Opening Ceremony: 2010
Watching the opening ceremony for the South Africa World Cup back in June 2010, I was startled to see faces I recognised. The camera kept selecting (as cameras will) sweet and smiling girls in the crowd. And I knew them! Yes I did – yet I’d never met them.
How? Because I had taught so many sweet and smiling girls in Zimbabwe back in the late 1980s. The same openness. The same innocence. Zimbabwe then was an earthly paradise, so far as my family and I were concerned. We arrived in 1986 and soon got to know a few of the schools.
Here’s an example of their innocence. As an end of term treat, Chris would take in a video of Indiana Jones for her girls (at Evelyn High School) which they watched through their cardigans, peeping through gaps in the material and shrieking in terror at Indy’s latest fix.
An example of their openness. Some boys from a neighbouring school were visiting my school (Montrose Girls High School) – so Portia Maseko and her pals came up to me. “Mr Fenge, we know you love us, so will you please introduce us to those boys?”
I wrote a song once: ‘Love Is Just Another Name For Africa’. I’d play it for you now if I had the right equipment. No, hang on, I’d play something else. I’d play my choirs singing ‘Nkosi Sikeleli Africa’ (God Bless Africa).
I had 120 highs, standing one side of the hall, singing above the melody – and 120 lows, standing the other side, singing below it. The rest of the school, about 600, stood in the middle and sang the tune itself, so we ended up with three-part harmony – and it was real hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck stuff. That’s what I’d play for you, but, as I say, I need to get the right equipment.
Anyway, the point of the post is this: the earthly paradise of Zimbabwe is no more. I thought that I – we – were training up the future of a beautiful country. But that was twenty or more years ago and, given the life expectancy in Zimbabwe (especially Matabeleland where we taught) many of our girls will probably be dead.
So, as I looked at the earthly paradise of South Africa in June 2010, with all those sweet and smiling faces – whom I so nearly recognised – I just hoped they wouldn’t get another Mugabe. They’ve had a Mandela and that’s got them off to a fantastic start (fantastic, because such people are the stuff of fantasy). But there are a lot of Mugabes in the world, and only mature democracies can hope to shift them.
So Nkosi Sikeleli Africa. God bless them. They might need a bit of help from above.
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May I invite you to make certain purchases? (I may? Why, thank you...)
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(a) The Salamander Stone (by my most excellent and trusty pal, Mrs Me) from one of these outlets:
Direct from the publisher, Burst Books: click here
Amazon UK: click here
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(b) The Two Worlds of Wellesley Tudor Pole (by Mrs Me’s most excellent and trusty pal, Me):
Amazon UK: click here
Amazon.com (US): click here
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(You’ll be getting both of them? Well, that is an admirable choice, if I may say so...)
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