Namibia’s most decorated football club Black Africa has in the past produced a significant number of great footballers that went on to represent their native land, provincially and internationally, with great aplomb.
In 1969, the club had two representatives in the strong South West Africa (SWA) Bantu Invitational team on its successful tour across the Orange River.
And while the tough tackling Benjamin Spokes Tibinyane marshalled the team’s solid rearguard, his teammate Gotthardt Kangootui, aka ‘Black’, was pulling the strings in the middle of the park, supplying killer passes to the dangerous quartet of Times Mwetuyela, Werrick Zimmer, Tommy Uushona and Coloured Kakololo.
As it stands, from the 18-member touring entourage, Black was until his death one of eight surviving members from that untouchable squad alongside Tommy Uushona, Nandos Mbako, Bossie Samaria, Werrick Zimmer, Tieb Goliath, Nana Goamab and Foster Moetie (team manager).
The likeable streetwise Bra Black has in the meantime exited the game of life, at the fairly advanced age of 75, after losing a long battle with heart disease.
In today’s special edition of your favourite weekly sports feature, Tales of the Legends, New Era Sport looks back at the long and winding football journey of the late former Black Africa versatile winger, the Black Rose Kangootui.
Back in 2008, almost seven years ago to be precise, the now departed 75-year-old Katjivazeua Kangoouti took the author through his illustrious football career that propelled him to become a valuable member of the star-studded South West Africa (SWA) Bantu Eleven that competed fiercely in provincial exhibition matches in neighbouring South Africa in 1969.
Unlike many of his peers from his generation, Black was introduced to the game of football by default after his old man Clemence Kokoo Kangootui had him enrolled at the Catholic Mission School while he (Black) was staying with his mother Verona and elder sister Justice in Windhoek’s Old Location.
“I think I was around four years old when my father’s brother Edward, who happened to be a schoolteacher, dragged me along to school every day, notwithstanding the fact that I was not even registered as a pupil because I was hardly out of my pair of shorts. As a result of my tender age, I was obliged to go through a long process, known as ‘Klein A’, ‘Groot ’ and all that jazz.”
He rose to prominence when he left Windhoek to further his schooling at the Waldfriden Roman Boarding School in the Omaruru district. There he found himself in the company of other boys that included the Von Luttichau sibblings Phillip and Joseph, Autaa and Hameja Kandjii as well as Cornelius Kaizeri Stanley (Brian Black’s elder brother).
“Those were the good old days; we had this bloke whom I can only remember as Kazu. Eish, that boy was a real hotshot, but I don’t really know what happened to him afterwards, he just disappeared from the scene.”
In the intervening years, Black shifted to the revered St Joseph’s Secondary School (Dobra). He wasted little time and immediately started mingling with enthusiastic young footballers led by the Tibinyane siblings Spokes and Victor, as well as Anton Mandi.
“We had this goalkeeper who was blessed with a safe pair of hands. His name was Mbungu (Wolf) and was to be stationed between the sticks for our newly formed team at the campus, Naughty Boys FC. Unfortunately, we could only compete against another school team going by the name of Morning Star, consisting of older boys such as Kapuee Kanguvi, Albert Hindjou and Ernst Haitupu.’’
As time passed by the team started casting their net wide and would play in exhibition matches against the likes of African Stars and others.
“We always came out tops in most of our encounters. It was around about the time when Stars were making serious inroads into domestic football. They had some good players such as Aphas Katjivirue, Seth Kaimu, Obed Kamburona, Hijambura Ndjahera, Kanima Hoveka and the late pair of Johannes Katjitae and Siseva Siririka in their line-up.”
Black’s arrival in topflight football coincided with the good old days of the untouchable Explorer Eleven outfit from Katutura. The star-studded newly formed team attracted the crème de la crème from both Katutura and Khomasdal townships, with the dangerous Werrick ‘Uerivara’ Zimmer, Times Mwetuyela and the late pair of Joe Kariko and Paul ‘Zoro’ Willemse in their armoury.
In the meantime the ‘Black Rose’, as Bra Black was affectionately known among his admirers, also graduated to the school’s (Dobra) first team, playing alongside the Teek brothers Joseph and Edward, and the Tibinyane siblings Spokes and Victor, while the young and dangerous Pius ‘Garrincha’ Eigowab also entered the fray.
When he left Dobra by the end of 1963, Bra Black and other talented boys from Dobra teamed up with building-work migrants from South Africa to form Black Africa FC, and as they say, the rest is history.
“We recruited the finest footballers on offer from Dobra in the mould of Albert Louw, Joseph Gonteb, Baba Jackson and Joseph Thomas. We also managed to lure some great footballers from the north and southern part of the country. As such, the south would become our main nursery in later years.”
His football exploits did not escape the attention of national selectors as he was deservedly included in the South West Africa (SWA) Bantu Invitational team that toured South Africa in 1969.
“We competed in exhibition matches in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Hammanskraal, Bloemfontein and Nigel, winning the majority of them against very good opponents. We proved quite a hot potato to handle for the silky South Africans, despite all their funny tricks and countless back heels.”
Back home, Black would go unhindered about his business on the football field in the black and red attire of his beloved BA. He was an integral part of the all-conquering Black Africa outfit that set the domestic football scene alight with their new brand of carpet football that remains intact up to this day.
‘’We dominated football domestically for almost seven years following the recruitment of a significant number of highly talented youngsters from Dobra, led by agile shot stopper Hubert Mootseng, Malaka Somseb, Five Hochobeb, Gabes Dausab, Vossie van Wyk, Hassie Mingeri, Corrie Uri-Khob, Stu Damaseb, Kariirii Katire, Stouter Ochurub and the Hans brothers Willem, Johannes and Mike.”
The competition was intense because the likes of Tigers, Orlando Pirates, African Stars and Ramblers (Katutura) also made a serious statement – giving the all-conquering BA a decent run for their money.
In his own words, footballers in the mould of dribbling wizard Timo Mwetuyela, Tommy Uushona, Ferre Akwenye, Zika Williams, Coloured Kakololo, Gabes Mupupa, Seth Urib, Steve Stephanus, Lemmy Narib, Albert Louw, Amos Tjombe, Kanima Hoveka, Werrick Zimmer and Johannes Katjitae were a cut above the rest.
“Football was very competitive in those days. Khomasdal outfit Thistles also had some very good players in their squad. I always cherished our confrontations against them during our countless battles for supremacy.”
Upon his retirement from the game, Bra Black was among the first radio announcers for the indigenous Otjiherero Radio Service, way back in the late sixties.
However, the slippery left winger who became the toast of the usually hard-to-please BA fans with his darting runs down the wing, said he had lost his appetite for local football as a result of the mediocre football dished out week in and week out by modern footballers.
‘’I only watch foreign football on the telly – the local standard is extremely low as compared to our time, that’s why I get emotional when I watch these boys brutalizing the beautiful game with their clueless style.
“What really pisses me off is that modern footballers are equipped with far better training facilities, with everything tailored for them, but they lack respect for their coaches and besides that, they just don’t play to a certain pattern and worse still, their ball distribution leaves much to be desired to say the least.’’
He also bemoaned the lack of endurance among modern footballers, saying the shooting aspect of the game has suffered quite substantially.
‘’When last did you see a player scoring a goal from a dead ball situation or rattling the net in real Namibian style, such as with the banana or acrobatic kick – remember the days of Pius Eigowab? It’s because of all these missing links that many people stopped going through the turnstiles leaving our football to become a delicacy for stray dogs,’’ fumed the Black Rose.
Bra Black wrapped up his involvement in the game as head coach of the Katutura glamour football club, albeit briefly in 1980. At the time of his untimely passing, the deceased was a successful communal farmer, specializing in the breeding of a mixture of Simmentalers, Brahman and Swiss cattle in the eastern part of Namibia at Rietfontein (Otjombinde), where he settled upon retirement.
Meanwhile, former BA lethal goal poacher and incumbent exco member Kandas Paulino has extended condolences to the bereaved family and described the late Kangootui as a BA icon and founder member. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
In real life, a noted announcer, translator and presenter before he rose to the position of assistant manager of the popular Otjiherero Radio Service at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in 1997, Kangootui will be buried in Windhoek tomorrow. HAMBA KAHLE Bra Black.