Book Review: Rose of Soweto: The Dingaan Thobela Story
Reviewed by Chris “Man of Few Words” Benedict
“Life is not a gentle road,” reflected Dingaan Thobela in Deon Potgieter’s excellent biography. “There are always bumps along the way. That made me feel that I must work hard to be able to achieve things.”
Life’s bumpy yet character-building road began for Dingaan on September 24, 1966 in Soweto, South Africa, an urban off-shoot of Johannesburg and one-time home of Nelson Mandela. His youthful mother was unable to care for another child so sent her newborn baby boy to live with his paternal grandmother Maria Ndlovu who named him Dingaan after the Zulu king who attained the chieftainship from his half-brother Shaka (though he had to murder him to do so). Maria instilled Christian morals not only into Dingaan but their household which included Dingaan’s father Godfrey, and two grandfathers (one Maria’s husband, the other her brother) and their entire village of Chiawelo, the poorest section of Soweto.
Seeing as though Godfrey was a strict practitioner of tough love with only the equivalent of a 6th grade education, the introverted Dingaan much preferred the company of his grandmother, even more so than that of his neighborhood friends, which earned him the reputation of a mama’s boy. Potgieter’s unfolding of the story of their relationship is a sweet one and is crucial in understanding the strength of Dingaan’s moral fiber. “Boy with the multi-colored jersey” was a nickname applied by his companions to Dingaan owing to the shirt that Maria lovingly stitched together for him from a patchwork assortment of materials and textures with one sleeve longer than the other which he wore with a pair of mismatched and oversized shoes. Seeing as though the family certainly could not afford such superfluous expenditures, Dingaan saved for months the pocket money given to him on the odd occasion for food or sweets to buy a bicycle of his very own.
A dedicated student and voracious reader, he learned no less than eleven languages in order to converse in the various tribal dialects. One of Dingaan’s adopted tongues was English so that he might also maneuver more comfortably within the white community of Johannesburg which was spoken of locally as “the other part of the world”. For what it’s worth, he remembers personally experiencing far more tribalism than racism as a youth, although he would happily participate in games of skoddyball and dibeke which helped the children assimilate into less hostile relations than those of their elders.
Dingaan was but a boy of nine during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, a student rebellion against the introduction of the Germanic and Dutch-derived Afrikaans (referred to by Bishop Desmond Tutu as “the language of the oppressor”) as the standard vernacular for their curriculum. Although he was entirely too young to grasp the protest’s historical and cultural significance, Dingaan could not help but be affected by the violent police reaction. The early 1980s also saw enforced curfews and bans on daytime gatherings after the Apartheid-related Inkatha Freedom Party encroached on the Soweto turf of the African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress. These were the turbulent times into which Dingaan Thobela came of age although, as he would learn while applying for identification papers, he didn’t really exist per se. Unable to link his name to any official records, Dingaan was taken by his father Godfrey to meet his birth mother Maria Kofa Mahlangu who had registered Dingaan under the name Bongani. Because Godfrey already had a son by that name, his grandmother (who by this time had sadly passed away) rechristened him as Dingaan when he was taken into their care. Returning to straighten out his existential conundrum for the city record keepers, he took the liberty of remaining Dingaan but adding Bongani as his middle name.
Dingaan and his friend Eddie went to work for Godfrey’s roving mini-cinemas which would pop up in whichever random location could accommodate them on a given day. They would run projection, work the door, and sell concessions in the form of fruit and nuts. Not to mention use their newfound influence to woo neighborhood girls. After seeing Enter the Dragon, Dingaan would spend hours hoping to appropriate Bruce Lee’s conditioning and discipline as well as mimicking the fluidity of the Jeet Kune Do master’s movements, even his blood-curdling scream. The Rocky movies helped him understand the work ethic necessary to obtain then maintain championship level in boxing, which Dingaan-already proficient at soccer, sprinting, and long jump in school-had lately taken an interest in, and he remembers crying when first seeing the remake of The Champ which taught him about the heavy emotional toll prizefighting could demand, as well as the supreme sacrifice its participants had to be mindful of and willing to make. Jacob Morake, the great super-featherweight known as “Dancing Shoes” who trained at the Santo Boxing Academy when Dingaan first walked through its doors, was one such casualty after a fourth and fateful fight with South African National Champion and future WBA World title holder Brian Mitchell in 1985.
Godfrey gifted his old pair of boxing gloves to his son and reached out to his friend, former welterweight boxer Norman Hlabane who accepted Dingaan into his New Canada gym, a facility with no ring where fresh-faced novices sparred not only alongside but often against seasoned veterans in one large open area. Dingaan cut his teeth competing, often barefoot, in amateur tournaments some of which were held in coal mines and most of which were systematically corrupt and amassed an 80-3 record, the crowning achievement of which was wining the South African National Boxing Federation lightweight title.
Norman Hlabane utilized Salvador Sanchez as the template from which to create Dingaan’s relentless training regimen. In fact, “Sanchez” was his nickname early in his professional career until he began handing roses out to women attending his fights during his walk to the ring, which earned Dingaan the moniker “Rose of Soweto”. This practice seemed contrary to his reputation as one of the most fearsome finishers in the game but fit quite nicely with his philosophy regarding his opponents which was that “They’re not my enemies. They’re my friends. We are engaging in a beautiful sporting activity together. To entertain people.”
Voted South Africa’s Prospect of the Year for 1987, Dingaan would suffer another tragic and untimely personal loss. His mother, with whom Dingaan had meaningfully reconnected since their initial introduction, was a dressmaker by trade and had stitched together a robe for him to wear into the ring for his sixth professional fight against Walter “Butcherman” Mpungose but died unexpectedly before she could see her little boy draped in his new garment. Dingaan was recruited as a sparring partner for Brian Mitchell as the WBA Super-featherweight World Champion prepared for a non-title bout against Danilo Cabrera. He later developed the potent jab which would become his calling card although the name attributed to it-and spoken of in shorthand from then on between Dingaan and Norman Hlabane-was “Ed Cousins”, after Mike Weaver’s trainer who worked closely with Thobela while Weaver was gearing up toward a rematch against Johannesburg’s Johnny du Plooy. These experiences proved invaluable to Dingaan who captured his first South African National Title over Super-featherweight champion Mpisekhaya Mbaduli later that same year, on October 1, 1988 in Mbaduli’s hometown of Port Elizabeth no less.
As Potgieter takes great care to reinforce throughout the course of his book, Dingaan remained humble in the face of success and its myriad trappings. Even as a national champion with very realistic world title aspirations who read the sports pages and could quote Shakespeare, Dingaan still attended school, walked his village barefoot, and worked his father Godfrey’s makeshift movie houses on weekends whenever possible. Dingaan repeatedly and unsuccessfully called out Brian Mitchell at every opportunity, after defeating a succession of his former opponents to drive the point home, as it was believed throughout the boxing community-especially regionally-that theirs had the makings of a legendary rivalry. Despite the fact that he had been supplanted by Dingaan in 1989 as South Africa’s Boxer of the Year (an honor Mitchell had won the previous three years), the world champion preferred to submit his belief, which was widely interpreted as trepidation or evasion, that Thobela was untested and unworthy and that his sights were already locked on big-name prey like Barry McGuigan, Azumah Nelson, and Tony “The Tiger” Lopez.
The first of three world title victories for Dingaan occurred on September 22, 1990 over inaugural WBO Lightweight Champion Mauricio Aceves in Brownsville, Texas after having already beaten Aceves in a non-title bout in Biloxi, Mississippi then winning a mandatory eliminator against Pascual Aranda. Potgieter writes that the fanfare surrounding Dingaan’s homecoming dwarfed that of returning heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee following his defeat of WBA belt-holder Michael Dokes. Dingaan would enter into what became a fractious promotional arrangement with Coetzee after relinquishing his WBO title to challenge new WBA Lightweight Champion Tony Lopez in 1993. After losing a unanimous decision, one which was dubious enough that it was formally contested by no less than Nelson Mandela, who himself boxed as a young man and had met with Dingaan shortly following his release from 27 years of imprisonment, Thobela was granted another go-around with Tony “The Tiger” called Day of Judgement in which he received his just reward. In terms of the victory anyway. As for his title belt, Coetzee never handed it over.
Marvin Hagler likened the spartan existence of his training periods to “putting myself in jail” but if confinement to a lonely penal colony was an analogy to the Marvelous One, Dingaan did so in the literal sense, setting up camp at South Africa’s Barberton Prison facility. Thobela would also mirror Hagler by traveling to Brockton, Massachusetts in preparation for his rematch against Orzubek Nazarov (to whom Dingaan lost the WBA title in his first defense) to train with Marvin’s old pal Goody Petronelli.
Dingaan’s longtime girlfriend Basetsana Kumalo, who had already held the title of Miss Black South Africa, captured the 1994 Miss South Africa prize and was runner-up in the Miss World competition. The following year, Dingaan (who had been named Prospect of the Year in 1987 and 1989’s Boxer of the Year) became the first pugilist to win the top three most prestigious categories at the South African Boxing Awards when his 1995 bout with Jaime “Rocky” Balboa earned Fight of the Year honors. Shortly afterwards, Dingaan would do the unthinkable and depart from Norman Hlabane to train with Brian Mitchell in a short-lived but amicable relationship. The two would actually share many laughs about how Thobela blackened Mitchell’s eye with a right uppercut during a sparring session, prompting many to further speculate heavily in Dingaan’s favor about the outcome of an unfortunately never-to-be matchup. Rumored super-fights against Pernell Whitaker and Oscar De La Hoya likewise never materialized which, along with the fact that he so seldom fought abroad, contributed mightily to keeping Dingaan Thobela from becoming a household name outside of South Africa.
Rose of Soweto, published by Penguin in 2009, ends with Thobela’s third world title win over WBC Super-middleweight Champion Glen Catley three weeks shy of his 34th birthday, a fight his biographer Deon Potgieter covered for the Mail & Guardian newspaper and which established their relationship. “Dingaan and I have become good friends since the book’s release,” Deon wrote to me recently. “He’s a really good guy, very gracious and caring.”
Thobela’s story, of course, goes on. His career lasted for another on-again, off-again six years following his win over Catley. All remaining seven contests resulted in losses, including his first defense against Dave Hilton, as well as to Mikkel Kessler, a young Lucian Bute, and-in his final fight-South African National Light-heavyweight Champion Soon Botes who Dingaan had defeated for his Super-middleweight title six and a half years earlier.
Dingaan made headlines earlier this year for an arrest and ongoing investigation involving his Rose Funeral Parlour which has been in operation since the 1990s. As Potgieter explained to me, “The legal issue is surrounding not having registered his funeral biz as a financial service provider, yet providing said services on occasion. Since this regulation came in there are literally thousands of funeral parlors in the same situation. Dingaan is just the highest profile person involved so he has been targeted. An advocate involved in redrafting the current legislation around funeral parlors has even stepped up in defense of Dingaan, saying it is ridiculous to persecute him, as even the bigger more commercial parlors are guilty of this as a result of the existing regulations.”
Potgieter is writing and will be directing what he intends to be a four-film series based on Dingaan’s life, with the first (covering Dingaan’s early years) currently in development under the title “The Boy with the Multi-Colored Jersey”. Deon says that “The only actor attached at this point is Junior Miya (in the role of young Dingaan), a very talented young actor who played the lead in a television drama series I wrote and directed entitled “Snake Park” (Season 2) which is currently on air in South Africa and is receiving high acclaim. We are considering bringing in a few US actors i.e. Cuba Gooding Jnr. as his dad and Danny Glover as one of his grandfathers. We are planning to shoot mid 2016 with a 2017 release.”
Available as an e-book for Kindle, hard copies unfortunately seem to be of very limited availability at the moment but will hopefully see a movie tie-in reprint edition with a wider distribution to coincide with the roll out of Deon Potgieter’s films. But take my word for it that those hardcore bibliophiles and fight fans inclined to undertake the endeavor of tracking a physical copy down in the meantime will be well rewarded for their time and effort.
“There was a story they used to tell me about a man who had a dream that the spirits of his ancestors came to him and told him that he would find wealth if he were to dig in their graves,” Dingaan reminisces. “He went out and dug around their graves and found a lot of gold there. While some people think the story literally means that their ancestors buried treasure for them to find, I think it means that we can find treasure in the knowledge and wisdom of those who have gone before us.”
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