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Weekend Whispers with Daisy Jeremani
WITH hands on their chests and respectable singing of Simudzai Mureza Wedu Wezimbabwe /Kalibusiswe ilizwe leZimbabwe / Oh Lift our Banner, Zimbabwe’s senior rugby team, the Sables, made me proud to be Zimbabwean, but their soccer counterparts, the Warriors, incensed me.

As much as I was pleased that the Sables beat visiting Tunisia 19-8 in the Africa Cup Group One rugby match in Harare last Saturday, I was impressed that every single one of them sang the national anthem so passionately, given the poor regard for the song by the national soccer teams.

I challenge anyone who has watched either swimming sensation Kirsty Coventry or Paralympian Elliot Mujaji receiving their medals on the podium in Athens, Greece, with the national anthem playing in the background and the nation’s flag being hoisted, that this historic moment sends tingles up the spine and brings a lump to the throat.

Music is a poignant community builder and no doubt national anthems have been the mainstay of historical process of identity formation.

I love sports; all types of sport, but let me hasten to say I am not a fundi on rugby matters, although I always look forward to all national sports teams playing international matches.

I am a football fan and I understand a rule or two about the the beautiful game. Although they disappoint as they often do, I just love the Warriors, who have always flattered to deceive, and like everybody else, I am hoping that their current form is not a fluke.

Call my argument petty or frivolous, but over the years I’ve always maintained that if I was the Warriors gaffer, I would bench any player who doesn’t know or doesn’t want to sing the national anthem before any match.

No rugby player, no matter how good, can ever play for New Zealand’s All Blacks without knowing the Haka, a traditional war dance performed on the battlefield. The Haka sows fear in the hearts of the opponents as they usually overrun them after passionately performing the war cry. This dance follows passionate singing of the national anthem God Defend New Zealand.

There is no excuse for a Zimbabwean footballer not to know the lyrics of the national anthem.

How can a person, who can’t sing the national anthem, be expected to carry the hopes and aspirations of this soccer loving nation or deliver? Where do they expect to get inspiration from if the anthem can’t incite them for battle?

Maybe this is the reason why the Warriors, who during the Reinhard Fabisch era in the early 1990s, were among the top 10 teams in Africa, today sit on position 32 on the continent and 112th in the world.

The unpatriotic Warriors rank below football minnows Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda and Cape Verde Islands. The Atlantic Ocean islanders are eighth in Africa.

Last Saturday, not only were the rugby players singing the national anthem, but their technical staff and the capacity crowd that gathered at Prince Edward High also belted out the song loudly and proudly.

There is an urgent need to orient the Warriors and any other national team that in as much as sport is their career and they eke a living out of it, they have a national duty and obligation to remember that it is not wholly about them.

They carry the hopes of millions given that football is the most popular sport in the country. Besides the training, football does not start when the referee blows the whistle. It starts with the anthems too. Your demeanour while singing the song, which fosters nationhood and the “us” against “them” feeling, reflects the way you will play on the field. The Warriors should show some life and show that they are in the team, not only for themselves, but for Zimbabwe.

Coach Callisto Pasuwa and his Warriors must sing the anthem with gusto. Even if they don’t do it with zest, at least they should sing the words with respect.

There is absolutely no excuse why a Zimbabwean — a young one for that matter — should not be able to sing the 24-year-old national song, because I believe they sang it at school. I know people would say it’s tyranny to enforce the singing of the national anthem by the players, but how can someone who can’t sing a simple song that instils a sense of pride before a huge match be expected to deliver during such a mammoth task?

This is my opinion and I am sticking to it.