Born Bonifaciu Papu Matingu on 24 January 1970 in the then Zairian capital Léopoldville, now Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, young Papu started playing competitive football at a very young age — 16 to be precise — for Congolese giants Malibu Football Club.
There is an old saying that death is not the last sleep; it is, in fact, the final awakening.
History reveals that the southern part of Namibia has always been a happy hunting ground for Black Africa Football Club. The exciting Gemengde outfit significantly benefitted from recruiting amazing talent from that neck of the woods.
He came, conquered, and lifted a pair of high-profile silverware in the country’s top-flight football league.
Scores of mourners braved the chilly weather that has been hitting the city over the last couple of weeks, to gather at the Pionierspark cemetery, south of Namibia’s commercial capital Windhoek, on Saturday morning.
It never rains but pours for the youthful Khomasdal outfit Civics Football Club, aka “The Mighty Civilians”.
A devastating bombshell has hit the entire town of Rehoboth following the sad departure of one of the most recognisable figures in the southern town’s Baster community.
Without beating about the bush, truth be tol d, Namibian football is honoured to have had the greatest football entity in history in the shape of the mighty Black Africa Football Club.
During his playing days, former Golden Rivers and Tigers Football Clubs hard-as-nails midfielder Allu Hailonga, used to collect cards from match officials as if the receiving of cautions was going out of fashion but the practice eventually rubbed on him as he proudly exchanged roles of dishing out cautions and sanctions to law offenders.
Namibian football is a great deal of gratitude indebted to one of the most astute young football administrators in domestic football, one Ruben 'Bolla' Nangombe, the boy with the golden touch.