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  Celly Dias One of Uganda’s greatest sportsmen By Norman Da Costa Celly Dias will be remembered for his excellence on and off the field. He used his creativity and skills to get to the top. Then he turned his attention indoors and again mastered the intricacies of each sport to reign supreme. Celly was a legend in Uganda and his impact on the field was immediate and profound. He enjoyed the best of two worlds – indoors and outdoors - and even his opponents admired him and spoke in glowing terms of this sportsman. He was a sportsman in the true real sense of the word. Having met and interviewed some of the greatest sportsmen during my career in Kenya and later in Canada one thing that struck me about Celly was that he reminded me of tennis ace Roger Federer - humble and down-to-earth.  Celly, who passed away at the age of 94, still followed every sport closely and would analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a batsman or a bowler. This isn’t surprising as Celly p...

  AFRICANA STAFF MAN KILLED IN AIR CRASH THE FOLLOWING is an obituary I was not able to write because I was away somewhere in the world on an assignment and by the time I got back my friend and colleague Monte Vianna was already dead, buried and with the angels. He was one of the most beloved of young men and there would not have been a single person alive who would have one bad word to say about him. With his departure, a dark cloud hung around almost everyone who knew Monte. By John Eames (former editor of the Sunday Nation and Africana magazine) ( Africana was a popular magazine published by the Nation Group) One of the magazine’s staff writers was killed in a light aircraft crash in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park in August. Monte Vianna was just 25, but had long been regarded as one of the most foremost tourism and wildlife reporters in the country; he was the specialist writer on the subject for the Nation group of newspapers which includes Africana. Quite predictab...

 

  Tracing Early Kenyan Football’s Roots in Mombasa and Beyond. (dedicated to one of my four-star readers: aka Mwarabu originally from Mombasa but now living in the Middle East! An early football club in Mombasa in the 1930s, James A. C. Burke (gentleman in suit & tie on the right) is the only one identified.   Source: Coastweek magazine. I stumbled on the above photo on Coastweek magazine a few months ago and I’ve been trying to research on early football in Kenya ever since, with a focus on how the Coast influenced it, or pioneered it if you prefer. I was impressed by how well-organised and managed they looked for a football team in Kenya in the 1930s. Also, if they had trophies on display then there must have been rival football clubs to them at the time, most likely just as competitive and well-organised. Sadly, there has been little or no information on them and their then rivals available, so far. We will hopefully change that by welcoming a concerted research ef...

  Mombasa's finest men and women in sport! ATHLETICS: Allan Noronha Tito    D’Souza Joe Rodrigues Bruno D’Souza George D’Costa Albert Castanha Seraphino Antao Joe  Faria Athlete of the Century: Albert  Castanha LADIES ATHLETICS : Meldrita Laurent  Viegas  Winnie D’Souza Laura Ramos Athlete of the Century: Meldrita  Laurent Viegas BADMINTON : Valence Dantes Philo D’Cunha Newton D’Costa Joe Fernandes Jerry Soares Agnes Correa   Stars of The Century: Valance Dantes Philo D’Cunha Newton D’Costa TENNIS : Mrs  Rideau Mrs L Noronha Mr M A Vienna John Monteiro  Star of the Century: M A Vienna FOOTBALL: Joe Gonsalves Albert Castanha Effie Antao Tony Masky Eugene  Mendes Procopio Fernandes George D’Souza A S S Figueira Star of the Century: Procopio Fernandes Liverpool stars: (Dedicated to one of my fans: Mwarabu) In 1958 Liverpool Mombasa won the coveted Kenya FA Cup. Former Mayor of Mombasa Rajab Sumba (third from the back row...