By Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma (Immanuel Ben Misagga)
A diagnosis should not become a death sentence in the mind of the person receiving it, according to Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga, who argues that the greatest danger of serious illness can sometimes be the fear that follows the diagnosis.
In a strongly worded reflection, Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga challenges people living with illness to resist withdrawing from life simply because they have been told they are sick.
His central message is simple: living with a condition is not the same as waiting to die.
“The first thing that kills you is not the sickness. It is the funeral you start organising in your head while you are still alive,” he writes.
Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga argues that some patients begin mentally preparing for death immediately after receiving a difficult diagnosis. Instead of continuing with their routines, relationships and interests, they become consumed by questions about what might happen next.
He particularly criticises what he describes as a culture of fear surrounding illness, where constant conversations about death, funerals and the afterlife can overwhelm the individual.
For him, faith should provide strength rather than panic.
“Pray, yes. But after praying, live,” he says, urging people to maintain their connection with the ordinary pleasures and responsibilities of life.
Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga also makes a case for music, entertainment and social interaction as important sources of emotional wellbeing.
Rather than allowing a diagnosis to dictate every aspect of their identity, he encourages people to continue listening to music they enjoy, meeting friends, travelling where possible, watching films and finding reasons to laugh.
His colourful examples range from Congolese rumba and Amapiano to watching football and enjoying a good film.
The point, he argues, is not to deny illness, but to refuse to surrender one’s entire existence to it.
Another target of his criticism is the culture of excessive sympathy that can surround seriously ill people.
He describes the constant “bambi” — expressions of pity and sorrow — as potentially damaging when they reinforce the idea that the person has already been defeated.
Instead, Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga calls for people living with illness to surround themselves with individuals who encourage them, make plans with them and continue treating them as active participants in life.
He draws on stories of people who were given bleak medical prognoses decades ago but continued living far beyond what they or others expected.
For him, those experiences demonstrate the danger of assuming that a diagnosis automatically determines the length or quality of a person’s remaining life.
He therefore calls on patients to continue caring for themselves, maintaining relationships, pursuing interests and planning for tomorrow.
“The sickness may be in your body, but do not let it enter your spirit,” he writes.
His broader appeal is for hope without denial: seek medical care, pray if faith is important to you, but do not allow fear to consume the life that remains in front of you.
Drawing on the language of Kifuuta, Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma Immanuel Ben Misagga closes with a call to resist self-pity and embrace life — “TEWEKUBAGIZA, WELIRE OBULAMU” — presenting the phrase as a reminder to choose life rather than surrender to despair.
His message is ultimately not about pretending illness does not exist. It is about refusing to let illness become the only story a person tells about their life.
