The first and only woman referee of professional boxing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Wivine Tshidibi says she battled her way to renown in a man’s world thanks to a “fit of jealousy.”
It was a way to keep an eye on her husband, says the 40-year-old mother of four, who once practiced the “noble art” herself, but now sees the sport as a strictly male affair.
“That’s the real fight,” Tshidibi says, clenching her fists and calling boxing matches between women “child’s play” in comparison.
Photo: AFP
Stubborn and generously built, Tshidibi came to boxing after practicing several other sports, including handball, basketball and judo, but she readily concedes that jealousy pushed her into the ring in 2002.
Tshidibi was then married to renowned Congolese boxer Mbuyi Tshibangu, alias “Mbuyi-Champion” to his fans.
“Each time he finished one of his boxing matches, he went off with other women,” she says with an amused smile.
“That’s why I decided to take up boxing, so that he couldn’t get away from me anymore,” she adds, though times have since moved on and “Mbuyi-Champion” has emigrated to Canada.
Only about 30 women boxers are active in the DR Congo on both the professional and amateur circuits, as compared with about 100 men. Sponsors are not interested in women and the matches can be difficult to arrange.
For lack of finding opponents in her own category, Tshidibi decided to take a course in becoming a professional referee.
Since the first fight she adjudged in 2009, Tshidibi has served as referee for 15 professional matches and more than 80 amateur contests, every one of them between men.
“She deserves it,” says Congolese League of Boxing Referees president Ling Shang Kieselo, who has watched over fights himself for 36 years.
“You can place Mrs Tshidibi in charge of any fight there is and be certain that there will be no mistakes on the part of the referee,” Kieselo says.
During a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Kinshasa’s “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, when US heavyweight Muhammad Ali beat then-heavyweight world champion George Foreman, Tshidibi refereed two of the six matches staged in the capital.
Kieselo believes that Tshidibi has carved out her place in such a masculine preserve because of the qualities he admires.
“In the ring, she’s very watchful, objective in her decisions, knows when it’s the right moment to end the fight [and] can distinguish what’s right from what is not,” he says.
Boxer Dady Bola, who has fought under Tshidibi’s vigilant eye, respects her skills.
“In the ring, she’s strict,” Bola says, but she is “also very hot-tempered and gets angry fast.”
Tshidibi herself accepts these assessments, saying that she won her status because of her personality, which she describes as “stern, tough, choleric ... And nothing scares me.”
Proud of her career, Tshidibi keeps her old photographs as a trainee boxer and of matches she fought on display.
Her professional referee’s certificate has suffered from the humidity, but she keeps it carefully, along with a medal awarded to her last year by the Congolese Boxing Federation for having been referee at the final of a local championship.
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