The Sunday News
ONE of the heart wrenching episodes in a parent’s life is to be neglected by his/her own children whom he/she raised through sweat, sacrifice, toil and hard work.
After spending sleepless nights, battling to put food on the table and most probably sacrificing personal dreams and desires, it is shameful when all such efforts go unappreciated and unnoticed.
Such is the scenario which Bulawayo City Council has set by refusing to rename Barbourfields Stadium after the celebrated and legendary late Zipra commander, Lookout “Mafela” Masuku.
Barbourfields Stadium was named after Barbour, a white Alderman who is said to have “done well” for the community during the colonial period. And this is the legacy which councillors openly declared that “they want to protect.”
While the council’s street naming sub-committee had proposed to rename the stadium, the majority of the council rejected the proposal, putting the proverbial final nail on the coffin on the proposal and that closed all the avenues by claiming that only footballers stood a better chance of being given such recognition.
In a subtle manner, the council said “liberation heroes” have no place in modern day Zimbabwe. While Barbour might have done a great job then, in the 21st century there is also another great man who needs a better recognition for his sterling job.
The recent debate and the resultant outright refusal by the City Council’s Department of Housing to rename the stadium after Masuku speaks volumes of the character being exhibited by the entire management and councillors.
The most embarrassing line of thought that councillors gave was that Lameck Mafela as Masuku was commonly known during the brutal and protracted armed struggle, was not a footballer to deserve a stadium to be named after him.
In South Africa, Moses Mabida Stadium was named after Moses Mabida, a former general-secretary of the South African Communist Party. Former South African President, Nelson Mandela has a stadium named after him too, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Both politicians were not footballers, instead Mandela was a boxer and rugby fan.
Some of the words in the objection report from the city’s Department of Housing and Community Services as reported in Chronicle read: “Secondly, and admittedly, Lookout Masuku is a hero to all and sundry, but what is his link to soccer? We have never heard of his interest in soccer.”
As such, the reason that only footballers can have stadiums named after them is pedantic. Was Joshua Nkomo a pilot to have an airport named after him? Is President Mugabe a driver for a road to be named after him? What is crystal clear from councillors is that the matter is not based on that Barbourfields can be renamed; rather it is an outright refusal to honour Lookout Masuku.
If it can’t be BF for reasons that Mr Barbour was a great man then, why not Luveve and White City Stadiums? What is also appalling is that councillors claim to be protecting the city’s heritage and that outrightly puts Masuku as not part of such a heritage.
The history of the liberation struggle can not only be learnt in schools but in various forms which include monuments and naming as well as renaming big places like stadiums. This is also advocated for by memory scholars who argue that the remembering of such as that of fallen heroes is important for making certain that history is easily available and known to people who on daily basis come across institutions named after fallen and living heroes too.
The fact that most councillors are enjoying the luxury of grabbing stands and soliciting for bribes from residents to fascinate acquisition of residential stands, an abuse of the freedom which Masuku brought is a great shame. This is freedom which they could not have enjoyed under the supremacist white colonial heritage which they claim to protect.
More so, Barbourfields is not a great name that attracted any funding to the BCC. Instead, they have resorted to stripping poor Highlanders and other football teams naked of revenue they have earned. The name is as good as a white elephant to the living generation who have no link or relationship with Mr Barbour, instead, they have an everlasting relationship, love and affection for their liberator, Lookout “Mafela” Masuku.
While councillors might have blundered, it is also mindboggling that officials from the local authority’s Department of Housing and Community Services who in their report said since “Masuku was a national hero, and as such, it is Government that bestows heroes’ names on monuments and not local authorities.”
This barren logic belongs to an institution of the brain dead because it is not only the Government which should honour heroes and heroines. Actually, this demonstrated that the city council does not understand its mandate as the “local authority” because it is within their jurisdiction to honour people either as small as an ant or as big as an elephant in their deeds or work.
This recent behaviour is a sharp reminder that this is the time for residents and citizens to advocate for the living and fallen heroes and heroines for the preservation of events that define our nationhood.
It is not only Masuku who needs to be honoured, there are also commanders like Josiah Magama Tongogara and Alfred Nikita Mangena, other fallen heroes and nationalists such as Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Thenjiwe Lesabe, Herbert Chitepo, Sally Mugabe, Eddison Zvogbo and also the late Vice-Presidents; Joseph Msika, Simon Muzenda and John Landa Nkomo to name but a few.
A case in point is South Africa which has done a sterling job in renaming most of their places, roads and institutions after their heroes and these include Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Moses Mabida among others.
n Lungile Tshuma is a Masters student in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the National University of Science and Technology. He writes in his own personal capacity.
