Anyone who has boxed or been to a boxing match will tell you it is an ugly sport; yet a mesmerising one, still. If it wasn't mesmerising we wouldn't have the dazzling personality of Muhammad Ali, athlete of the Century!
Nassoro Mjusi's cartoon here depicts a boxer who has been outwitted but...!
But and butts!
While starting out as a young reporter in 1978, I met Robert Mugabe in Dar es Salaam. He was quite impressive: witty, intelligent, sharp, charming, smart. I never imagined he will become a pugilist in his 80's.
Today, Cartoonist Mjusi ( lizard in Swahili)told us that boxer Mugabe is not even listening to his coach. Britain and other external forces are to blame for what is going on in Zimbabwe, the octogenarian fists said in a fiery speech few days ago.
Chiding Thabo Mbeki for not rebuking his old comrade, Zimbabwe and South African opposition leaders, reminded us, recently, that liberation does not mean abuse of power and continuation of people's misery.
Both Mbeki and Mugabe are poisoning the face of Africa. Making the whole ill-informed world think Africans make pathetic leaders, incapable admnistrators, messy, filthy, nasty pugilists...
Thanks God we have had better leaders and chiefs in the past:Kwame Nkrumah, of Ghana,
Mwalimu Nyerere, of Tanzania, Leopold Senghor, from Senegal, murdered Patrice Lumumba, of Congo, the great Nelson Mandela, ad infinitum.
So then.
If we had excellent and worse captains before; there is absolutely no reason that there shouldn't be other good ones, now, or in the future...
1 comment:
It is always up to any nation's people (mwananachi) to care enough about what values they stand for and who in government best represents those values for them. Certain African leaders are to be despised for lack of morality and good values, but what of the mwanacnhi who with contentedness and/or resignation allow inferior leaders (Kibaki, Mugabe etc) to maintain a leadership role? We are all, ultimately, what we choose to be, what all African citizens permit to be. We are making less than humane and intelligent choices in that regard. The shame is on our citizen base, not merely on corrupt leaders.
Post a Comment