Bongo is exciting again, football season’s here!
What you need to know:
- Bars with big TV screens will do roaring business, selling lots of beer and associated beverages since management disallows people who just sit there to enjoy a match without buying anything.
Bongo is getting exciting again. Premier League 2024/25 is just around the corner. Football maniacs will have a “good” excuse to stay away from home—to the chagrin of their wives.
Oh, yeah! A man must be out there and watch a match with fellow men. Where he’ll be free to holler and use not-very civilised language against the team he doesn’t like. Or against “his” player who loses the ball “stupidly.”
Bars with big TV screens will do roaring business, selling lots of beer and associated beverages since management disallows people who just sit there to enjoy a match without buying anything.
Some crazy fan will bet 10 beers for his team’s win, and whoever’s ready to bet against that will be challenged to declare how many beers he’ll part with. That means big business for bars. A man will find himself drinking more than he normally does because of so much joy and accompanying thirst due to his team’s victory. Or, too much stress due to his team’s loss.
And by the way, this being Bongo, a fan rejoices, not just because his team has won against his arch-rival. Nope! He’ll also rejoice when some other team—any team—beats his arch-rival. Uncle Kich, the retired school head who’s an avid Simba SC aka Simba—a side he had been supporting since 1974—will love and cheer any team that plays Young Africans SC aka Yanga.
That’s why Uncle Kich cherishes Ihefu FC, the team that managed to beat the “indomitable” Yanga twice in the 2023/24 football season! His nephew Esaya, also a diehard Simba fan, will also cheer on any side playing against Yanga.
I’ve heard some crazily fanatical followers of these two teams—Simba and Yanga—say unabashedly that they’d support the Devil himself if the Devil were to play against their archrival!
It was therefore not surprising when, last Saturday, many of the Yanga fans at Family cheered when a Simba player, Ugandan Steven Mukwala, missed a penalty against Rwandan side APR Football Club towards the dying minutes of the first half. Well, Simba went on to win 2-0 in the friendly that climaxed the Simba Day Bonanza at Kwa Mkapa Stadium. Yanga fans left the bar, expressing sadness. Only in Bongo!
Come Sunday, and I’m at Forest, where I join fellow drinkers to watch another friendly pitting Yanga against Zambia’s Red Arrows to mark the climax of the Yanga Day bonanza. In the 6th minute, an Arrows striker scores a goal. There’s so much cheering and dancing by Simba fans.
Yanga hamna timu, Simba fans are heard saying, You Yanga people have no team! When Yanga equalises in the 64th minute, a few Simba fans leave the bar in dismay as those of Yanga shout like madmen in jubilation.
Yanga, trust them, add another goal with a penalty by Aziz Ki during extra time. As Yanga fans celebrate, those of Simba rush to pay their bills and leave quickly while grumbling that the penalty that finished the Zambians was a fraud. Yanga wamebebwa. Only in Bongo!
