Long read / Non fiction

Cameroon: Boxing your way out of misery and into a new life

9 to 5 The Time Of Your Life
Cameroon has produced world champions in boxing and Mix Martial Art (MMA) in recent decades. All were trained in the popular neighborhood of New-Bell (Douala). A new generation of young boxers dreams of imitating the world champions who have passed through the boxing hall that has become dilapidated. The main objective: to expatriate through their talent to better earn a living.

In the last decades, Cameroon has produced world champions in both boxing and mix martial arts (MMA). All of them were trained in their home country, mainly in Douala. Their training facility is the boxing gym of the Youth Community Center (YCC) located in Newbell, a working-class neighborhood. They were trained by Jean-Paul Mognemo, the ex-boxer who became a coach. The sixty-year-old man has been the technical director of the Cameroon Boxing Federation for a few years now. He took charge of new generations of young boxers. All of them dream of replicating the experience of the world champions who trained in that now dilapidated gym. In a particularly difficult environment marked by poverty and the lack of adequate equipment, these young people build their dreams of glory. They agree to make sacrifices and demonstrate resilience, driven by the main goal they entirely focus on: to win their way out of the country, be talented enough to join places with better facilities, and make a better living by dint of their feet and fists.

Warm ups and accelerations. The group of 9 athletes, including one girl, has just begun a training session. Lining up then gathered in a circle, they move following the directions and pace given by one of them, who either faces the group or stands among them depending on the situation. They are all members of a club hosted at the Youth Community Center (YCC) of Newbell, Douala, one of the main cities of Cameroon. On the second Monday of January, they resume their training after the break imposed by the holiday season. Coming back to the gym this afternoon means coming home to a setting that, besides the youth-oriented education structures, houses their den, the already obsolete boxing training room. The facility, a gift from a former head of the Federation, is almost invaded by weeds.

Those present have to endure the foul smells coming from the surroundings of a building that is essentially neglected. Ignoring the nuisance, Coach Jean-Paul Mognemo, their manager, does his best to assist his protégés. First, he starts the shuttles. The exercise requires the boxers to run back and forth over a short distance. By nightfall, they end the training with sit-ups and stretching. They will meet again the following Wednesday. The fighters who come at the YCC three times a week walk in the footsteps of those who came before them and built their success from that place.

The champion factory of the boxing world

The last hero who partly came from here was Francis Ngannou. Although he prevailed in Mix Martial Arts (MMA), the Cameroonian world champion started off boxing in the legendary

ring of Newbell. Before him, there were Carlos Takam (World Boxing Foundation and World Boxing Council Silver champion), (Sakio Bika Mbah (twice super middleweight world champion of the World Boxing Council), Hassan Ndam Njikam (middleweight world champion of the World Boxing Organisation and World Boxing Association), Issa Hamza (three times welterweight world champion of the Universal Boxing Organization). All of them were initiated by Jean-Paul Mognemo, alumni of the National Institute of Youth and Sports (NIYS) of Cameroon. “I am proud to have given them a way to survive. The aim was basically to give those kids a career that would benefit their life and enable them to help their family. For most of them, that goal was met. It makes me happy to see them raise the flag of Cameroon up high. I am proud!” the man shares, delighted.

In his mid-sixties, the man has retired from the Cameroonian public service, but he remains the technical director of the Cameroon Boxing Federation (FECABOXE). He started practicing the noble art of boxing when he was 14-years-old, before he became a champion, until he had to quit the rings to focus on his career as a physical education teacher and boxing coach. The task wasn’t always easy. He and his partners often faced difficulties of various natures. Starting with the way boxing was perceived by the Cameroonian families. If kids were attracted to it, the sport was frowned upon by the parents. It was therefore quite a challenge for the coaches to convince them to let their children get into boxing. Indeed, Jean-Paul Mognemo observes with regret that “this world has been regarded as a criminals’ world for ages.” Which at times forced some of the boxers to come and practice without their parents knowing. In the last few years, attitudes towards boxing have been shifting a little. Most of the boxers who join the training program under the age of 20 are students. Every boxer there has at least completed the first part of secondary education before they had to stop because of their parents’ financial difficulties.

Inspiring success stories

For 33 years, many promotions of boxers were trained by Jean-Paul Mognemo in the Newbell gym. “I’ve always worked with a basis that I call a boxing school. I teach to younger kids about 10 years-old, up to 16 year-old teens. I train them for about 4 years, until they become Cameroon champions. Then I split them into different clubs to balance things out, so that there isn’t just one strong club. What matters the most to me is giving them a good basis so that, later on, they can easily work somewhere else,” coach Mognemo explains.

His club is considered the main training center, the most popular, with the best results and instructors of the country. His location in Newbell, a prime example of a populous, working-class neighborhood, makes it especially attractive for many kids who mig

ht want to defend themselves or protect their friends and family. Others want to find a job and they come here to receive adequate training in order to become private security guards or join the defense and security forces. “The budding champions are a minority. Only a handful of them will successfully become champions of Africa and world champions,” Jean-Paul Mognemo clarifies. “In a group of 100 children, only 1 can make it to a world level.” These happy few ex-members who made it to the top are nevertheless a source of many dreams, sparking high hopes in the younger generations of fighters. “Among them former trainees here, some come back for holidays from time to time. When young or would-be boxers see them drive those big cars, it makes them think: “I will be just like him, I’ll be in the newspapers, I’ll build a house for my parents, I’ll be wealthy enough.”” Leaving this place becomes the only option for those—and they are many—who pursue that kind of dreams.

Without adequate gym or equipment, and in the absence of a FECABOXE section dedicated to professional boxing that would at least make it sustainable, it’s impossible to succeed. Mognemo understands his protégés’s desire to go abroad. “At some point, once the kids have been champions of Cameroon, world champions, or have competed in the Olympics, they won’t keep going back ten times to the same competitions if they don’t win. If they are solicited elsewhere and they see they can make a living, then I say, good for them! That’s what many of them do. Some of them even have this goal already in mind when they come to join us at the gym,” Mognemo says. On the spot, no one will argue with that. Quite the contrary.

My dream is to be a professional boxer in countries like the United States of America. I have to admit that being a boxer here in our country is hard,” says Alexis Mimadi, 19-year-old champion of the Littoral Region (whose capital is Douala) in the 63kg (140lb) weight-class. Admirer of Hassan Ndam and of one of Muhammad Ali’s grandsons, he started boxing because he “liked fighting,” and can rely for now on his parents’ support. They keep “sponsoring” their son even though he failed to get his high school diploma. At 25, Dominique Beyidi Kibinde, welterweight vice-champion of Cameroon, isn’t that lucky. Having lost his parents at a young age, this spare parts supplier counts on boxing to help his remaining family members out of poverty.

Heading towards El DoradoTo reach his goal, this admirer of the Ukrainian Vassili Lomachenko is planning to make endurance and persistence his strength. “Sure, practicing boxing here is tough, but once you’ve acknowledged that, once you know what you want your life to be, no matter the difficulties you can strive and fight for it in order to succeed. You must dream big and keep in mind that you can thrive in the future. You can aim for the national team and then going from

there land in a country where boxing benefits from a better organization, with people who will be able to support you and invest on you,” Dominique Beyidi Kibinde explains—and concludes: “If I keep on going like that, maybe things will change. Maybe this year, or the next.”

Brice Crépin Wankio, a 28-year-old champion of Cameroon in the 54kg (109lb) weight-class, got into boxing watching experienced boxers, and he deplores their situation. “There are things that we lack. We don’t get the support that we need,” he describes indignantly, before revealing what he really has in mind. “I want to be an international boxer, to go worldwide. I have enough courage to face this challenge. Just like we have to move on and not stay here stalling. I want to continue my career abroad. There, you can progress normally. It’s better than here. I want to make a living out of my art. Which isn’t possible here.” Some of coach Mognemo’s trainees already picture exactly how they will head towards greener pastures.

Michael Jordan Yodjeu, young cruiserweight boxer who started only a year ago and displays his major asset in his height, “very useful in boxing,” tells us about his plan: “My goal is to either be selected through competitions or to make it through my parents’ own resources. No need to run away. In an international competition, a sponsor can appreciate my boxing style and offer me a deal.” Unlike his sparring partner, a senior student in Passenger car maintenance, Ronaldo Tchouta Mbianda, 22-year-old champion of Central Africa, weight-class 57kg (125.7lb), pictures himself “turning pro” in a very near future. “If possible, in 2024 after the Olympics in Paris, I will be a professional boxer abroad. If I can make it through qualifications, I will attract recruiters. I’m convinced I will win a medal,” believes the former captain of Cameroon junior national team, who says he’s pursuing “glory and lots of money.”

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