Drama that followed Agnes in death

Dar es Salaam. Socialite Agnes Gerald Waya aka Masogange 28, was finally laid to rest on Monday at her ancestral home in Utengule Village, Mbalizi , Mbeya Region where thousands of mourners turned up.

Her death came some two weeks after court had found her guilty of drug abuse and ordered her to pay a fine or go to jail, she paid the fine.

Ten years of life in the limelight had earned a great deal of friends and enemies too in equal measure as the name Masogange stuck with her to the very last breath and indeed to her final resting place.

The background sound of ‘Masogange’ a single by Belle9 playing as the casket arrived at her father’s home indeed brought back nostalgic memories of the early days of socialite.

As opposed to the narrative, ‘Masogange’ was not her first project she had played a similar role in a video by MwanaFA and AY titled ‘Nangoja Ageuke’ but it was the former that thrust her into the limelight.

In the years long before Social media became uncontrollably rampant she had dared to cross the boundaries, as she enjoyed the glamour that was by then reserved for beauty queens in Tanzania.

She lived her life like no other, breaking all the rules in the book, these traits were to win her friends and detractors who even as news of her death reverberated across East Africa, they posted mean comments on social media.

The glowing tributes from the mourners were heart wrecking as fellow celebrities poured at the Leaders’ Club in Dar es Salaam to pay their final respects, a scene that was reminiscent of Steven Kanumba’s funeral in 2012.

Her farewell was befitting of a celebrity that she was in the entertainment circles especially in Dar es Salaam and indeed later in Mbeya.

Video vixen

It is a fact that Agnes was introduced to the limelight through her role in Belle9’s video ‘Masogange’ and as such she was constantly referred to as a video queen on many of the commentaries before and even after her death.

Little known to her fans who were hooked to her naughty videos that she posted on her pages was that she didn’t last in the game and by conservative estimates she did not do more than 15 videos.

She was not a career video queen; in fact, she had long gone into other businesses which included acting.

Five years after she was arrested in South Africa with consignment of methadone, Agnes’ lifestyle had changed and according to her close confidants she had even stopped posting pictures on her Instagram account.

There were even rumours that she had changed her ways and she was rarely seen in night clubs in the city.

Those wild nights were all in the past especially as she faced legal battle in the courts of law for drug abuse with some suggesting that she mended her ways with her maker.

Former flame’s antics

Drama is part of showbiz and this particular occasion was not spared of such antics even in the face of insurmountable grief.

Rammy Galis one of the later day actors in today’s Bongo movies who on many occasions was pictured with the socialite in cozy moment was quite a sight.

Rammy fainted but something was wrong, many perceived that his fainting was simulated as he continued to tightly hold all his possessions in one place even as he was carried to a car where emergency first aid was administered.

He became the talk of town as social media went abuzz with the picture becoming one of the most shared as rain pounded the streets of Dar es Salaam.

Whether he was acting or not, it is still not understandable why he had chosen to be part of this drama but as we all know everything happens for a reason.

Daughter off the limelight

As the showbiz family mourned Agnes’ sudden demise one thing that struck the general public was the fact that she had an 11-year-old daughter.

This was Agnes’ little secret that was tightly kept and was only known to close family members and friends.

In a world that is full where people expose all that they have, never at any one time did she post pictures of her daughter on the social media and it came as a shock that she actually had a child of that age.

Let’s bury the hatchet

Masogange’s death diverted public attention from some of the things that had happened that week, from AliKiba’s mega wedding in Mombasa to the Police probe against Diamond and Nandy for their role in the dirty videos.

For the two decades that Bongo Flava has been around squabbles among artistes has been part of the nascent genre, sometimes reaching disturbing proportions.

The beef between two of the most successful crooners in the industry Diamond and AliKiba is something that we have been accustomed to with each side yielding a fortress of fans who are sometimes threaten to become violent.

Though the two singers have on many occasions claimed that there was nothing wrong but it was quite visible as they traded some thinly veiled slurs in their composition and on the social media. AliKiba had just got married whereas Diamond was busy clearing his name with authorities for the raunchy video he had posted on his page.

The two finally met at Agnes Gerald’s sending off at Leaders’ Club, a somber mood filled the grounds and the audience didn’t know what to expect, the two artistes were allocated a place to seat in one of the tents.

Diamond reached out and gave AliKiba a handshake that momentarily made mourners forget why they were there as they cheered. It had been a long way coming,

Diamond through his twitter handle sent Kiba a congratulatory message on the day he wedded in Mombasa.

It remains interesting to know what will come out of this handshake that caught the industry quite unawares.