Punch Wrote:
Sikaye Chingula Namukamba ( Mainza Chona) passed away today in 2001.
He was born as Sikaye Chingula Namukamba with Namukamba being the family name and at 25 years old while studying law in England he would change his surname to Chona after his father Hameja Chona who was Chief Chona.
His father was a legendary local hunter known for bravery and in 1951 he would kill 7 lions in the space of 6 months before the 8th one killed him and he died of the injuries months later.
Mainza Chona was not so much into football but more into Boxing and I grew up in his household so it came as a surpised to learn yesterday that he was the one who had laid the Foundation of the former Dag Hammersjold Stadium which was Zambia’s second biggest stadium.
Shockingly he never mentioned this once to family members and my Uncle his son ( Thomas Chona) only got to know this recently after he visited a former caretaker of the stadium.
Mainza was a very humble man who never bragged or talked about his successes.
He was more comfortable telling jokes and how he owned this magical coat he had gotten which allowed him to dissapear and thats how he was never ever caught by the Colonial police despite them laying many traps for him.
The man actually never told any serious stories to family about the Independence struggle and his most told story was the Magical coat which Im told is now at the Lusaka Museum.
Its only when he passed away that in his memoires and other documents he left that you could see how serious and tough it was to get Zambia’s Independence.
On the day of the funeral it hadnt rained for days but the then Chief promised that they would go to the Malende ( Spiritual Grounds) to pray for rains and the Chief promised that it would rain immediately his body would arrive in the village and that it would stop and would only rain again at the time his body was being burried.
Ive never been supersticious but true to the Chiefs words thats exactly what happened!!!
Maybe a Coincidence? 🤔🤔🤔
All in all it was a fitting fairwell to a very humble man who had contributed his bit to Zambia.