By: Ollus Ndomu
An Eritrean man aged 127 died peacefully on Monday at his mountain-surrounded village, Azefa, east of the small African state.
With local and regional media alleging that Netabay Tinsiew was until his death the oldest man alive, his family hopes that he will go into Guinness World Records as the oldest person to have ever lived outside the Bible.
Telling the BBC the secret to Netabay’s long life, Zere Netabay, his grandson said, “Patience generosity and a joyful life.”
From the available church records and a birth certificate, his grandson said Mr Netabay was born in 1894 and was baptised that same year, but other family members argued that the late was baptized when he was 10 years old; suggesting that he was born in 1884.
However, a Catholic priest, Father Mentay who ministered in Azefa village for over years, confirmed the church records that showed that Mr Netabay was born in 1894.
Father Mentay recounted how villagers celebrated Mr. Netabay 120th birthday in 2014.
According to BBC Africa, the family has already contacted Guinness World Records to validate the available official documents of his birth.
In the Guinness World Records, is a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 in 1997, and earned the title of the world’s oldest person to have ever lived.
The family told local tabloids that Mr Netabay was a hardworking herdsman who specialized in keeping cattle and honey bees, a lifestyle which five generations of his family have had inherited.
From his marriage which started in 1934 with a woman who died aged 99 in 2019, Mr Netabay survived with several hundred of his descendants including sons, daughters, grandsons and great grandsons.
