By Mesuli Zifo
Histrians will have to dig deep in their archives to find out if South African Siboniso Gonya is the first ever boxer coming from a polygamous family to challenge for a world title.
Gonya, 25, will challenge for the WBO bantamweight title against compatriot Zolani Tete (25-3, 20 KOs) at SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday.
The unknown southpaw boxer is one of 38 children sired by his father Mzonjani from his seven wives.
Hailing from KwaZulu-Natal province which SA president Jacobs Zuma also calls a home, Gonya is a product of polygamy which is the way of life in Zulu nation as Zuma also has numerous wives.
The province is steeped in tradition dating back from the history of its founder Shaka Zulu, who conqoured several tribes and combined them into one big Zulu nation in the 17th century.
Shaka fled his polygamous family as his brothers wanted to kill him to prevent him from taking over the throne as a King from his father.
He sought refuge in the Mthethwa tribe under Dingiswayo who was the chief before returning home as an adult to start his Zulu nation building.
The Mthethwa tribe is still of a royal blood origin, of which Gonya’s father is now the chief.
While polygamous family is not frowned at in KwaZulu-Natal is looked down upon by other SA regions and is considered a weird way of life in the world.
But to Gonya the opportunity to fight for a major world title will put his proud family on the map.
“I am very proud of my roots and I will make sure that I hold my family by winning this title,” he said from Belfast where he arrived last Friday.
Interestingly while he and Tete both hail from SA they have never met in person with the champion openly dismissing Gonya as being not on his level.
Tete has predicted a short night and even promised to abandon his often cautious boxing style.
“If I go the distance with Gonya, I will consider that as a loss, he said,” he said.
But Gonya is unfazed by such predictions saying his roots from the royal family have moulded him to cope with any challenge.
“You know when we are raised we are made to cope with any kind of a challenge because as royal kids we should be strong,” he said.
The traits of that attribute were visibly when Gonya trekked west of Africa to Namibia where he shocked Immanuel Naidjala to win the WBO Intercontinental crown this past April.
Namibian boxers has proven to overcome for SA boxers with Naidjala having built his record from several wins over them.
“Nobody gave me a chance when I went to Namibia but I shocked Naidjala in front of his people. This is due to steel resolve I possess as the royal kid and that is why people will be shocked when I dethrone Tete.”
His fight record of 11 wins and a single loss in 12 bouts is modest especially as the defeat was at the hands of Thabo Sushwana who hails from Tete’s neighbouring area of Duncan Village and does not command much respect in boxing circles.
But Gonya argues that he suffered the loss when he was still young having taken the fight at short notice.
“Sishwana is awkward as hell and I was brought in at the last moment,” he says.
On Saturday Gonya does only plan to leave Tete flummoxed but to send boxing historians in a spin on whether he is the first boxer of royal blood to win a world boxing title.
And if his aspirations are realised the Mthethwa tribe will be proud to produce yet another Shaka.
