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“Diana Ross” and her Mighty Queens


This song scares all the basketball teams around. It means the Mighty Queens are coming!


And wherever the Mighty Queens go, hundreds of fans follow them. Their fans love them. The whole of Alexandra Township loves them. The Mighty Queens are the best basketball team around.


The Mighty Queens live in a women’s hostel in Alexandra. Sorry, one of the players doesn’t live in the hostel. Walk Tall, one of the stars in the team, is a guy. He can’t live in the hostel.


But the other players live in the hostel. Ace, Sugar, Sea Water, Valdez, Let it Be, Trouble Maker, Giant Killer, Take it Cool …. the women in the hostel are proud of them all.


And anybody who knows the Mighty Queens, knows “Diana Ross”. She is the president of the team. “Diana Ross” started the team. She trained them. She made them famous.


“Diana Ross” is her name now. But her real name is Dianne Mosia. She grew up in Witbank. She did well at school. But she loved sport most of all. She was a good tennis and basketball player.

Then her father died. The family needed money. In 1969 Diana moved to Johannesburg. She wanted to find a better job.


She stayed in the Alexandra Women’s Hostel. She found a good job at a Dry Cleaner. But she was lonely in the hostel. And she saw that other women were lonely also.


Diana had an idea. She decided to start a basketball team. She told people about her idea. A lot of women wanted to play basketball.


Diana called her first team the Eagles. In 1975 she left the Eagles and started the Mighty Queens. The Eagles changed their name to Trinity.


Diana did a good job with the Mighty Queens. The team did well. Then Diana had another idea. Some women in the hostel were old. They could not play basket­ ball. Diana told them to join the Mighty Queens. She said the club needed members.


Now hundreds of members follow the Mighty Queens everywhere. They go with the team to places like Newcastle, Rustenburg, Witbank, Brits, Bloemfontein and Kimberley. Diana always makes sure the members have transport.


The members have membership cards and badges. And they always wear the same uniform – white tennis shoes, dark red skirts with white stripes, white blouses with “Mighty Queens” printed on the back and dark red berets.


“We really do love the Mighty Queens,” says Cecilia Zulu. She is a member of the Mighty Queens. “We will follow them anywhere. We will do anything for them. We even clean the field before they play.”


The members have meetings every Thursday night. They watch the team train on Saturday afternoons. And on Sunday mornings they watch the Mighty Queens play.


Sometimes the Mighty Queens win some money. Diana puts the money in the bank. Every member knows how much money is in the bank. The club spends the money on a big party once a year. Sometimes the club helps members who lose their jobs.


On Sunday mornings players and members sing and dance before they leave for a game. Then the world knows that the Mighty Queens are coming. And after the game, they also sing and dance. Then the world knows that the Mighty Queens have won again!


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