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I was one of those who studied Things Fall Apart as part of our set-books but it wasn’t Okonkwo and his story who blew me away but the man who created them and one story about Achebe left a lasting impression on me, even in those early days of my teenage innocence.

During the days of the Federation, Achebe visited Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and found himself sitting in a whites-only section of a bus to Victoria Falls. Questioned by the ticket checker as to why he was sitting in the front part of the bus, reserved for whites when he was a black man, Achebe’s reply was driven with both power and authority: “If you must know, I come from Nigeria and there we sit where we like in the bus.”

But that wasn’t the part that impressed me the most. It was what followed, when they reached the waterfall, and amid the cheers that he received from his fellow black travelers, charmed by a black man who had stood up to the racist whites, Achebe did not find heroism in his deed but had the presence of mind to realise there was something wrong, something sad.

He couldn’t understand why his fellow black people would accord him hero status, for taking a bold stance against racism, when they themselves, who suffered this victimisation on a daily basis, were not doing anything about it and seemingly accepting their fate.

That single act left a lasting imprint, on my conscience, and I grew up admiring Achebe as a brave man, which to me was more important than being an excellent writer.
The New York Times described Achebe as “one of Africa’s most widely read novelists and one of the continent’s towering men of letters” and, if you have been a disciple of his work, you will agree with each and every word that this giant newspaper put down for him in their description.

Achebe, crucially, also had his views about journalism and journalists, which has been my profession for the past 20 years working in the same newsroom for the same employer and the same newspaper title.

One of his views, about foreign correspondents, caught my imagination.

“The foreign correspondent is frequently the only means of getting an important story told, or of drawing the world’s attention to disasters in the making or being covered up. Such an important role is risky in more ways than one,” wrote Achebe in The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays.

“It can expose the correspondent to actual physical danger; but there is also the moral danger of indulging in sensationalism and dehumanising the sufferer.
“This danger immediately raises the question of the character and attitude of the correspondent, because the same qualities of mind, which in the past separated a Conrad from a Livingstone, or a Gainsborough from the anonymous painter of Francis Williams, are still present and active in the world today. Perhaps this difference can best be put in one phrase: the presence or absence of respect for the human person.”

People have different views about journalism and journalists. American journalist, Henry Louis Mencken said journalism and journalists had a tendency to overplay their impact in society.

“American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant,” he argued powerfully in what has become one of the most iconic journalism quotes.

David Baldacci, in The Christmas Tree, not only questions journalism, but also award-winning journalists, in a very big way.
“All you have to do (to win a Pulitzer Prize) is spend your life running from one awful place to another, write about every horrible thing you see. The civilized world reads about it, then forgets it, but pats you on the head for doing it and gives you a reward as appreciation for changing nothing.”

English writer, Gilbert Keith Chesterston, was short, sharp and witty in his description of what we do for a living.
“Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive,” he wrote.

The late American novelist and journalist, Norman Mailer, maybe summed it up in a way that most of my folks in the journalism fraternity will not take kindly but, in a way, may take it as being closer to the truth.

“If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist,” said Mailer.

Others, though, see journalism and journalists in a different light and view the profession, as a very powerful tool, and its professionals as very powerful individuals.
Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “In America, the President reigns for four years and journalism governs forever.”

Henry Anatole Grunwald wrote that “Journalism can never be silent, that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”
Journalism, Fifa, Zifa And Asiagate

The great Chinua Achebe died on March 21 this year in Boston, United States, the very day that the Fifa executive committee were closing their two-day meeting at the world football governing body’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

The latest round of the Fifa executive committee indaba had a special interest for us because there was a general expectation that a curtain would be drawn, by the people who run football in the world, on the long drawn-out saga called Asiagate.

If we go with Henry Anatole Grunwald, journalism was not supposed to “be silent”, after the Fifa executive committee meeting, because probing to find out what happened in those corridors of power is this profession’s “greatest virtue and its greatest fault.

“It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”
So journalism probed, as it should do, and our Special Correspondent used his rich links and contacts with Fifa officials to look for material to paint the picture that could give the people here an understanding of what has transpired in those corridors of power.

Our Special Correspondent wasn’t in the mood to wait for Fifa media statements, to wait for Zifa media statements, to wait for Jonathan Mashingaidze giving us his version of events that had unfolded in Zurich, to wait for statements that would, in most cases, be spin-doctored to play a certain tune.

His interest was purely driven by getting the story first, no matter what it was all about, an endorsement of the punishment meted out by Zifa to give them a worldwide effect, which power Fifa can wield in such cases, or a rejection of the appeal by the local association for such an endorsement to be effected.

To him journalism was about breaking the story, being the first one to get it, and having established his good network of contacts at Fifa headquarters, who over the years have learnt to trust him as a journalist they can rely upon, he was certain he would get it first.

He was a perfect description of Grunwald’s journalist, the man who wanted his story to “speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of triumph and the signs of horror (were) still in the air.”

Our Special Correspondent had shown his strong hand, when it came to his Fifa contacts, in the past, and we had been able to produce a detailed report of how this case was moving, within the corridors of the world football governing body, by using official correspondence and material that he had obtained from his sources.

Because of him we had learnt, and helped the people understand, the frustrations that Fifa legal and disciplinary experts had endured, in just trying to get documents from Mashingaidze, and we were able to obtain and produce official correspondence to confirm that, including the February 18 deadline letter.

So he searched for his story and was given a transcript of the deliberations of the Fifa executive committee, on Asiagate, and when his sources told him that the information was embargoed, until a certain date, they were so sure that he would not let them down.
And he didn’t.

When that embargo was lifted, he provided the material and the story was published and, for all the denials that have followed on the domestic front, amplified to a large extent by journalists who felt so uncomfortable at being scooped of the big one, noone has dared to challenge the validity of that transcript.

Noone has dared challenge that it’s not a true record of what transpired within the Fifa corridors on March 20-21, when Asiagate was discussed, and to us, and our Special Correspondent, that is the crux of the matter, all that matters and everything else is not important.

At no point did he suggest, in his story last week, that Asiagate had been thrown out and he was careful, guided by the transcript, to say that “until Fifa advises otherwise, or Zifa fully complies with the provisions of the football laws, the matter remains unenforceable.”

If someone asks Fifa today whether they have thrown out the Asiagate case, the answer that will certainly come is “No” and at no point, in his report last week, did our correspondent pretend as if Fifa had thrown out the case but, clearly, he left the window open, guided by the transcript, that the matter would only be concluded once Zifa fully complied with the football laws or Fifa advised otherwise.

It’s very clear now that the sanctions, which are only valid on the domestic front where they apply only to Guthrie Zhokinyi, Taurai Mangwiro, Luke Masomere and Emmanuel Nyahuma, would have been quashed, as per the determination of the Fifa executive committee deliberations, if the first bag of documents that Zifa sent did not arrive in Zurich on March 21.

The Fifa executive committee empowered its secretary-general, Jerome Valcke, to bring the case to finality and that was captured by our correspondent’s report but it would have been unfair, no matter the frustration that Fifa officials had endured in the past six months, for them to just close the chapter, without looking at the Zifa documents, now that the material was in Zurich.

The mere fact that Fifa haven’t endorsed the sanctions, six months after Zifa brought the curtain down on this case, speaks volumes for the technical shortcomings that litter the process that pronounced a judgment on an individual who was never brought before a trial and in a crippled process where a committee set up to investigate was turned into a disciplinary committee, at the presentation of their report, for one reason or another.

Thanks to the open lines of communication, we now know that Fifa provided written guidance, in December last year, to Zifa on whom they can deal with and journalists were not part of that team but, for one reason or another, that communication was kept under wraps although it is no longer a secret now.

Thanks to the Special Correspondent, and his contacts at Fifa, we now have journalism that doesn’t only report the official line coming from 53 Livingstone Avenue, we now can say with certainty that Mashingaidze bungled the whole process by his failure to respond to requests for documents and that Zhokinyi’s career remains frozen because of such corporate irresponsibility that borders on heartless mismanagement.

Justice should not only be served but it must seen to have been served, when you delay it, by holding on to documents when they are needed to make a determination on the case, and you freeze careers of people, who can only be said with certainty that they are guilty after the entire disciplinary process has been exhausted, you are denying it and becoming a part of the problem.

Thanks to the Special Correspondent, we now know that it’s certainly not true that “Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.”

We can’t all sing His Master’s voice, be people who only believe news is what just comes out of 53 Livingstone Avenue, be men and women who say anything else that comes from elsewhere is not newsworthy, that it can only be news once it is sanctioned by our football leaders that our journalism can nolonger be investigative, can nolonger depend on official leaks but be perpetually chained to what comes out of the football establishment.

Last week we can chose not to be silent, because in journalism “that is our greatest virtue” and we chose to speak, and do so immediately, “while the echoes of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”

There are consequences of course, and I guess you have read a lot about the threats that we have received this week, in terms of lawsuits and the graphic descriptions that have been adopted to describe us as outcasts, but that is part of the game, part of the profession, part of refusing to be silent.

There is a position of principle worth being humiliated for, there is a position of principle worth being punished for, there is a position of principle worth being harassed for and there is a position of principle worth dying for. For some of us, that line has been crossed, anything else really doesn’t matter now.

Can DeMbare Do The Impossible?
It hasn’t been a good start to the season for Dynamos, both at home and on the continent, and one win, a huge loss and two depressing draws isn’t the stuff that the Harare giants’ fans are used to getting from a team that, in the past two years, has given them reason to believe it could built its domestic empire once again.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, news broke out on Thursday that Dynamos could lose their trademark name and logo after failing to settle a US$4 900 debt owed to a Cypriot financial company following a default civil court judgment awarded in favour of Qotho Finance.

A club of DeMbare’s magnitude should, in this age and era, not be seen being dragged to courts over such insignificant amounts like US$4 900, which in real value translates to just 1 633 fans paying to sit in Vietnam, for just one home match, about 1/20th of what the club banked in selling Rodreck Mutuma and a minute fraction of what the club banked in just winning the Mbada Diamonds Cup.

That such a case could even sail through the civil courts, without being challenged, is worrying and gives an impression, flawed as it might be, of negligence on the part of the administrators to paying attention to detail in issues that are very important.

The Dynamos name is priceless, there is no value that can be attached to it, and it has become a part of the lives of millions of men and women of this country who see this team as the ultimate symbol of everything that someone can want in a football club.

You can’t put a value to the name Dynamos and it’s an insult to the people who founded this team, 50 years ago, that the latter day generation of administrators, charged with managing the club’s affairs, are coming short to the extent that there is even a possibility now that the name could be lost because of a bad debt.

Others can say that even without the name Dynamos the team will survive, which is true, but it won’t be same, something will be missing, something will just be wrong, something will be awkward, something will be strange, something will be abnormal, something will be irregular, something will be odd, something will be unusual and something will be weird.

The name Dynamos is sacred, when it comes to Zimbabwean football, and it cannot be allowed to be lost to a Cypriot financial company and the people who are managing the club have a responsibility to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.

Our sister newspaper, H-Metro, reported yesterday that defender Morris Kadzola’s move to Dynamos is being compromised because Eric Rosen is holding on to the clearance letter since DeMbare owe him US$2 000 from a previous deal. This is outrageous, not because it’s unfair to cripple Kadzola’s career on the basis of a third-party transaction that he wasn’t party to, but also because the amount involved is too insignificant, even on base value, to derail such a promising career.

When you can’t deal effectively with such little basics, you then can’t expect to do wonders in such tournaments like the Champions League and the way the Glamour Boys have struggled on the continent, in recent years, is not anything to do with the coach but has everything to do with their leaders not giving attention to detail.

I will be the first to put my head on the block defending Callisto Pasuwa because I feel it is unfair for anyone to question what this young coach has done, in a short period of time, in the toughest job possible on the domestic football scene.

Some people say the Warriors’ job is tough but that’s certainly not true because this is a team that plays, at most, four games a year, can go to Egypt and lose 1-2 and come back to find an entire country virtually saluting them for their gallant performance and can go below Mozambique, of all teams in the race for a World Cup slot, and still be hailed at home as work in progress.

That is why Lloyd Mutasa, who failed to last the distance at Dynamos, can go into the safe haven of the Warriors’ establishment and, in his first competitive game in charge in a losing cause, find that they are getting more credit than criticism from the nation.

The real deal, the toughest job, is coaching DeMbare and for Pasuwa to do what he has done, in the past one-and-half year, and achieve what he has achieved at a time when the player turnover at Dynamos is at its highest, with all the stars being poached by Mzansi teams, is remarkable.

You can’t just get another Denver Mukamba, it doesn’t happen that easily, and when you lose such a talent, something shakes and you can’t blame the coach for that.
Hopefully, DeMbare can do the Impossible tomorrow, even when you know it’s a tall order, for the sake of Pasuwa and for the sake of our football.

The Letter From Mt Darwin
Kazai Primary School
P.O Box 351
Mt Darwin
03/04/13
Kuna VaSharuko
Ndapota ndinokumbira kuti mundinyorere mazita evatambi ve Dynamos FC, kubvira vakatangisa vacho kusvika vatambi vanhasi – vapenyu pavo vega, vakashaya pavo vega. Ndichazokumbira chairman weDeMbare kuti ndizonyorerwa mazita acho ese pajira jena.

Ini ndiri mutsigiri wacho kubva gore ra ’63, payakavambwa ndaigara mu Old Bricks, ndakura ndakaberekwa musi wa 04/05/29. Parizvino ndiri muno muHarare kubva musi wa 03/04/13 kusvika musi wa 07/04/13. Musi wa 8 April ndichadzokera kumusha kana zvichiita dzimwe nguva mungagone kunyora ichibuda Saturday ino.

Ndatenda ndini muranda wenyu

Katandika Humbasha
Dynamos FC
Haina Ngozi
Gukurahundi
Chazunguza
Seven Million

To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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