Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo July 2011
The lives of professional boxers are inextricably linked with suffering—success tending to be fleeting and short lived, brought short by defeat, self-destructive behaviour or injustice. Hurricane Carter endured years of wrongful imprisonment, Mike Tyson also did time and was dogged by continuous controversy and misconduct. It is rare to find a boxer making a successful post career transition and no one turns to boxing when and if they have better alternatives if their lives.
In light of this the news that Kibomango, my Congolese boxing instructor and co-worker at the Kivu Reintegration Centre, an NGO which works with street youth and demobilised soldiers, is now in jail comes as no surprise, even adds to his legend.
Although the details are more complicated than interesting it appears that a bar fight, provoked by supporters of the late Saidi, the legendary local boxer who died in the ring against Kibomango, was the ostensible cause.
Normally such matters would be settled between the two parties or, at worse, be a civilian affair handled by the police and, eventually, the justice system. But, this being the Congo, it has ended with Kibomango in a military jail. One of the injured parties had powerful connections in the army. Where it will end is not clear but to spring him from jail is probably going to require that money changes hands somewhere—probably to settle the hospital bill for one of the injured parties.
For the Kivu Reintegration Centre there is some urgency—Kibomango is the director of its sports programme and, also, is scheduled to travel to Brazil later this year as part of a boxing youth development seminar in the slums of Rio de Janiero by another organisation, Fight for Peace, founded by a British ex-mercenary. Kibomango, as the only former child soldier professional boxer in attendance, is a star attraction.
If he is to be sprung from jail money is going to have to change hands. And, as the Congolese can spot an opportunity for leverage and hard bargaining a mile away, it would be best that no one else know that he has foreign backers preparing to send him to Brazil.
For this otherwise very humble and righteous man pursuing his dream of professional success in boxing, the latest set back is part of a long struggle. He has been trying to schedule a professional fight to move to the next level in local Congolese boxing for as long as I’ve known him. But, the death of Saidi, his former friend, mentor and rival, will not go away. And many will not let him forget it. Tragedy does, indeed, follow the boxer.