inBUSINESS Issue 12

From Page 57
uttered, preferring to lilt along his guitar sans
lyrics in the manner of George Benson. A
fluent muso also on the pennywhistle, Uncle
John has struggled with his sight from early
childhood, yet he has never allowed any
optical illusions to frustrate what is in sooth
a musical odyssey that is yet to be concluded.
Enter Dipsy’s mother, the irrepressible
“Go-Get-’Em-Gert,” who, undaunted by age,
enrolled with the University of Botswana
under the government’s mature entry
programme of the mid-1980s and more
than held her own against lads and lasses at
the apex of both their physical and mental
development. But for Sister Gertrude, it was
always at top flight football games that her
gutsy personality burst forth, urging the
fast-paced Zero Johnson and nimble-footed
David “Pro” Mohohlo, the deadly strike force
of 1970s Gaborone United, to pile on the goals
or egging on her fellow supporters to drown
out the opposition in the decibel stakes.
Or better still, encouraging light-footed
Wiseman Lesole to draw rival defenders to
the touchline for a closer view from the stands
before darting to the goalposts in unstoppable
zigs, zags and zigs again, all the while turning
his markers into a laughing stock in 1980s
GU when the team doubtless had a rich vein
of form. On his best day, Wise would dribble
as he drove, taunting and
teasing
a w h i l e
b e f o r e
cutting a complex course towards the
goalmouth until the fullback – now a fully
forlorn flop - attempted a half-hearted hack
at the sprightly legs of his tormentor before
giving up the unrewarding chase.
It has been said of Wiseman that he could
be as nimble as a cat on a hot tin roof in
midsummer Gabs, the high season of top
flight football in Botswana. On such a day,
the generosity of ‘Pitlas,’ that larger-than-life
bloke who played patron to Botswana’s best
known football side, would become as ample
as his girth. And take it from inBusiness,
the man who had been the third Mayor of
Gaborone (1969 – ’74), Wellie ‘Pitla-Pitla’
Seboni, was of no small dimensions.
And so it was that Dipsy should be this
pedigree that rests on a solid bedrock of art
and deep rootstock of sports. Yet, though his
forebears were men and women of formidable
fortitude, it cannot quite be said that this
young man benefited from a course charted
by anyone directly before him, in the family
or nation at large. Unlike South Africans, he
ventured into the United States of America
nearly 13 000km away without an illustrious
pioneer like Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone
having set the stage for him beforehand –
he ‘Kalamazoo’ having been the first foreign
professional in Dutch football who also
played for English, French, Italian, Australian,
Canadian and Spanish clubs, including the
celebrated Barcelona, from the mid-1950s.
Nor did Dipsy benefit from the likes of
another trailblazer, Kaizer Motaung, who -
after struggling with the weather and injury
- went on to become top scorer in the North
American Soccer League for netting 16 goals
in 15 matches for his Atlanta Chiefs in 1968.
He could not draw on the experience of Jomo
Sono at New York Cosmos in 1977 before
‘Burning Spear’ played alongside Motaung
and legendary Pele of Brazil at Atlanta Chiefs.
But Dipsy – born Diphetogo Selolwane on 27
January 1978 at Princess Marina Hospital in
Gaborone – was undaunted when he played
college football for Harris-Stowe State College
in the Year 2000 and St. Louis University in
2001 before signing his first football contract
with Vejil Ball Klub in Denmark in 2002.
It was in those foreign climes that the
dexterity of Uncle John’s fingers found
expression in Dipsy’s intelligent feet that
found no field too far or foreign to subdue.
Is it any wonder then that Dipsy should
today be the first Motswana to
professionalise sports? This is
how he views himself: “I am always desirous
of achieving goals. Once I set my mind on
something, I don’t let go until it is done.
The journey of my soccer career required
discipline and strength of character to stay
focused.”
Growing up in the then dusty
neighbourhood of Extension 2 that lies
adjacent to Gaborone’s Main Mall, street
football meant going home soiled, often
bruised and late for his daily errands. Today
his mother takes pleasure in saying how, at age
10, Dipsy set his eyes on one day becoming
the first and biggest footballer to ever come
out of Botswana. “She says speaking about it
meant I clearly understood my goals,” says
the son. “But it started even before then,”
the mother picks up the cue. “From when he
was just bigger than a toddler, Dipsy always
felt abandoned and cried when his friends
tired of kicking and chasing a ball. His older
brother, Callistus, had trouble keeping up
with his demands on the ball.”
The lastborn of three children, Dipsy made
a football playmate even of Dolly, his older
sister. Of course, at that stage the ball was
the soft plastic type that children called ‘le
dixie’ for what is known as ‘diski’ in township
lingo. Sister Gertrude says while other pupils
at Lesedi Primary School received awards
for best in this or that subject, it was always
“Best Footballer” for her son. She remembers
that the first time she saw Dipsy in “a real
match” was after “Bra Bizza,” a teacher, had
extended a special invitation to her because
the wunderkind would be in action in a game
against another primary school.
He is full of praise for his single mother
and the broader family “whose members I get
along with very well”. He recalls, for instance,
how his grandmother often baked scones for
him whenever he went into camp years later.
The family always stood by him even when
things did not go well. “I would not be where
I am today without my family,” Dipsy affirms.
“They encouraged me and
never once did they call me
crazy for aiming high and
dreaming big.”
58
BLACKIE SELOLWANE: A man of diverse
interests, Dipsy’s grandfather played midfield
for Bechuanaland 11, was mean with the tennis
raquet, dexterous on the saxophone and the
concertina and active in the independence
movement as led by the Bechuanaland Peoples
Party.
www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 12 | 2017