JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA THE town of Kwekwe, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, has changed forever since gold deposits were discovered underneath its landscape. Artisanal miners, who settled there in large numbers – in pursuit of this precious and much-sought-after mineral, have turned themselves into big spenders and transformed this once sleepy town into a haven of merry-making for roaming fun-lovers from across the country. Gatherings of people in Kwekwe attract extravagance, with those of deep pockets – courtesy of the gold rush – pampering and spoiling their guests movie-style with the finest drinks and meals. Such was the case last week on the occasion of a memorial for one of the town’s favourite sons, the late Afro-jazz musician Bob Nyabinde. Despite his roots being in Manicaland, Nyabinde – who died in December at the age of 68 from complications due to diabetes – called Kwekwe his hometown, having settled there as a young man decades ago and established his long teaching career there. Nyabinde is not the only well-known Zimbabwean artiste associated with this town of endless activity, located halfway between Harare and Bulawayo. The late sungura musician Tongai Moyo was a native of Kwekwe, while the late great Oliver Mtukudzi once set base there during a transition period of his glittering career. The highlight of Nyabinde’s memorial, staged at his family home, was the launch of his much-hyped book titled “The Headmaster with A Guitar: Bob Nyabinde.” Written by veteran journalist and author Munyaradzi Huni and published by his company, The Legacy Diaries, this must-read piece takes the reader through the lessons learnt by Nyabinde in his lifetime. Some would call it a lecture on how to survive in the dog-eat-dog music industry. The book also serves as a window into Nyabinde’s life on and off the stage, something that gives some laugh-outloud moments and serious business advice. In one of the engaging chapters of the book, Huni interviews Oliver Mtukudzi’s widow, Daisy, on how music stars’ spouses have to contend with their partners’ careers. The Mtukudzis and Nyabindes were good family friends. “The wives of superstars face a lot of difficulties, including other women chasing after their husbands,” Daisy told Huni. “However, the wives of superstars shouldn’t worry about the women who throw themselves at their men because it comes with the territory. Instead, the wives of superstars should prepare a good meal for them when they come home and take good care of them.” Daisy says while Tuku was still alive, she would get shock calls and texts from random women claiming that they were dating her husband, just to spite her. But when her hugely popular husband returned home, she never confronted him about the alleged affairs, in the comfort that she trusted him. A stereotype of Zimbabwean artistes is that they are womanisers, but that label was never associated with Nyabinde – a respected loyal husband and father to his family. Putting together Nyabinde’s story was no easy task, because of his ill health, says Huni. At one point, Nyabinde broke down in tears during an interview as illness took a toll. The saddest part was that Nyabinde had hoped to attend the book launch, but that was not to be. To spice up the biography launch, music promoter Josh Hozheri organised a mini-jazz festival in honour of the "Headmaster". Clive “Mono” Mukundu, Kireni Zulu, Steve Makoni, Victor Kunonga as well as Bob’s sons Agga and Albert Nyabinde gave music lovers a great show. STYLE TRAVEL BOOKS ARTS MOTORING Porsche just got angrier Being a Fashion Model Life&Style Page 51 Issue 170, 15 March 2024 The glitzy affair of Bob Nyabinde’s memorial and Daisy Mtukudzi’s confession Munyaradzi Huni, Josh Hozheri and Nicholas Moyo (Perm Sec Ministry or Sports Arts and Recreation) at the launch in kwekwe
TOP South African-based Cameroonian scholar Professor Achille Mbembe is flying Africa's academic flag high with outstanding research which got him named the 2024 Holberg Laureate two days ago — the continent’s first intellectual to win the award. Mbembe, a prominent political thinker and public intellectual, is research professor of history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The Holberg Prize is one of the most prestigious international prizes awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology. The prize is administered by the University of Bergen on behalf of the Norwegian ministry of Education and Research. Mbembe will receive the award of NOK 6 000 000 (about EUR 530 000) at a ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway, on 6 June. He is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and receives the prize for his pioneering research in African history, post-colonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is known for his ability to bridge existing thinking on colonialism and decolonisation with pressing questions on topics such as contemporary migration regimes, global citizenship, restitution and reparation, technology, climate change and planetary futures. As a historian and a political philosopher, Mbembe has been most concerned about the entanglement of Europe and its former colonies. Using Africa as a point of departure for a mode of thinking that is continuous with multiple and interlocking lineages, he has revealed the extent to which the continent is a living laboratory of thought forms and ideas, a vast world of invention, imagination and creativity. As a critical theorist, his deliberations on the global order have left an enduring mark far beyond debates on postcolonialism. Drawing on African experiences, Mbembe has played a major role in advancing thinking beyond identity and difference, particularly through concepts such as "necropolitics", "the universal right to breathe", or "the earthly community", which speak to the ongoing struggles for recognition and repair as well as care and dignity in a racialised world. He has written many books. Originally written in French, Mbembe’s books and numerous articles have been translated into 17 languages. His key books include On the Postcolony (2000/2001), Out of the Dark Night (2010/2021), Necropolitics (2016/2019), Brutalism (2020/2024) and The Earthly Community: Reflections on the Last Utopia (2022), as well as the groundbreaking Critique of Black Reason (2013/2017) — a philosophical study of the meaning of Blackness as it historically emerged. In Necropolitics, Mbembe examines how power structures wield control over life and mortality, shaping the very fabric of existence for oppressed communities. Membe said: “What are the conditions for rethinking the world in a way that opens up alternative ways of inhabiting it, of being-in-common and of nurturing a planetary consciousness? “How to think an open future that moves beyond the history of race, colonialism and segregation with which the present is so deeply entangled. “These questions have been at the heart of my research over the span of my career. Behind them lurks an even bigger issue, that of life futures — how can life be repaired, reproduced, sustained and cared for, made durable and universally shared?” He adds: "In my mind, thinking the world and thinking Africa have been inextricably tied together. I have tried to show the extent to which the African capacity for multiplicity and simultaneity provides a source for a thinking in circulation and in crossing, a thinking that is continuous with multiple, interlocking lineages. "It is by rereading Africa, not in terms of the ultimate Other but in terms of a particular site for the production and circulation of knowledge that I have attempted to open up new sources and a new horizon for reconstituting critical thought. Both historical and philosophical, my work has been motivated by a critique of the resurgence of a spirit of closure in our times. "Breaking with this spirit required investigating the conditions for inhabiting the open. It also meant confronting the past in order to uncover the conditions of the possibility of an open future that is inscribed in the present. "This is what has been at the basis of my early work on memory, on race and difference, on the shifting distribution of powers between humans and machines, on democracy and of late, on planetary habitability." — STAFF WRITER. Page 52 People & Places Achille Mbembe first African to win Holberg Laureate award Professor Achille Mbembe NewsHawks Issue 170, 15 Marxh 2024
GETTING over homesickness, even for a tough-as-teak rugby player, can be hard if you are a university student living and studying in distant lands. Wheeling University in the United States however now feels like a little Harare or Bulawayo for quite a number of Zimbabwean students there, something that combats loneliness in a significant way. During the Terrapins 7s tournament at the University of Maryland last weekend, spectators may have been surprised a bit at the sound of an unfamiliar language used for play calls by some of the Wheeling University players. Eight Zimbabwean players were in triumphant Wheeling’s 13-man squad for the tournament, part of the National Collegiate Rugby Championship qualifiers. The young men from southern Africa were in sizzling form when the West Virginia varsity was crowned champions with a 14-7 win over Kutztown University in the final. Marvellous Benza, Tinomukudza "Chief" Chipfumbu, Aaron Juma, Rua Karimazondo, Krishna Kwenda, Shadreck Mandaza, Michael Muleya and Alex Nyamunda all caught the eye while representing Zimbabwe at youth level. This has earned them Wheeling University scholarships at different stages in recent years. One of the newest recruits is the industrious Shadreck Mandaza, who has defied his humble beginnings as the son of the bus-driver at his school back home in Harare, to fast become a household name in Zimbabwean rugby. Immensely gifted Mandaza, who also shone in cricket at Churchill Boys High School in Harare, joined Wheeling’s closely-knit rugby family, known as the Cardinals, in January. Already quite an experienced Zimbabwe senior Sevens player, Mandaza is also a backto-back African champion with Zimbabwe in the fuller version at Under-20 level. The Cardinals have particularly warmed up to the young men of Zimbabwe in a big way, but they are not the only US varsity to have come calling over the past few years. Zimbabwe Under-20 rugby team coach Shaun De Souza, a former Test talisman with the national senior side, explains the driving force behind the soaring numbers of US-bound rugby stars. “I believe that the opportunities have been opened by the visibility we’ve been giving our players, the platforms that we’ve presented by streaming all our games, by posting activities that the Under-20s are up to,” De Souza tells SportsCast. “It has opened eyes to scouts and universities. I think our first group that went to Wheeling University set a good standing and it’s now becoming a regular thing. Every year they are taking players from us. So ja, I think it’s good to have a partnership of this kind and it’s all opening opportunities for these boys. It’s something that’s the franchises are excited about and I think that’s one of our fundamental approaches to having an all-rounded athlete. “We are not just creating rugby players, but we are creating good athletes and good human beings. It’s now drawing attention from universities, which is a good thing for us and a good think for our country. If all these guys get to go to these high quality universities, they play, enjoy their rugby, get educated and by the time they finish their education, they’ll be ready to play for the national team. Which is good for us and good for the system.” All-rounded athletes most of these young Zimbabweans indeed are. Rua Karimazondo stood out in rugby, soccer, waterpolo, swimming, field hockey and squash back in the days at St John’s College in Harare. He has taken his versatility to Wheeling University, and in February swam for the college at the MEC Championship meet. Karimazondo and fellow Zimbabwean Cardinal Aaron Juma have both received All-American honours in rugby, with Juma achieving it twice. – SportsCast. Sport Page 53 Wheeling University: An American home away from home for Zimbabwe’s bright prospects Rua Karimazondo (in red), featuring here for Wheeling University in rugby, also swims for the West Virginia institution. NewsHawks 1ssue 170, 15 Marxh 2024
SO for the second time in seven years, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has inflicted a dent on the leadership reputation of none other than their own blue-eyed boy, Hamilton Masakadza. Back in May 2016, the history-making Zimbabwe batsman was fired as the country’s captain, alongside coach Dav Whatmore, after a dismal performance at the T20 World Cup a few months earlier. This time around, post-playing days and in the newly-created position of the board’s director of cricket, Masakadza has been offered and took the face-saver of resigning instead of being fired – following the not-so-flattering report of an independent committee’s probe into Zimbabwe’s recent monumental failures. You will find this very interesting that on both occasions, in 2016 and now, the two decisions have been taken with the current board chairperson Tavengwa Mukuhlani at the helm of ZC. What a love-hate relationship this has been and, if you want, you can even go back 17 and 13 years ago when Masakadza was excluded from Zimbabwe’s 2007 and 2011 World Cup squads for under-performing in the build-up to the tournaments when in fact nobody else was particularly special among the available crop of players. This has been pretty much Masakadza’s life in ZC because away from the boardroom, for some strange reason the man does not appear to be everybody’s cup of tea among the fan-base of the game in this country. It is a sad turn of events for a player who made the most splendid arrival imaginable in international cricket, 23 years ago, when he became the youngest man in the world to score a century on his debut in the history of Test cricket. For me, I’ll repeat what I have already shared in private conversations over Masakadza’s so-called resignation: that I am not holding my breath because the problems of Zimbabwean cricket did not start with Hamilton Masakadza and neither will they end with his departure from this supposedly powerful role. It is only prudent, therefore, for those who appointed Masakadza to act in the public interest, for the sake of accountability as well as checks and balances. By that I mean the public has the right to know what Makakadza’s job entailed, and what exactly his say in ZC was since his appointment back in October 2019. Just so we know who has been doing what in those big offices at Harare Sports Club, before people can start to celebrate something that could turn out to be merely cosmetic. Without that kind of transparency in the affairs of ZC, the danger is that those who remain in their positions after Masakadza is gone will continue to enjoy the breathing space to duck and dive in order to avoid the crossfire. Hamilton Masakadza occupied what in different circumstances, or in some countries, would be a very influential position. Directors of cricket, elsewhere, is where the bucks stop. He is the guy in charge – to put it in simple terms. While we wait to hear from ZC about Masakadza’s role, for him to go alone — citing failure to qualify for World Cups — appears to me for now like accepting to bite the bullet on behalf of others. Unless of course more resignations follow soon. NEWS $60 Covid tariff for visitors & tourists CULTURE Community radio regulations under review @NewsHawksLive TheNewsHawks www.thenewshawks.com Thursday 1 October 2020 WHAT’S INSIDE ALSO INSIDE Finance Ministy wipes out $3.2 Billion depositors funds Zim's latest land cStory on Page 3 Story on Page 8 Chamisa reacout to Khupe Unofficial president calls for emergeFriday 15 March 2024 ALSO INSIDE Wheeling University: Home away from home for Zim’s bright prospects Sports JUMPED OR PUSHED… HAMILTON MASAKADZA’S DEPARTURE MERELY COSMETIC BEYOND THE SMOKESCREEN: Hamilton Masakadza has once again been forced to leave a crucial ZC role. Enock Muchinjo HawkZone