Osebo cries recalling his past ‘suffering’ including being a 10-year-old itinerant worker

“Until you die, you can never tell what you’d achieve,” Osebo the Zara man has said, buttressing with an inspiring story from his own life.

“I come from a poor family. There was a time I walked from Bechem to Nkekaasu [60.1km] – I was 10. I was a shoeshine boy. On my way, whenever I saw people working on a gutter, I’d join them to work. I’ve hawked Fan Ice and Fan Yogo. I’ve cut and sold firewood,” he revealed.

“I’ve sewn sacks and I have been kayayei [head porter] before.”

The popular fashion entrepreneur spoke to Nana Romeo on Accra 100.5 FM’s Ayekoo Ayekoo.

Against all odds, “I told myself I ought to succeed,” he said. “Due to this, I’ve never borrowed money before. I took it upon myself to be my deprived family’s bosiako [one who devotes himself to fighting for others]. I accepted to sacrifice myself and take care of my father and siblings, and so I dropped out of school at Form 4 to push a [market] truck.”

Osebo emphasised he had “suffered and toiled and so when I see someone suffering I am reminded of my own pain”.

His voice trembled, and not even his dark glasses could hide his hot tears.

When he briefly recovered, he told the story of a man who took another man into his house, “changed his clothes and had him work as his houseboy”.

“The man’s original clothes were tattered. When he received new clothes, he tied the old ones under a tree. Every morning, he would go look at the clothes under the tree, and come do his work diligently.

“One day, the man’s wife told her husband, ‘I am sure Atongo has cast a spell on you because every morning he goes under that big tree before he comes to work. When you return from work and see the work he’s done, you give him money. It all makes sense now,” Osebo narrated.

The fashionista said, “Not long after the conversation with his wife, the man saw Atongo go to the tree.

“He followed him. When he got there, he saw Atongo weeping in front of his old clothes. He asked Atongo why he cried. He asked if his wife and children had hurt him.

Atongo answered, ‘No, Sir. However, anytime I rise from bed I come to look at my previous situation, my old and tattered clothes, but you met me, had mercy on me and changed it all. I have reasoned not to do anything to cause you to drive me away into these old clothes.”

He struggled to finish the story because he had helplessly resumed crying.

Osebo, born Richard Brown, landed the point of his story amidst tears, saying: “When I do donations, it is from an understanding that I’ve also suffered. I am grateful for what God has done for me, also, so when I am expressing kindness, I don’t bother about quantity or amount.

"My kindness is to honour my covenant with God so I am not returned to the deep and dark pit I was once in. And if I am not blessed, my child surely will be.”