Anthony Joshua |
Wild celebrations erupted
at the makeshift open-air viewing centre in Sagamu, Ogun State, after Anthony Joshua
knocked Wladimir Klitschko out in the
11th round to win the world heavyweight title fight at Wembley on Saturday, according to ESPN.
One over-enthusiastic fan knocked over the projector from
which the game was streaming and the screen went blank.
The Majority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly
Yinka Mafe could not hold back the emotions as he raised arms pumping in unison with the street
urchins who had also gathered to cheer on their son to victory.
Adedamola Joshua, the boxer’s uncle, was almost in tears as
he hurriedly made his way out of the venue, almost smothered by congratulatory
hugs and handshakes.
“This is a miracle,” the elder Joshua told ESPN. “I was so scared when he (Joshua)
went down, I thought it was over. But he showed strength and fought to come
back and when he got past that, I knew he would win.”
Kayode Segun-Okeowo,
the Sagamu Youth President, whose
organisation put the viewing event together, was more confident than most, but
had lost his voice by the end. Before the fight he had no doubts who the
victory would go to. He said, “Joshua
will win. Klitschko cannot withstand him.”
Such was the outpouring of support that almost every punch
Joshua threw drew cheers, and every hit he took led to collective wincing and groaning.
Joshua’s father (Robert) is the grandson of one of Sagamu’s
greatest men. Their late patriarch Omo-Oba Daniel Adebambo Joshua, who was born
in 1882, was one of the first to engage in trade with Europeans in the early
19th century.
He was also a senior member of staff of
UAC, and with foresight uncommon at the time, gradually bought up a huge
spread of land holdings covering almost half the town, making him not only one
of the most educated men in the region at the time, but also one of the wealthiest.
This meant that although he had 12 wives and many children,
he could still afford to send his children to school abroad. It was while
studying in the United Kingdom that one of his sons met and married an Irish
woman.
Adedamola tells a story of how AJ’s grandfather was involved
in a scuffle while in the UK with three white men who questioned his right to
marry a white woman.
“That was in 1952. They insulted him, telling him he had no
right to marry a white woman. He beat
all three of them up. I’m sure that’s where Anthony’s fighting skills come
from.”
AJ’s father Jonathan is one product of that union. But such
are his ties to his roots that he came back home to Sagamu to find a wife,
Joshua’s mother Yeta.
Adebambo Joshua’s respect among the people of Sagamu comes
not just from the wealth he acquired, but also for his intelligence and
generosity. As a Christian and chairman of the Christ African Church, Baba Josh
donated some of his plots of land to the
Christ African Church, the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church and even a
mosque. The Joshua Hall at the Sagamu Mosque is the only such hall within a
Muslim complex carrying a Christian name.
Until Saturday, very few people in Sagamu knew that AJ was
one of theirs. It was a gap the youth
congress felt they needed to close.
On the morning of the fight, they organised a match around
the town wearing T-shirts adorned with a picture of AJ. They started from his
great grandfather’s house on Cinema Street (where Baba Josh built the first
cinema in the region, which still stands) and ended up at the Epele Palace.
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