Farewell Uganda’s giant
Jul 16, 2003
The scare of Alice Lakwena’s magic rebels was still fresh in the minds of the people of Tororo. Lakwena was thought to make stones explode like grenades and turn into a monkey whenever government soldiers closed in on her.
By Fred Nangoli
The scare of Alice Lakwena’s magic rebels was still fresh in the minds of the people of Tororo. Lakwena was thought to make stones explode like grenades and turn into a monkey whenever government soldiers closed in on her.
In 1987, she camped in Tororo, where the story of two tired, hungry Government soldiers is still told among the local people. The soldiers were returning from an operation and decided to help themselves to mangoes on a tree near the roadside in Yokolo Village, Nabiyoga Sub-county in West Budama.
While enjoying the fruits, there came a man twice their height. The soldiers who were up the tree stopped eating and breathlessly watched in shock as the giant stretched his hand and picked mangoes from the tree without climbing it.
The soldiers thought the giant was Lakwena’s spirit that had taken a different form. But the tall man was none other than the fallen Ugandan giant, John Paul Ofwono.
Ofwono died on Friday at Mulago Hospital aged 33. He was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and had traces of graniopharyngioma in the brain, a condition that causes secretion of excessive growth hormones.
Prof. Andrew Otim, who has worked on Ofwono’s case, says the tumour produced a hormone which is responsible for growth and also disrupts insulin, whose absence causes diabetes.
Once believed to be the tallest man on earth, Ofwono, later considered the third tallest man in the world, walked to international fame in 1999 when he was discovered in Yokolo village in Tororo by The New Vision.
He weighed 143kg when he was last measured in 1999. At first believed to be eight feet, four inches tall, Ofwono missed entering the Guinness Book of Records after he failed a height test conducted by Dr. Richard Dick Stockly of the British High Commission. He was found to be seven feet, six and a half inches tall and Tunisia’s Radhouane Charbib took the record for the world’s tallest living person at 7ft 8.9in.
Ofwono was brought to Kampala by 3R International, the makers of Tyson Waragi, as a promoter.
Between October 2001 and April 2002, despite his poor health and the belief that he was still growing, Ofwono declined an offer by Tyson Waragi for a brain surgery in India to remove the tumour that had excessively enhanced his height.
He declined the offer on grounds that his wife had warned him that he would lose his brain or die during the surgery.
The giant instead demanded that if the Indian doctors really wanted to perform the surgery, then they must be flown to Tororo and carry out the operation in his home village.
Born in 1969 to Simon Owora and the late Pudesta Amali, Ofwono was a normal child until the age of 12, when his father realised he had started growing abnormally tall.
He dropped out of school in primary three and later got a job as a watchman at Tororo Agururu Factory. He also worked with Jinja Water Pamba and Kiyeye High School in Tororo Town, where he often complained of disturbance from curious on lookers wherever he went.
Ofwono also worked as a promoter with Tyson Waragi in Kampala and appeared at several FM radio promotions as an entertainer. He was married to Betty, a woman he met on one of his many admissions at Mulago Hospital.
When The New Vision discovered him in Yokolo village in 1999, Ofwono lived in a small mud and wattle house.
When he lay to sleep, only his chest and knees fit on his two-inch mattress, while his thin blanket could only cover his legs. His height earned him the admiration of several great personalities including President Yoweri Museveni and the former Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu when they met the giant during the 2000 trade show at Lugogo.
Ofwono went on to campaign for President Museveni during the 2001 presidential election.
Though the news about his death was dwarfed by the visiting US president George W. Bush, Ofwono will remain in the minds of many Ugandans as the tallest man to ever live in the Pearl of Africa. Several items, including the 500ml soda bottle, will always be called ‘Ofwono’ in memory of the giant.
There are other documented cases of gigantism. The Guinness Book of Records names Robert Wadlow from Alton Illinois USA as the tallest man in medical history, for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow measured eight feet eleven inches in 1940, when he died. He was 22 years old and died as a result of a septic blister on his right ankle.
According to the book, Wadlow was still growing during his terminal illness and would probably have exceeded nine feet (2.72 metres) in height had he lived one more year. His record weight was 222.7 kilogrammes. He wore a shoe size of 37AA (18 inches) and his hand measured 12 inches (32.4cm) from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.
The tallest woman on record was Zeng Jinlian of Yujiang of China. Zeng stood at eight feet, one inch when she died. She was 18 years old and suffered from severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and could not stand up straight. She began growing abnormally at the age of four.
Records also show that the tallest living woman is Sandy Allen of the USA who is currently seven feet, seven and a quarter inches tall. She was six feet three inches at the age of 16 and weighed 209.5 kilogrammes. She wore a 16EEE American shoe size.
The world’s giants rarely live beyond the age of 20 years. In comparison, Ofwono endured until the age of 33.
Ends
The scare of Alice Lakwena’s magic rebels was still fresh in the minds of the people of Tororo. Lakwena was thought to make stones explode like grenades and turn into a monkey whenever government soldiers closed in on her.
In 1987, she camped in Tororo, where the story of two tired, hungry Government soldiers is still told among the local people. The soldiers were returning from an operation and decided to help themselves to mangoes on a tree near the roadside in Yokolo Village, Nabiyoga Sub-county in West Budama.
While enjoying the fruits, there came a man twice their height. The soldiers who were up the tree stopped eating and breathlessly watched in shock as the giant stretched his hand and picked mangoes from the tree without climbing it.
The soldiers thought the giant was Lakwena’s spirit that had taken a different form. But the tall man was none other than the fallen Ugandan giant, John Paul Ofwono.
Ofwono died on Friday at Mulago Hospital aged 33. He was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and had traces of graniopharyngioma in the brain, a condition that causes secretion of excessive growth hormones.
Prof. Andrew Otim, who has worked on Ofwono’s case, says the tumour produced a hormone which is responsible for growth and also disrupts insulin, whose absence causes diabetes.
Once believed to be the tallest man on earth, Ofwono, later considered the third tallest man in the world, walked to international fame in 1999 when he was discovered in Yokolo village in Tororo by The New Vision.
He weighed 143kg when he was last measured in 1999. At first believed to be eight feet, four inches tall, Ofwono missed entering the Guinness Book of Records after he failed a height test conducted by Dr. Richard Dick Stockly of the British High Commission. He was found to be seven feet, six and a half inches tall and Tunisia’s Radhouane Charbib took the record for the world’s tallest living person at 7ft 8.9in.
Ofwono was brought to Kampala by 3R International, the makers of Tyson Waragi, as a promoter.
Between October 2001 and April 2002, despite his poor health and the belief that he was still growing, Ofwono declined an offer by Tyson Waragi for a brain surgery in India to remove the tumour that had excessively enhanced his height.
He declined the offer on grounds that his wife had warned him that he would lose his brain or die during the surgery.
The giant instead demanded that if the Indian doctors really wanted to perform the surgery, then they must be flown to Tororo and carry out the operation in his home village.
Born in 1969 to Simon Owora and the late Pudesta Amali, Ofwono was a normal child until the age of 12, when his father realised he had started growing abnormally tall.
He dropped out of school in primary three and later got a job as a watchman at Tororo Agururu Factory. He also worked with Jinja Water Pamba and Kiyeye High School in Tororo Town, where he often complained of disturbance from curious on lookers wherever he went.
Ofwono also worked as a promoter with Tyson Waragi in Kampala and appeared at several FM radio promotions as an entertainer. He was married to Betty, a woman he met on one of his many admissions at Mulago Hospital.
When The New Vision discovered him in Yokolo village in 1999, Ofwono lived in a small mud and wattle house.
When he lay to sleep, only his chest and knees fit on his two-inch mattress, while his thin blanket could only cover his legs. His height earned him the admiration of several great personalities including President Yoweri Museveni and the former Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu when they met the giant during the 2000 trade show at Lugogo.
Ofwono went on to campaign for President Museveni during the 2001 presidential election.
Though the news about his death was dwarfed by the visiting US president George W. Bush, Ofwono will remain in the minds of many Ugandans as the tallest man to ever live in the Pearl of Africa. Several items, including the 500ml soda bottle, will always be called ‘Ofwono’ in memory of the giant.
There are other documented cases of gigantism. The Guinness Book of Records names Robert Wadlow from Alton Illinois USA as the tallest man in medical history, for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow measured eight feet eleven inches in 1940, when he died. He was 22 years old and died as a result of a septic blister on his right ankle.
According to the book, Wadlow was still growing during his terminal illness and would probably have exceeded nine feet (2.72 metres) in height had he lived one more year. His record weight was 222.7 kilogrammes. He wore a shoe size of 37AA (18 inches) and his hand measured 12 inches (32.4cm) from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.
The tallest woman on record was Zeng Jinlian of Yujiang of China. Zeng stood at eight feet, one inch when she died. She was 18 years old and suffered from severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and could not stand up straight. She began growing abnormally at the age of four.
Records also show that the tallest living woman is Sandy Allen of the USA who is currently seven feet, seven and a quarter inches tall. She was six feet three inches at the age of 16 and weighed 209.5 kilogrammes. She wore a 16EEE American shoe size.
The world’s giants rarely live beyond the age of 20 years. In comparison, Ofwono endured until the age of 33.
Ends