Boxing sisters’ dream made in Katanga Slum

We are always preoccupied with an assumption that the Katanga slum is a no-go area. People believe it is plagued with pickpockets, drugs and prostitution. It’s in this ghetto neighbourhood that Rhino Boxing Club is located. At this ramshackled gym (for lack of a more decent description), you will be sure to catch Helen Baleke and Diana Turyanabo working out amongst a group of male boxers.

Meeting the boxing sisters
I was nervous when I went to Katanga, hence deciding to put my wallet and phones in my fore jean pockets, in case I happened to bump into the ghetto boys. Ironically, everything went fine. When Baleke and Turyanabo came to pick me, I felt some relief; after all they are famed boxers in this area.
Navigating through the ever muddy and slippery corners of Katanga is no mean feat. But there is hope for talent. Manny Pacquiao, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Julio César Chávez, Sugar Ray Robinson, Roy Jones Jr, Félix Trinidad and Floyd Mayweather Jr all came from the ghetto and captured the world.
They had every odd against them; dangerous neighbourhoods, lack of proper training facilities, broken families, lack of education and inadequate nutritional diets, but managed to sail through. That’s the dream that Baleke and Turyanabo are chasing.

At the gym
The Rhino Boxing Club gym is just an open space with leaking iron sheets over the boxers’ heads. Inside, Turyanabo is chatting with male boxers.
Before long, she starts shadow-boxing. A young man, who I came to learn is called Karagi, shows up. He greets me and starts shadow-boxing as well.
Instantly, his body gets completely drenched in sweat. His movements are swift and coordinated. Then he starts sparring with Turyanabo. I see thuds of Turyanabo’s punches on Karagi’s forehead. They seem to enjoy the session.
Just like everyone here, Baleke and Turyanabo come from the ghetto and know what it is to overcome the obstacles. Baleke became the first female boxer in Katanga. Today, alongside her young sister, they are Uganda’s female boxing champions.

How it all started
Baleke can never forget how she went into boxing. “I joined because one day I was walking to school and a guy started abusing me. I decided to fight him but he beat me up. That was in 2005.
“I started looking for a boxing gym to train and revenge. That’s when I found Rhino Boxing Club,” she reminisces.
But things did not move as anticipated. Rhino Boxing Club asked for Shs20,000, which she was not able to raise. “After three weeks, I went back and told coach Mudde (Ntambi, a professional boxer) that I had failed to get the money,” she explains. Ntambi then allowed her to start training.

“I saw a burning desire in her eyes and decided to give her a chance. She has never disappointed,” Ntambi interjects. After training for three months, Baleke confronted her enemy.
“I told him I had come to fight. We fought and when I beat him, I decided to keep training and that marked the start of my boxing career,” the mother of two adds.
Boxing is a tough sport. Baleke lost a part of her tooth to a thunderous punch. “It broke while fighting a more experienced boxer in Mombasa. I panicked, and she gave me a left hook that broke my tooth,” she reveals, ironically with a smile. So far, Baleke has lost only twice in her career of 20 official fights.

Like her sister, Turyanabo also began boxing because of unpleasant circumstances.
“Children teased me a lot in school,” shares Turyanabo. “Whenever I came back home, I used to report to my mother that kids beat me up. But one day she told me to get self-defence lessons to beat them, too.”
That is when Turyanabo started going to the gym alongside Baleke. “At first I was shy doing what the boys were doing in the gym. My sister was used to everything; so I imitated her every move,” she recalls. Before long, the bullying at school stopped.

In the ring
In Baleke’s first fight, she defeated Shabirah Nabagga on points. “I felt happy; my hard work in the gym had been rewarded.”
“The first time I stepped into the ring, I was scared of the crowds. My mother was sitting nearby and she cried. But when I started punching my opponent, I enjoyed it,” Turyanabo boasts.
Unlike the Klitschko brothers who swore never to fight each other, Baleke and Turyanabo have faced off in a number of fights. According to Baleke, Turyanabo has had an upper hand in these duels. “We have fought on many occasions but I don’t know why she usually beats me. Actually she is my toughest opponent,” says Baleke. “That’s a lie, she also beats me,” shouts Turyanabo.

In the beginning, their mother, Sarah Bagoole, was against the idea of her daughters becoming serious boxers. “Helen was so passionate about it. Diana was a bit lazy, but she also picked interest and became good. People were talking ill about them and it got to my nerves but they stood their ground and continued boxing. Now I am proud of them,” she shares.
When they started boxing competitively, Bagoole started supporting them, something she never regrets.

Fights at home
It is not always easy to keep peace at home. The sisters not only practice together, but on each other. They remember a match when spectators placed bets on them. “Helen seriously beat me up in that fight at YMCA. The more I got angrier, the more she beat me. It taught me that you don’t have to be angry in a boxing match. You have to enjoy the game.”
Ironically, the match was ruled a draw. The sisters spent a week without talking to each other, even when they were sleeping on the same bed. Good enough, they shared the money.
Their mother had to intervene. “She told us: ‘You girls should stop boxing if you know that you are going to be angry with each other like that,’” says Turyanabo. They soon settled their differences and resumed training.
“We can’t imagine life without boxing. It is part of our life, so it is not easy to quit it. We are now working on becoming world champions in future,” says Turyanabo.

For the love of the game
In Uganda, there is no monetary reward for winning bouts. “We are boxing for fun, and maybe, some chances for travelling. We are majorly boxing because we love the sport,” says Turyanabo.
Life is not easy in Katanga. The sisters still live at their mother’s home, who makes a living by selling matooke peelings (bikuta). They also must work. Currently, there is hardly any funding for women’s boxing in Uganda.
Even with minimal support, the sisters say the sport has changed them. “At first, people used to call us all sorts of things, but we have now won their respect. We have won national championships in our respective weight categories.
“We are focused on always being the best in our divisions. Until someone comes and beats us, we shall always dominate the female boxing competitions,” they proudly assure me.

Baptism of fire in Jeju
The sisters had always clamoured for international tournaments, until when they got more than they bargained for at the 2014 Aiba Women’s World Boxing Championships in Jeju, South Korea. Turyanabo lost in the first round to American Heidi Henriksen.
Baleke’s fight ended after 12 seconds when her corner threw the towel. She was facing American Claressa Shields, the 2012 Olympic Gold medallist. Shields’ amateur record read 43-1 at the time.
“I was disappointed. Despite her good record, I wanted to fight her. I still don’t know why the people in my corner threw the towel.”
The two fighters are Mayweather fans, not because of his rich fighting record, but his hard work and focus.

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