NENEZ BOXING ARCHIVE
TANZANIA’S HABIBU KINYOGOLI SHOCKS FANCIED DEO MUSOKE
Habibu Kinyogoli’s 1971 victory over Deo Musoke catapulted him to instant fame.
It was one of the major upsets of the inaugural East Africa Federation Boxing Championships at Nairobi’s City Hall.
1970 Commonwealth Games
The two boxers met in the semi-finals with Uganda’s Musoke the overwhelming favourite over the relatively unknown Tanzanian boxer. Kinyogoli made his international debut in 1969 in Lusaka and represented his country at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.
While Kinyogoli was eventually beaten by lightweight gold medalist, Nigeria’s Abayomi Adeyemi in Scotland, Musoke punched his way to the featherweight final, losing on points to Kenya’s boxing professor Philip Waruinge.
Millington Drake Trophy Contest, Kampala
Musoke avenged the defeat towards the end of 1970 by stopping Waruinge in the third round in the first leg of the Millington Drake Trophy contest in Kampala.
Against this background, the Ugandan was not only favoured to make easy work of the inexperienced Tanzanian from the Coastal region of Kisarawe but was also one of the hot prospects for the featherweight gold medal with Kenya’s 1966 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist John Nderu.
The City Hall was packed. Musoke started the fight with both guns blazing but the gutsy Kinyogoli was unshaken. He gave in as much as he received.
“I was feeling his punches, a very strong boxer and a fighter,” recalls Kinyogoli, now 75 years old and coaching youngsters at Kinyogoli Boxing Foundation Gym at Ilalala, Dar es Salaam.
Kinyogoli says Musoke then hit him with a chopping blow to the neck, an obvious foul which went unnoticed by the referee if indeed he did it since scoring blows are those delivered with the knuckle part of the glove. However, boxing being a fast-paced game makes some boxers apply dirty tricks to get the better of their opponents.
“He hit me with a karate blow on my neck, it was so painful, I briefly lost consciousness,” says Kinyogoli who remembers most of his fights and names of boxers he fought.
“I didn’t show Musoke he hurt me, I kept on moving quickly until I was back to my senses. This is when courage and perseverance in boxing matter a lot. The fans cheer but they don’t know what we go through in the ring.
“I decided to keep him close, shaking him with my right punch, that was my main weapon in the ring. He was such a tough fighter, no matter how hard I punched him with my strong right punch he kept on coming hitting me also.”
The Tanzanian was in the driver’s seat in the third round as the crowd cheered him on.
“I could hear Kenyan fans singing “Mwalimu kasema” it can be done, a popular song then praising our President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.”
Kinyogoli shocked the fancied Ugandan with a unanimous points victory. The other major upset was the defeat of Kenya’s 1970 Commonwealth Games silver medalist John Olulu by Uganda’s newcomer David Jackson in the welterweight division.
The final pitted Kinyogoli against Kenya’s John Nderu who displayed his usual ring craftsmanship to smartly outpoint the Tanzanian to win the gold medal. Kinyogoli was the only Tanzanian in the final, and he returned home to a heroes welcome with a silver medal.
“Nderu like most Kenyan boxers was stylish in the ring. His punches were clean and well timed, “alicheza ngumi za hesabu mpaka wakati mwingine nacheka mwenyewe alivyonipata.”
“Nderu was boxing like Waruinge, a boxer I admired a lot and tried very much to emulate him, he was not rough but very steady and intelligent with accurate punches, the best boxer I’ve seen in Africa. Even John Olulu was a good boxer with a nice jab.”
Despite defeating Musoke, Kinyogoli picks out the Ugandan as the toughest boxer he fought in Africa.
“Musoke is the most stubborn boxer I met, I can’t forget the Nairobi fight.”
Tanzania finished fourth overall in the five-Nation East Africa Federation tournament with one silver and eight bronze medals. One of Tanzania’s bronze medalists was 1970 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Titus Simba who was beaten by Uganda’s Africa middleweight champion Mathias Ouma. Uganda with five gold, four silver and two bronze medals topped the medals chart followed by Kenya, Zambia and Ethiopia in fifth place.
African Championships, Railway Club,1972
In 1972, Kinyogoli was back in Nairobi again, this time for the fifth Africa Championships at the Railway Club.
Tanzania was represented by six boxers, light-flyweight Bakari Kitivu, flyweight Saidi Tambwe, bantamweight Frebitus Bitegeko, featherweight Habibu Kinyogoli, light-middleweight Mbaraka Mkangai and middleweight Titus Simba. They were placed ninth overall with a bronze from light-flyweight Kitivu.
Kinyogoli was beaten in the quarter-finals by DR Congo’s C. Mputu who made it to the finals and lost to Kenya’s Sammy Mbogwa.
Olympic Games, Munich, 1972
After Nairobi, the next major assignment for Kinyogoli was in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich where Tanzania won no medal.
I ask Kinyogoli besides himself who else was in Tanzania’s team for the Munich Olympics.
“We had light-fly Bakari Suleiman, flyweight Saidi Tambwe, bantam Bitegeko, feather myself, light-welter Willam Limo, welter Mbaraka Mkangai, middleweight Titus Simba and a light-heavyweight from Arusha I can’t remember his name now.”
Kinyogoli went on to represent Tanzania in several major international tournaments among them the 1973 African Games in Lagos and 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. In Lagos he brought home a silver medal, losing the bantamweight final to Uganda’s Dan Omollo. He was in Africa’s team which met Latin America in 1973 in Mexico.
Coaching Career
Kinyogoli called it quits in 1976 to concentrate on his pet project of coaching junior boxers.
“I started my boxing in 1958 as a light-welter, went down to lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight. My first coach was Said Uliza. In 1969 I represented Tanzania in my first international in Lusaka, they were celebrating their independence. I lost to Mwansa (Kenneth), I retired in the second round.”
He then had a short stint in professional boxing when the bare-chested game was introduced in Tanzania in 1982. Kinyogoli unsuccessfully vied for the East Africa featherweight title against Kenya’s George Findo aka Mosquito at the KICC in Nairobi in 1984.
