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Usain Bolt

Dr Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday

Putting aside genetics, maybe winning is based on the social environment, opportunity, determination, resources and talent. More importantly, winning has a better chance if we learn to dispel the myths and stereotypes about ourselves as Africans.

“Ah, ah! Kamubhoyi kahwinha swimming muOlympics! Kamubhoyi zveshuwa!” shouted my cousin Piri. By this exclamation she meant that an African or a black person had won a gold medal in swimming at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Piri was at my house where she is temporarily staying so she can care for our niece Shamiso who is due to have a second baby any time soon. During the past week, the two of them have been glued to the television, watching mostly sport because Shamiso is obsessed with it.

She was known to be an excellent athlete at high school, before she married Philemon and they settled in Harare.

I joined them to watch the replay of the swim. It was all true. On August 11, 2016, a 20-year-old black girl called Simone Manuel won the 100 metres free style swimming at the Olympic games. Simone Manuel made history in winning an Olympic gold medal in an individual swimming event. She was the first African American woman to jump into the water and compete against the world’s greatest swimmers, and win.

After the win, Simone spoke to the people: “The gold medal wasn’t just for me. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport,” she said.

“For people who believe that they can’t do it. I hope I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. ” Simone also stood up there and said she was aware of what her victory meant, in view of the current political climate and police brutality in the US. “This win hopefully brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on. My colour just comes with the territory,” she said.

Simone Manuel was not alone in winning gold. Another black girl called Simone Biles won as well. She has been winning in gymnastics for the past three years. I saw the replay. Biles looked, strong, dark and beautiful. She started on the vault and surged down on the platform, then launched sky-high and landed with a hop and a one step forward. She then climbed on to the third rotation on the beam and with small wobbles she hit the dismount in what appeared to be an effortless movement. She waited a beat as people applauded and cascaded down, showing incredible artistic talent. At that moment, as we watched on television, Piri shouted that Simone was not alone. She was possessed by the spirit of a monkey. This means she belonged to the monkey totem, Soko Mukanya.

This gold medal win by two black girls came as a great surprise to the world and to some of us who grew up thinking black people are only good at athletics such as 100m, 200m, 400m, 1 500m and the long marathons.

This was the first time that I had seen black girls perform so well in sports traditionally dominated by European people. Over the number of years that some of us have watched the Olympics in Zimbabwe, we watched mostly athletics and maybe basketball where the majority of people with African origins compete.

We did not watch much tennis until the Williams sisters started winning. They put to bed the myth that black people cannot play tennis and compete on international terms.

Controversy characterises the Olympic games from the time they first started . In 1936, the games were held in Berlin, Germany. At this time the Nazis were in power under Adolf Hitler who chose this event to prove his theory of racial superiority. Jesse Owens, an African-American, won four gold medals in Berlin during those games. Despite Adolf Hitler´s hostility and refusal to shake Jesse Owens´s hand to congratulate him for the four gold medals because Owens was a black, Owens later recalled that he had the greatest ovations from the audience in Berlin.

Owens’ German rival was Luz Long in the long jump. Luz walked up to Jesse Owens and publicly befriended him right in front of Adolf Hitler´s Nazi officers. Soon after the 1936 games, Luz joined World War II and was sadly killed. But Jesse Owens remained a friend of the family for many years during his lifetime.

Many years after the Jesse Owens win in Berlin, two black men, Tommie Smith and John Carlos won first and third place in the Olympic games of 1968. In the victory stand in Mexico City on the 16th October 1968, the US athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, supported by Australian Peter Norman, presented one of the greatest moments in the history of the Olympics. Smith and Carlos stood on the podium, raised gloved fists and made a black power salute to raise awareness against racism, injustice and poverty in America. This salute was significant because the 1968 Olympics took place during the civil rights movement against racism and discrimination in America.

Since then, we are witnessing more black representation in sports. This year, on August 15, we sat and waited to see fine looking strong black men line up to run the 100m race. This prestigious race was first introduced as part of the Summer Olympic race in 1896. The women´s 100m race started in 1928. It is seen as the most prestigious and also the shortest race in the world. It requires a lot of unusual strength, talent and stamina.

“Apa paita zvevarume apa,” said Piri, admiring the 100m race male competitors. She had suddenly woken up from dozing off from her sleep while lying on the couch. Three empty cans of beer lay at her feet.

Shamiso said Piri should not admire and drool over the male athletes on television so much because they were too young for her. “Such good looking men with muscles are all my age,” declared Shamiso, massaging her pregnant stomach. We laughed. But Piri did not. She said there was absolutely no harm in fantasy.

The men got on their marks, eyes looking ahead and fingers and knees on the ground. At the sound of the gun, they took off like the wind. Within seconds, the race was over. Literally, seconds. Usain Bolt won the race in 9,58 seconds, a world record. We all clapped our hands.

Shamiso then asked why the 100m race was dominated by black men only. Philemon quickly responded saying that it was something to do with their superior genes. He turned to me for confirmation. But I could not possibly make that assumption without any facts to rely on.

But I googled a BBC page. Commenting on the 100m race, the BBC noted the following: “Every winner of the 100m since the inaugural event in 1983 has been black, as has every finalist from the last 10 championships with the solitary exception of Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia, who finished seventh in 2007. Assuming that this success is driven by genes rather than environment, there is a rather obvious inference to make — black people are naturally better sprinters than white people. Indeed, it is an inference that seems obligatory, barring considerations of political correctness.”

But then the BBC goes on to argue that most of the long distance Kenyan runners come from a place in the Rift Valley called Nandi. This means, the altitude over there gives the Kenyan runners an advantage during training, unlike other athletes who come from low altitude.

Therefore, the ability and talent to run has nothing to do with genes. If Africans were genetically superior, then we should have more long distance runners coming out of other African countries.

Perhaps, our views get confused because we have a tendency to generalise and make assumptions that black people are genetically good at such a sport while white people are genetically good at another. Such generalisation then leads us to great surprises when a young black girl wins gold in swimming or gymnastics, or two black sisters dominate the prestigious world of tennis. Putting aside genetics, maybe winning is based on the social environment , opportunity, determination, resources and talent.

More importantly, winning has a better chance if we learn to dispel the myths and stereotypes about ourselves as Africans. We have adopted derogatory, even racist words to refer to one another. “Mubhoyi” is one such word borrowed from the racist colonial days when adult African males were called “boy” by their white employers. We unconsciously adopted those words into our language and anything bad is referred to as “chibhoyi”. We tell ourselves that we cannot swim competitively because mubhoyi cannot swim. This is why Piri sits there and calls an Olympic gold medalist “kamubhoyi.” Such language plants self-doubt and lack of confidence.

The gold winners at the Olympics dismantle many gender and racial stereotypes. They represent a story of inspiration, the joy of working hard, the determination to climb the mountains and go beyond the horizons to achieve a chosen goal. They are not mabhoyi!

Dr Sekai Nzenza is a writer and cultural critic.