6 minute read
Jojo Hamunyela’s journey From Dust to Destiny
A testament to the power and opportunity in sport
Growing up on dusty streets, Jojo Hamunyela’s love for bicycles started very young. “When I was five, my mom bought me a bike with two wheels at the back. I cherished it, but the bigger kids would often take it or ride it without my permission. I fought hard to keep it.” Jojo is an elite men’s cyclist who has represented Namibia all over the world, but his story is one of humble beginnings and how sport can help impoverished youth to sidestep the temptations of the streets.
Jojo grew up with his grandmother in a village in the Ohangwena Region, deep in rural Namibia. When he moved to Windhoek to start Grade 2, he had to leave his beloved bike behind in the north. By seventh grade, Jojo managed to build a bike from collected parts, crafting a little BMX-style bike. “I just wanted to ride,” he recalls. Living in a dangerous part of Windhoek meant it was not long before this bike was stolen. Later he moved with his mom to Donkerhoek, where he attended Immanuel Shifidi High School. It was here that he participated in a GIZ-sponsored programme that rewarded top learners with bikes, a coveted prize for the many benefits that a bike could give a child living in these parts of Windhoek.
Jojo explains: “I lived a long distance away from school and would walk to school. My childhood was a struggle, I didn’t have transport or shoes that didn’t have holes in them. Winning that bike was, in a way, supporting my studies. It helped me to get to school.” Sadly, it wasn’t long before this bike was stolen too. It was then that he started attending the Physically Active Youth (PAY) after-school programme for children from disadvantaged communities. One of the pillars of the PAY programme is physical activity by offering children a chance to learn various sports. This meant that Jojo once again had access to a bike.
“We would use the bikes at PAY, do our training, and then bring them back to the centre. They wouldn’t be kept at our houses, so they couldn’t get stolen. We were so excited to finish school each day and complete our homework, because that meant we could spend time on the bikes,” says Jojo, recalling how this became the foundation for his professional cycling career. “We used to challenge each other to see who was the fastest on the bike, and those guys would later become my professional teammates. I remember one day we had a coach from the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) in Switzerland to come talk to us at PAY. That was the day that I thought to myself, ‘I want to be a professional cyclist.’”
Marie-Jeanne Ndimbira-Rosner, co-founder of PAY, played a significant role in Jojo’s life. “She was like a second mother to me. I’m deeply grateful for everything she did for me,” says Jojo, who goes on to explain that she saw talent in him before anyone else did, and worked towards raising funds to see him enter professional races. When he first began competing against the top Namibian cyclists, he did so without professional gear and in nothing more than shorts, a T-shirt and rudimentary sneakers. Jojo explains that in those days it came as such a surprise that he could make money by winning races. “I came from a place where if you had one hundred Namibian dollars you were a rich man, and now I was winning prize money. It motivated me to win.” In case you were wondering what he did with these winnings, Jojo gave it to his mother.
Jojo’s success in cycling inspired others and made him a local celebrity in his community, which, he adds, saved his life. “Many of my old schoolmates faced tough lives, sometimes involving crime or substance abuse. In the streets, you are confronted by a lot of crime. Cycling gave me a path away from that.”
Jojo talks about how he almost lost his footing at one point, falling in with the wrong crowd, but again his second mother came to find him. “I was getting tempted as a young man. MarieJeanne came personally looking for me at my house, wanting to speak to me and my mom. She spent the whole day with us. She got us a sponsorship in cycling from Nedbank. We were the first guys to get sponsored in cycling. She connected us with Mr Steve Galloway, who is a good man. He helped us to do training camps and this also helped us to refocus.”
Jojo talks fondly of the many memories he has of competing on a bicycle, from chasing down teammates on the Daan Viljoen Road to being invited to represent Namibia in Japan. “For that race, the organisers invited me to compete and paid for everything, from flights to accommodation.”
Now, Jojo is moving into a new chapter of his career as a cycling coach. He is currently a Level 2-certified coach and aims to become a Level 3 coach – the highest certification – with the necessary training in Switzerland. Meanwhile, he has established the Jojo Cycling Academy to help the underprivileged youth. The academy is in its early stages, and Jojo hopes to secure bikes and a container to store them safely to prevent them from being stolen.
Many of my old schoolmates faced tough lives, sometimes involving crime or substance abuse. In the streets, you are confronted by a lot of crime. Cycling gave me a path away from that.
In a testament to the aspirational power of sport and the promise of a life out of the ghettos and off the streets, Jojo explains that when he sets off in the morning to train on his bike, he would see many children from his community line the street to wave him off, and when he returns in the twilight hours, they would still be there to wave him home. Perhaps their mere proximity to him might mean that they, too, will get the chance to ride a bike one day, or see their names in the newspaper, or even see the world. “They ask me when I’m going to help them get bikes. They say they want to ride like me. They see what cycling has done for my life. I want to help those kids.”
