the ending he needed and was far away from his home, Uganda, where the people who loved and adored him were.
On Friday, the day before his burial, his fans and friends in Kampala had an opportunity to pay their last respects to a man many of them described as very nice.
His silver grey casket lay on the artificial turf of the hockey grounds in Lugogo. On the casket was a Uganda black-yellow-red flag, a pair of red and white gloves akin to the ones with which he hit opponents so hard, and the World Boxing Federation World Cruiserweight belt that he won in October 1993 in Belgium. The scene was complete with a portrait of the Wanyama the mourners were used to, all youthful and full of energy.
He had not been to Uganda for a while before his passing, and the largely youthful revellers passing by did not seem to realise the enormity of the man who lay in a box. But for the motley crowd that gathered to pay their respects, the sense of pain was culpable.
His body was late on Friday transported to the burial grounds 196kms from Kampala, the capital.
-0- PANA EM/AR 11May2019
