Has Bosso finally capitulated?

Wothi ngizidlulele mina:
Excavating snippets of the obscured Zimbabwean football landscape: Has Bosso finally capitulated?

Today I have decided to write a brief about the interesting history of football in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa in general. Just nje snippets. The reader could make connections, I do not intend to persuade anyone to take my opinion but I will be glad if there are more insights added. My interest is the mutual interconnection between football and politics. Interestingly this dovetailing of football and politics extends to contemporary football. In a nutshell, football is important in Zimbabwe, and it can be used as a window through which one can poyintela into Zimbabwean society, more generally that football, in Marcel Mauss's words, is a total social phenomenon. It traverses and affects the whole of society and it reveals all its dimensions. Ngakho-ke idiski like the eyes remains a window to the soul of Zimbabwe.

Through football we can gain insights into psyche of a society (Zimbabwe), the psyche of the fans, players and in the process find key resonance with society at large. Of course coz ibhora limulti-faceted liyadapulapha from social, political to uhlangothi lwezomnotho(economic). Ngakhoke ngiletha nje iqatha lodwa not umzimba wonke. Liqatha nje, iqhatshana. Ngingathi ngiletha umgogodla, inyama umfundi walencwadi uzazigcwalisela.

As known to all, football in Southern Africa was brought by missionaries. In Southern Africa the key areas where football was played was in the mines, tertiary institutions and schools. Kwakungafani leWest Africa where schools were the only key areas where football was played. The school roots of football in West Africa has continued up to today where academies have always been a source of football talent ie Asec Mimosa, Hearts of Oak, Canon Yaounde njalo njalo. But West Africa is not my concern. Mina ngizibhekele iSouthern Africa where even imigration gave football an ethnic dimension. Kodwa futhi lokho ngokwelinye ilanga noma ngizathi fahla fahla kancane.

In Southern Africa the first football star was Charles Lobengula(King Lobengula's son) who played centre half for Zonnebloem FC. This was between 1903-1907. Charles Lobengula was Zonnebloem's centre half who had the whole of the Cape singing his name in awe. Ukukhonjwa khona worse. World War 1 caused some interruptions to football and after the 1920s football was revolutionarised and became national particularly in the 30s and 40s. After Charles Lobengula a new generation led namely by Sam 'the Baboon Shepherd' and Thloriso 'Hitler' Sobi dominated football and both legends were Orlando Pirates players. In later years Mbakwe High School became the feeder stream to mainly Moroka Swallows and Pirates with many of those becoming legends in SA football.

In Zimbabwe, the notable footballers then were Benjamin Burombo, Siphambaniso Manyoba, Freddy 'Dusty' Gotora, Joseph Msika and Just Rize. However above all the players of the era no one came close to Just ' the Kontrola' Rize.
The 'Kontrola' was known from Cape to Kinshassa. Legend has it that he would control the ball with his head and dribble the ball past people with his head. Bathi everyone would scream in unison uzwe bethi 'Th-e-e-e-e Ko-ntr-o--la'. The guy would bring Makokoba and the then little but growing town of Bulawayo to a standstill when he appeared in the streets. The 'Kontrola' was originally from the Copperbelt in Zambia. He also owed his popularity to evolving new identities constructed within the structural context of Southern Rhodesia characterised by mass migrations from Zambia and Malawi. As foreigners then or rather new arrivals, these groups had no choice but to find spaces where they would excel and be acceptable. Football became that space. It is not uncommon today to find that excelling Zimbabweans in football tend to trace their ancestry to mainly Zambia and Malawi. Probably the first 11 of the Zimbabwean football national team largely fall in this bracket. But the Kontrola's talents played a key role too in inspiring many youngsters in this bracket to excel in football ie ixaba laseBrazil or Spain liyazitshela noma abantu bakuthatha obvious ukuthi idiski liyajaza.

Close on the 'Kontrola's heels on popularity was another Lobengula descendent, Siphambaniso Manyoba. Phela the cream de la creme of Bulawayo then played for a star studded select team called the Red Army. The Red Army generally played teams from South Africa Tanzania, Belgian Congo, Nyasaland and others. Siphambaniso Manyoba captained this team for a long time. It was star studded of course but the Kontrola was key and stood head and shoulders above the rest. The late Vice-President Joseph Msika also featured for the Red Army too, although his original team was Mashonaland United(Zimbabwe Saints).

1939 onwards became the blossoming or rather golden era of football in the then Rhodesia. Prior to that football was administered by the African Welfare Society(AWS) which had given the Barbour Fields as the venue for games. But from 1939 football was African controlled. A 16 team league was established in Bulawayo. The dominating teams were . Matabeleland Highlanders, The Mashonaland Club, the Northern Rhodesia Club, the United Africans Club and Home Sweepers West Commonage FC. As we can see, by merely looking at names of teams migration was part and parcel of Rhodesian football and identity. In fact it is also testimony to the cosmopolitan nature of Bulawayo. The league was not national then.

Migration was not new, as a result Zimbabwean football has always had its umbilical cord firmly entrenched in South Africa. For example Highlanders FC can trace its roots to South Africa. Benjamin Burombo a popular player and later politician was known for strutting his skills for a lower tier league team, Johannesburg Mashonaland Club in South Africa. That was in the 1930s. He later went back to his home to Selukwe where he played for Shabani (in its various forms)-the oldest team in Zimbabwe. Noma nje yona in Northern Rhodesia Club. In the 1960s Mbakwe High School in Plumtree provided as much as 27 players for South African clubs. I have contacts with three of the players. Manqoba Mguni was the most outstanding and he is still alive in Johannesburg with two of his sons playing professional football there.

I am fascinated by a number of things lapha but ngizoba brief ngazo. First, it is clear that football in Rhodesia could not be separated from politics. First, Msika, Burombo, Manyoba were captains of teams and at the same time led Unions and Political parties. Second undercurrents of ethnicity are quite clear in the name of the teams. To digress a bit to reduce football roots to ethnicity in Zimbabwe could be a linearization of a complex process. Geography is also an important factor. For example Highlanders never had any ethnic qualms with Dynamos after it was begged to join the national league in the late 60s. Ethnic tensions were between Saints and Bosso and they were fuelled by colonial administrators who even organised boxing matches between Shonas and Ndebeles.

One thing that has been ignored and covered up is that Dynamos was formed for Chibwe Chitedza, Joshua Nkomo in 1961-62. Dynamos was formed as a part of the national political winds gripping Zimbabwe then and at the helm was Joshua Nkomo. Sam Dauda, Morrison Sifelani and largely the Chewa community in Mbare sat down and saw it befitting to form such a team. On the other hand the CIA had seen the threat posed by ZAPU which was establishing stronger links with Russia. Through CIA manoeuvres ZANU was formed and Rhodesian intelligence Dauya was encouraged to from an all black club in Harare and move it away from Nkomo and the larger revolutionary fires engulfing Zimbabwe then. In the process the apolitical Salisbury United and Salisbury City the big black clubs in Harare folded to create one huge behemoth. Interestingly Highlanders refused to participate hence Bulawayo Rovers and Bulawayo Sables remained intact and dominated the national league. The delay was frustrating the third force which wanted the fires to catch up fast. But finally, catch up they did up to today. Of course, this was a divisive move, later on Dynamos was inclined to ZANU something evidenced by its patrons today. The ethnic fires that fuelled the tension between Saints and Bosso took a new twist as Dynamos became ZANU and Highlanders ZAPU. This was through mechanisations of the third force. It was too late the political inclination of football became even clearer post independence where league championships were generally determined to befit the national narratives. For example even a layman would easily tell or trace a correlation between Dynamos, Black Rhinos(an army team) and Zimbabwe Saints and the reality that they are the only teams to win the championships in the first years of post-independence. This had even become clearer in the black administered league of John Madzima when Highlanders pulled out of the league.

You see, this danger was predicted by the legendary Masotsha Ndlovu a long time ago. Masotsha like other early nationalists, chimed with George Orwell's 1984 that football was anti-revolutionary. His opinion was for the structural-functionalist that football is conducive to social disruption. In line with Masotsha, Orwell and structural functionalist analysts a Marxist read will always be suspicious of football too coz like beer it is perceived to inhibit revolutionary consciousness- beer, football, women). (Kikkkkk for me Marxists and the church have loads in common especially things they eschew- Here is a line from a Masotsha Ndlovu interview:

Dube: Did u play football?

Masotsha Ndlovu: Ah! WHAT? No I used to go and watch at a distance, I detested that seriously. I knew that was killing us.

Yes, maybe Masotsha was right, football could be killing us. But, I think it has also resurrected us. Why ngisitsho njalo?

One thing that has been ignored in contemporary Zimbabwean politics, due to what I think is a long-standing snobbish academic and intellectual elitism is the role of football, particularly Highlanders in raising awareness and consciousness. Rewind back to 1997. It was impossible or foolish to wear a political t-shirt (anti-zanu). However, we then see the intertwining of revolutionary politics with the ascent of Highlanders(ok 1990 was the same Bosso championship and the rise of ZUM n the Forum Party). The four leagues on the trot, particularly the first two for Bosso, we see people across the board beginning to lose fear of the government sibona ama- t-shirts inscribed 'uMugabe lisela' or 'sibuswa ngamamenemene' become common or the images of the bull amongst many more. The situation caused serious dents on the ruling party because everyone across the country realised the bully was not as tough as they thought. Many parties/civil society among other reasons piggy-backing on this newly-found confidence became even more confident and visible after realising that the governement could not arrest or kill everyone. And in the end this newly found confidence arguably inspired many groups to merge and form an assault on the ruling party with significant success.

However many missed the implications of the uprising and focussed on the new parties. Many missed a situation where Bosso literally became an army team from playing personnel to executive. Many could and are still not able to interpret the situation not even to understand why a traditional song 'iteam yezwe lonke' began to be very important. If not careful, it could be the end of an era. Ngqobe!!!!

A senna ke Spikiri.........(this is unedited please bear with me nako yang bolaya)