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RADAR

“Taking a bow” is a theatrical term used to describe the action by performers of saluting the audience after the end of an act. To take a bow is also known as “breaking a leg”, a reference to a tragic-comic incident that took place in 1766. According to one reference, Samuel Foote, the manager of the London’s Little Theatre, was thrown from his horse and broke his leg.

Foote had been riding with the Duke of York, who had given Foote a bad horse as a prank. The Duke of York felt so bad about the accident he granted Foote the theatre licence he had spent years lobbying for.

“The Little Theatre became the Theatre Royal Haymarket and the saying ‘Break a leg’ came to represent achieving success out of disaster,” it is said.But not all taking a bow is on a note of success.

In fact, if somebody is asked to take a bow this actually means the people have been fed up and wish to see the back of the actor.It’s a telling off, really.Our younger readers may be familiar with two pop songs that have a title to that effect.

One is from one Rihanna, in which the persona dismisses a cheating lover beginning thus:“Oh, how about a round of applause, yeah

A standing ovation

You look so dumb right now

Standing outside my house

Trying to apologise

You’re so ugly when you cry

Please, just cut it out …”

Those of the 1990s era will recall Madonna’s even more dramatic song of the same title.

She sings:

“Take a bow, the night is over

This masquerade is getting older

Lights are low, the curtains down

There’s no one here

(There’s no one here, there’s no one in the crowd)

“Say your lines but do you feel them

Do you mean what you say when there’s no one around (no one around)

Watching you, watching me, one lonely star

(One lonely star you don’t know who you are)”

The lover is bade to “Say good-bye”.

“…Wish you well, I cannot stay

You deserve an award for the role that you played (role that you played)

No more masquerade, you’re one lonely star

(One lonely star and you don’t know who you are)…

“All the world is a stage (world is a stage)

And everyone has their part (has their part)

But how was I to know which way the story’d go…”

A world, an actor

That of course is reminiscent of Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of all time, doesn’t it?

But we are not talking of that today.

We are talking of a character called Evan Mawarire.

We know him as a fly-by-night activist who a couple of months ago took to the stage and posted videos of himself mourning the supposed ills of Government.

He complained that he had failed to provide school fees for his children.

He whined about everything supposedly wrong in Zimbabwe, including corruption challenging authorities to right these wrongs.

His trademark was, has been, draping himself with the national flag while making these selfy videos.

He even went further to call for civil disobedience against Government.

Mawarire became an overnight celebrity, ranging together a number of young people in Zimbabwe and in the Diaspora via social media.

Some began to think of him as a messiah – an emerging leader of a social movement.

The envisioned movement was called #ThisFlag.

Mawarire did not escape the attention of foreign embassies and interests who are forever on the lookout for an opening to effect regime change.

Mawarire was invited for interviews with the conservative white media in South Africa and other establishments.

Boy, the man would cry as he acted patriotic on TV.

Somebody paid for his travel and stay in South Africa as he put up in an apartment in the posh neighbourhood of Sandton – home of rich executives.

Mawarire couldn’t have done that by himself, he the church mouse (pun intended), surely?

His family was to follow him there a few days later.

Big in America

But he would not end there: from Sandton he went straight to the USA, most probably the ultimate of his destinations.

He continued with his play-acting there.

In fact, he made it bigger, made it big in America.

He was feted as equally as he was done in South Africa.

But then he began to lose some of his constituents.

Why had he abandoned his flock?

And, most perplexingly, how had he changed accent from the Evan we knew and even became haughty?

The biggest slap came when he called those of his supporters calling for his return “haters” who were asking him to come home but couldn’t “tell Bob to go away” to the delight of a cooing yet-to-be-identified female company.

People were shocked.

Questions began to arise. Throb.

But he also had a job to do: to rally many Zimbabweans in America and as indeed in the Diaspora behind the movement and put up the demonstrations to draw attention to Zimbabwe.

Bring Zimbabwe onto the global attention.

Shoddy job

The high noon of these activities, the climax, of Mawarire’s activities at home and abroad was supposed to be this week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting where global leaders were gathering.

And, oh, all the cameras with all the global attention!

Mawarire promised that a raucous crowd of 5 000 would descend on the UN in what was termed #ShutDownUN demo.

Then the day was come.

It turned out to be a huge, huge flop as Mawarire, already joined by one Patson Dzamara another #ThisFlag actor and with the support of musician Thomas Mapfumo, could only gather 19 people for the ‘’grand’’ act.

Not only that, they were actually crowded out and chanted down by pro-Zimbabwe Americans.

What an embarrassment!

You should see the videos of Mawarire and his band being watered down and leaving with tails between the legs.

Mabasa Sasa, our man in New York, reports that the pastor had quite a feast of humble pie.

He couldn’t have put it any better.

Now it has been confirmed, not for the first time, that Mawarire is an overrated, overhyped individual with delusions of grandeur.

It has dawned on many people, on some quite lately.

But from this day no one will take Mawarire seriously – including the impressionable America.

It’s over now.

It’s over for the lonely star.

The masquerade has ended.

He can go on and take a bow.

The world is a stage.

He played his part.

He is a couple of dirty pieces of silver richer for it, too.