The black fighter’s hands came up to defend his head and I moved in close as his gut area opened up and in went a Geel Piet eight, right where the water he had swallowed would be. I knew the pain and the nausea would be terrible and he gave a loud gasp as the flurry of punches went home, and tried to chop my gloves away with his own. I was ready with a right hook which caught him flush on the jaw, coming up with all my strength behind it. While his punches had bounced me off my feet, mine bounced him hard against the ropes and then he sunk to his knees, both his gloves resting on the canvas. Blood from his nose dripped onto the grey canvas as I retired to a neutral corner.
At eight he rose, but I could see he felt bad and I moved in and began to pick him off. I could have come in swinging and tried to finish him, but a fighter like Mandoma digs deep for his courage and can always find that one last big punch. I was almost certain that he was a spent force and wouldn’t recover between rounds fast enough. I’d get him in the final round. The bell went and I got to my corner to be met by Hymie and Solly, both shouting at me.
‘Ferchrissake, why didn’t you finish him off,’ Hymie screamed. ‘His gut, his gut is gone, you could have taken him, now he’s got bleedin’ time to recover,’ Solly said.
‘He only needs one more big punch and he can take me out,’ I protested. I was following a Geel Piet plan and not a Solly Goldman plan. Geel Piet would have wanted me to box him off his feet, not punch him. ‘You must always go safety first, klein baas, box, box, box, never fight.’
Solly regained his composure. ‘You’re right, son. I’m glad one of us is still thinking.’ Whether he believed it or not, he knew he had to restore my concentration and was aware that in his excitement he’d acted foolishly.
The bell went for the final round. Mandoma, desperate for strength, had taken water again. For the first minute of the last round he came hard, but his timing was out and he wasn’t putting his punches together properly. I stayed away from him. Flicking lightly at his cut eye. Keeping the blood coming, waiting for the chance to move in. He hit me with a right cross which, had it come earlier in the fight, would have put me down. Now it lacked authority. It was time to move in. I worked him into his own corner and went to work under his heart. Three solid punches before he managed to pull me into a clinch. He was too spent to stay out of trouble. After each break I’d move him back into a corner and set to work on his body. I couldn’t believe he could still be standing. I’d never hit anyone as often or as hard. But the bastard wouldn’t go down. I had to put him on the canvas again. I started to hit the black fighter hard on the nose and his gloves went up and opened him up down below. The Geel Piet eight became the Solly Goldman thirteen, the first time I had ever got a thirteen combination together perfectly. Mandoma gave a sort of a gurgle and then a sigh and fell. He was totally exhausted, his eyes were open looking at me but his body could no longer respond and he was unable to get his head off the canvas. He’d been boxed off his feet. His heart hadn’t died it just couldn’t hold him up on its own. Mandoma was the greatest natural fighter I had ever seen.
I had never been as exhausted in my life. Not only had I never boxed six rounds before, I’d never taken as much punishment. I tried to walk with dignity to the neutral corner as Natkin Patel started to count Mandoma out.
For the first time in the fight I heard the crowd, who were going absolutely wild.
‘Onoshobishobi… shobi… shobi… Ingelosi!’ the chorus rolled like thunder across the football field. On and on it went until the microphone was pushed back into the ring and Gideon Mandoma’s seconds had helped him to his corner. I walked over to see if he was all right and to shake his hand.
‘You are the great chief, you are him who is Onoshobishobi Ingelosi,’ Mandoma said, and standing on still trembling legs he held up my hand. The crowd went wild.
‘It is you who are a chief, your spirit is still with you, we will be brothers, Gideon Mandoma.’
‘I see you, Peekay. We have taken the milk from the same mother’s breast, we are brothers.’ I held up his hand and the crowd roared their applause.
Mr Nguni was back at the microphone and after some trouble got the crowd to quiet down. I had returned to my corner and was sitting on the pot while Solly was rubbing me down and Hymie held a fresh towel to drape over me.
‘We have seen what we have seen. You must all go to your homes, tell the people that the spirit within the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi lives also in the man. You have seen it with your own eyes and it is so,’ he said simply. He turned and called Gideon Mandoma and me over and we stood next to him with our arms around each other. ‘We have seen the spirits fight, in this we are all brothers,’ Mr Nguni said and the roar of the black crowd closed the proceedings.
I touched Gideon on the shoulder and returned to my corner. It was just beginning to move into darker twilight and the smell of wood smoke and coal fires came to me again. In the distance a train whistled, cutting through the hubbub of the departing crowd. All around us black faces were grinning and some would stretch out and touch me lightly as though I were a talisman. But most looked at me and I could see that they believed. The legend was cast deeper and would spread further. I wondered if it would ever end. I suddenly realised that every bone in my body felt as though it had been broken.
With my arm around Hymie’s shoulders for support we walked through the corridor of black bodies on our way back to the school. Black hands touched me, wiping sweat from my body and wiping it onto their faces.
‘There you are, what did I tell you, lads, didn’t I say it would be a t’riffic fight?’ Solly said as we entered the school. ‘Blimey! Twice there I thought you was gone, my son. It’s good to know you can take a punch. Lemme tell you, I never seen an amateur throw a perfect thirteen-punch combination before. It was worth coming’ just for that.’
‘Cut it out, Solly, can’t you see Peekay’s hurting,’ Hymie cut in.
‘Not as much as the swartzer, my boy,’ Solly said.
When we got to the shower block I sat down and started to cry. It was as though I saw the years ahead. The pain in my body had somehow sharpened the focus of my mind. I saw South Africa. I saw what would come. Something had happened to me; Hymie was talking but it was as though his voice were in an echo chamber. No, not an echo chamber; in the crystal cave of Africa. His voice echoed across the tops of the rainforest, down the valley just as the barking baboons had done. ‘I’ve found it, Doc. I’ve found the power of one!’ Hymie’s voice was saying. The cave about me was shining crystal, the crystal became my pain and the pain sharpened as the light grew more intense. My concentration focused down to a pinpoint. The sadness I felt was overwhelming; sadness for the great Southland. In the whiteness, in the light, was a sound, as if the light and the sound were one. It was the great drum and voices of the people. They came together as an echo.’ Mayibuye Afrika! Afrika! Afrika!’ Come back, Africa! Africa! Africa! My life, whatever it was to become, was bound to this thing; there was no escaping it, I was a part of the crystal cave of Africa. And in the pain and confusion I wept, I could see only destruction and confusion and the drum beat; boom, boom, boom, and the light began to fade and Doc entered the cave, his hair white as snow, tall as ever, ‘You must try, Peekay. You must try. Absoloodle!’
Hymie put his arm around me. ‘There’s more to this Onoshobishobi Ingelosi than I know about, isn’t there, Peekay?’
‘Christ, I dunno. I just don’t know,’ I sobbed.
‘Don’t worry, Peekay, no one can hurt you. No bastard can hurt you while I’m alive!’
‘Doc’s dead!’ I heard my voice saying as though it were totally divorced from my body.