Mucherahowa opens can of worms in memoirs

By The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard | Aug. 8, 2017 | 3 Min read

MY first, and perhaps lasting, impression of soccer legend Memory Mucherahowa’s memoirs, Soul of Seven Million Dreams, was that it opens a huge can of worms with the former Dynamos player’s recollections of his stint at the football club.

Title: Soul of Seven Million Dreams Author: Albert Marufu/Memory Mucherahowa Publisher: RM Publishers (2017) ISBN: 978-1543137903

REVIEWED BY BENIAH MUNENGWA

In the semi-autobiography written with the help of England-based sport journalist, Albert Marufu, Mucherahowa rides on the strength of his name to excavate not only his childhood and family life, but his arrival at Dynamos until he hung up his boots after a largely fruitful soccer career, which had its highs and lows.

Well-captured in the semi-autobiography is the lateral chaos and the ugliness of the schisms of juju in the local game, alleged match-fixing, the running of a professional club like a “boozers” outfit, regionalism in the national team and the vicious boardroom battles.

Mucherahowa hints on the alleged fixed matches of the 1997 Dunhill Tournament Cup, but with what intentions? Analysing the plot of the revelation, I could pick up strands of regret and a dosage of jealous as he reveals how the alleged match-fixers went on to buy luxury cars and houses, things Mucherahowa was unable to lay his hands on despite playing for what is reputed to be the biggest ever soccer outfit in the country.

Some readers will definitely be fascinated by the intriguing revelations around the uses of “juju” to win soccer games, while others are likely to cringe from the often inhumane treatment of players by administrators or Mucherahowa’s own handling of his role as club captain at the time.

There is going to be debate around the author’s intentions in penning the book, and perhaps the major argument will be that this is an attempt at redemption or personal gratification on the former player’s part with all the controversies associated with blowing one’s own trumpet.

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The unflattering portrayal of Highlanders Football Club as an outfit that perpetuates a culture of violence is also likely going to be a major point of conjecture around these memoirs. Or, does Dynamos really have seven million fans?

The way priorities are misplaced, the way big power politics short-change harmonious relations is sickening. The saddest part is that it’s now almost two decades after Mucherahowa hung his boots, but the football landscape in Zimbabwe hasn’t really developed and the administration of local football is perhaps worse off.

The book can be read as a set of narratives that really exposes how poor our football industry is compared to Europe where mega-million player transfer deals are signed. So, in Zimbabwe, you have “soccer stars” resorting to truck driving after wrapping up their careers on the pitch because their earnings at the peak of their careers were too paltry to stretch beyond the retirement zone or they simply failed to manage their finances. Perhaps this is not limited just to Dynamos FC or the Warriors team alone, but several other local clubs.

The much contested issue of hiring white managers under the pretext that they are better than their black counterparts and its reparations are made clear, both on the cultural front and on the performance side in the text.

In a recent Youth Connektion Africa Summit (2017) Akon hinted on the need for the African to tell a beautiful story about their experience, but if one is not to tell a real story, like Mucherahowa’s who will evaluate us, who will take the checks and balances? That’s the paradox of the African story teller.

Since it has never been typical of the Zimbabwean scene that sportsmen to document their experiences on the field and beyond, put them in a book, publish them and let them out into the public, Mucherahowa must be credited for telling his story.

The path that he led has also been followed by Arthur Mutambara in his latest offering, In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream and all coincidentally courting the aspects of Zimbabwean people’s dreams.

Beniah Munengwa can be contacted on [email protected]