By Batsirai Sango.
Poets are an integral part of the society, and it is through their work that we get to romanticize and chastise certain things, events, happenings and practices within different social constructs.
It is also through their work that we are also able to debunk the present from the past and vice versa, enabling us to draw profound lessons that help us in becoming a better people. The world’s most beautiful game has had personalities in recent times whose artistry can only be nothing short of poetry.
The land between the mighty rivers of Zambezi and Limpopo has had such luminaries, who have made the nation fall in love with the beautiful game, romanticize and reminisce in perpetuity of times gone by. In the modern game they go by the terms football pundits, football commentators and certain particular names quickly come to mind.
At the global level of the game, you have the English duo of Peter Drury and Gary Lineker who are the most prominent personalities in that regard.
On the local scene the game has truly been blessed with gems of football wordsmiths, from the legendary Charles Mabika, the ever immaculate Admire Taderera, Stanley Katsande, Lovemore Banda, Spencer Banda, the late Chengetai Ditima, the dynamic duo of Barry Manandi and Mike Madoda, are some the prolific names in that vein.
For the much older football fan the name Evans Mambara stands as the benchmark for the aforementioned class. The media is there to educate, entertain and inform and these guys have over the years managed to tick all 3 boxes with their art on both our television and radio sets. With the ceremonial home of Zimbabwean football, the giant National Sports stadium the venue of many epic, illustrious battles always full to the brim, these football poets, where on guard chaining out proverbs, metaphors, allegories that made and would make viewers and listeners feel like there were at the venue.
I mean who can forget Charles Mabika’s endless commentary on a goal scene “it’s a goooooaaaaaal”, and the effect it would have for those listening from radio sets or Admire Taderera’s versatility and how he would interchangeably use Ndebele and Shona in the instalment of the battle of Zimbabwe derby.
Versatility and being dynamic are the key aspects of commentary Lovemore Banda, Barry Manandi and Mike Madoda have shown just that doing commentary even with the gentleman’s game of cricket, a sheer testament of the enormous talent that is not being harnessed and put to great effect not only for the development of the art but of the game of football as well, as they are fountains, Oasis of knowledge when it comes to the most loved sport in the country.
Their work has seemingly gone unnoticed a result of the failure and unwillingness of the authorities to open the waves for both television and radio broadcast, embracing also the new media with the advent of satellite television and social media, which in itself has made the trade and nation leg far behind.
You wonder whether it’s a deliberate ploy or sheer incompetence on the part of the authorities to keep the nation in eras gone by, that makes them deliberately impede the pluralization of media outlets that naturally will lead in growth and transformation. JOY tv a private television station was taken off the waves just when satellite television was beginning to encroach on to our shores.
Not far from home just across the Limpopo you individuals who have made big personalities of themselves from football commentary and punditry, with the likes of Thomas Kwenaite the founder of the biggest football show on the continent “Soccer Africa”, Sizwe Mabena, Tshepo Mabona, Robert Marawa, Thomas Mlambo, Andile Ncube the most revered in that regard. Baba Mthethwa being the most iconic, I mean who can forget or not fall in love with his commentary in the instalment of the Soweto derby Kaizer Chiefs taking on Orland Pirates, with the famous tag line “ho thaaata banna!”, a phrase he has copy written and has rights over a clear testament of the diverse, enormous nature of the industry.
If only in Zimbabwe’s case the media landscape was as liberal and plural as it is in South Africa our beloved jewels Charles Mabika and company would be huge, and it did not have to take foreign media entities to give opportunities to them in order to do that which they love most. Stanley Katsande once had a work stint with Canal France a media giant which speaks volumes to the appreciation others have of the potential and talent we possess.
With news also in February 2024 of Baba Mthethwa commencing the search for the next generation of commentators, goes to show the conducive environment for the thriving of such talent and the need to harness.
Cry my beloved Zimbabwe that our talent and potential is going away and being wasted deliberately by the deliberate unwillingness of the powers that be not to open up and liberalize the waves under the pretext of safeguarding the nation and population from shenanigans and machinations of the same old hymn song we have been told for more than 2 decades, that is of regime change.
