James Williams ( Jay Willie ) and I used to make fun that among the active veteran journalists of the late 1960s and mid -to- late 70s , as well as sportswriters and members of the “SAM METZGER FRATERNITY, “ the two of us were the last men standing.
I woke up at dawn as usual to start working and my heart was very heavy and I was wondering why. I came to Facebook only to learn that my LAST MAN STANDING twin buddy , James Williams ( JAY WILLIE ) Is dead. What a shock !!!! What grief !!!!!
Jay Willie and I go a very long way.
There were many of us in that fraternity but everybody is dead now, save your humble servant. Three of us ( JK, Roy Steves and I ) lived at 20 Bass Street, Brookfields while the others used to visit everyday ; we congregated to this house to do our daily journalism brain- storming about political events, the socialite lifestyle, news and sports, sharing of ideas and jokes . We were working for different media, but we all had something to do with the Father , the immortal icon and vivacious old man of Journalism , Sam J. E. METZGER. I was a free lance sports and op/ed contributor of WE YONE and DAILY MAIL early 70s and a founder member of THE TABLET and SPORTS STAR late 1970s , while the others were full time employeees of WE YONE or the DAILY MAIL. I am the last man standing now. All my colleagues are gone.
GONE are : Sportswriter John Kolossa Kargbo ( JK), roving reporter , Kabbah Kargbo, JK’s understudy at WE YONE, Samuel Junior John, before he became full time Sports Editor; Conrad Roy of Rowland Martyn’s THE SIERRA LEONEAN magazine; SLBS Disc jockey and later , newspaper editor of THE CHRONICLE newspaper , Kwawigoko Roy Stevens ; Pios Foray , Frank Kposowa of THE TABLET , E.B Wallace Johnson , the publisher of SPORTS STAR , Romulus Sylver of the DAILY MAIL, etc. etc. Abdul Aziz Dyfan was not a journalist but he was a friend of journalists and enjoyed our jokes . He too is gone . Donald During of the SLBS briefly lived there in 1977 but he was not involved in our activities or in print journalism ( He is alive ) . He left before the main events that bound me and the others together . So, he was actually not part of the “fraternity, “ a very brilliant broadcaster and good friend though he was.
The house at 20 Bass Street, Brookfields, was a Journalism House , a Parliament ( where we shared, joked, debated, argued and fought over events and ideas everyday) , an interesting meeting point to engage in what journalists loved best in those days, comparing notes and ideas and eating and social drinking together . We quarreled often, especially JK and I but we always reconciled. In those days, we went out together to La Ronda, Victoria, Isabella, Tropicana, Afternoon jumps at PWD Canteen or Brookfields Hotel and discos at YWCA. We often walked together to King Tom or Brookfields to watch soccer. Journalism can be an adhesive force to practioners , especially in those days without absorbing social media.
After decades , Jay Willie and I hooked up again when we both worked for the President Ernest Koroma APC Government . I was Senior diplomat at the UN and he was a member of the Independent Media Commission ( IMC) .
He was a very nice, civil, unassuming, friendly, quick-smiling, agreeable , humorous and exciting man. He was also very hardworking and took over from JK as sports editor of WE YONE , after JK got appointed Information Officer at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He left to become DAILY MAIL sports editor after first, Khalil Kamara moved away and then Alhaji Saramady Kabba ( All dead ).
Jay Willie and I used to communicate lately by phone, Facebook or Whatsapp. We would always recall the jokes and funny events of those heady and memorable days at 20 Bass Street. We were the only ones alive, from the newspaper breed of those days and so we called ourselves LAST MEN STANDING, especially among sportswriters. He is gone. I am now alone . Nobody left to share with the good, old days of journalism and the eccentricities of Sam Metzger, who though an illustrious and diligent journalism icon, always generated fun in his personal dealings with people, about which we always joked.
By the way, Jay Willie and I got married to our loving “hearthrobs “ ( As JK called them) on the same day on December 30, 1978 . Their marriage did not last. God later gve him the remarkable woman, Stella, with whom he was married for 37 years before she passed away in 2021.
Jay Willie’s death is a big loss to journalism in Sierra Leone. As a veteran, he had a lot to pass on to the young and restless of the trade of these days. I will miss him. He could have even written a best seller memoirs . So sad to hear the news of his passing.
May his soul rest in peace.
By Kabs Kanu
