DENNIS LIWEWES INTERVIEW ON BBC FASTTRACK 5 YEARS AGO Dennis Liwewe is known as the “Voice of Football” in southern Africa Retired Zambian football commentator Dennis Liwewe was our special guest on Friday’s edition of the BBC’s African sports programme, Fast Track. The doyen of African football commentators is known throughout southern Africa as the ‘Voice of Football’. He is among a rare breed of people who can read the ingredients on a tin of soup and make it sound as dramatic as a penalty shoot-out. The BBC’s African sports programme Fast Track gave you a rare insight into the world of the Zambian commentary legend when he spoke to Farayi Mungazi in Lusaka. Although he has long retired from the commentary box after a career spanning more than two decades, the 73-year-old remains intensely passionate about the game. He spoke about some of the great matches and players he has commentated on. Liwewe also revealed the pain caused by the 1993 tragedy off the coast of Gabon that wiped out the entire Zambian team headed for a World Cup qualifier in Senegal. ——————————————————————————– We picked a few of the very best of your questions for Liwewe to answer below: Football hasn’t lost its appeal to you. Has it? Farayi Mungazi Liwewe: No it hasn’t. It has actually matured. That’s the game I was born with so to speak. I grew up with it and perhaps might die with it. I can assure you I watch every game – both local and international on television. I still jump in the thick of action but my wife tells me: ‘Ei you are not on air just sit down and watch.’ Why if football such a great game to you? Farayi Mungazi Liwewe: Football is a great game to me personally because I showed the world that I never played the game in my life, I never knew the game at school because I wanted to get Grade A in English Language so while my colleagues were on the pitch playing I was reading. I was very brilliant – I can assure you. But I decided to take on a new challenge in broadcasting and that was it. I used to record football commentaries from the BBC and then go to the bush to study it and took my own style of broadcasting – the African style of excitement particularly on the radio. I did try television commentary but people said it was a disaster. That is not my style. Mine was radio commentary. The problem I had was that most of the people including the then president of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, when they were going to matches at the stadium carried their radio sets to watch matches when I was doing commentary. So one was I aware that all these people were listening and watching at the same time so one couldn’t afford to do mistakes. So preparations had to be very very thorough. So it made me do the job perfectly well. Dennis is loved by many of us (Zambians). My Dennis we still we need to hear your voice from the commentary box as you calculate the degrees and angles as the players run and turn round with the ball. Will you consider a comeback to the commentary box if Zambia qualifies for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010? Komani Kaonga, Zambia Lots of people asking similar questions including: Amos Mumba, Zambia Gilbert Zambika, Zambia Liwewe: I actually don’t like using the word ‘if’. When Zambia qualifies for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa I will definitely broadcast the matches. Forget about my doctors saying: ‘your blood pressure’. I imagine myself in the commentary box in the opening match of the World Cup with Zambia taking on England in Johannesburg. There is going to be a doctor on my left hand side and a nurse on my right hand side. What preparation did you go through before games. What tricks did you have for remembering player names and positions? David Owen, England Liwewe: Those days it was difficult because the opposing teams were only seen on match days and you had the team sheets one hour before the game. There were no names at the back of the jerseys too so it was tough. But with determination, self-discipline and the eagerness to want to do a good job helped me. I practiced in the shower early in the morning. The constant practice on imaginary matches helped a lot. What is the greatest match you covered? Samuel Nkwe, Switzerland Liwewe: My greatest match was at the 1988 Olympics Games in Seoul in South Korea. The game was Zambia against Italy and we beat them 4-0. The Italian included the famous (Roberto) Baggio in their line-up. Who is your greatest player? Justice Kafusha, Denmark Liwewe: It depends. For the Zambian best I think there is no doubt that Godfrey Chitalu is the best. The present generation may not remember him. He scored 107 goals in one season. I don’t want to forget that Kalusha Bwalya was an incredible player. He played at the highest level and was the African Player of the Year. But for me Chitalu is the best. On the African scene Roger Milla of Cameroon for me is the best. Do you think the Zambian team that perished in the Gabon air disaster would have gone all the way to qualify for the World Cup in USA in 1994? Kase Mufwa, London Liwewe: Definitely. We had a fully-fledged team in every department. We had fantastic goalkeeper, fantastic defenders, attacking midfielders and attackers. These players had been together for six years. They knew eachother for six years and blindfolded they could complete a pass to eachother. Definitely they would have qualified. May their souls rest in peace. The plane went down off the coast of Gabon killing the 30-strong party of players and officials. That for you was a painful moment Simon Brown, USA Liwewe: I don’t think there will be another painful moment like that again in my life. Perhaps when I lose my most fantastic wife. I have been together with my wife for 45 years. But I am telling you, you must understand my point of view because I saw those players grow up as Zambia’s under-14, under-17, under-23. To see them flourish and perish in front of my own eyes is painful. This was a trip I should have been on. The blood pressure problems started and I was under intensive care for ten days. After the tragic incident, the government sent me to South Africa for specialist treatment because they thought I needed a heart by-pass. But out of that, we picked with players from the streets literally and came second at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia just a year after that tragic accident. That is the Zambian spirit. I know the players at that tournament were playing to please the souls of their departed colleagues. You said you should have been on that flight to Senegal when the players and officials perished. Do you think someone upstairs smiled on you for not being part of the team? Farayi Mungazi Liwewe: No doubt about that. I am a very strong Christian. I am actually a canon in the Anglican Church – honorary appointment. Without the power of somebody up there, I wouldn’t have been alive. But at the same time, it must have been done for a purpose. Maybe I was saved from that situation to do something for mankind. That is what I am doing now. I am now a consultant and companies are retrenching workers and they need somebody to tell them the art of survival when they stop getting a monthly salary. When they the terminal benefits of millions, some of them run amok and marry a second wife if not two more and abandon the families, my job as a consultant is to go there before they are given the money to warn them I lost my job 23 years ago and I survived. I tell them the modalities of survival. As a small boy I stopped doing home work just to listen to your commentary. Why have you not run for a position in the Football Association of Zambia? Frankson Mumba, USA Liwewe: It is one of the big mistakes people make. Because you were a big footballer you want to run football. There is nothing wrong with ambition. There is division of labour in life. Some of us are rifle men in military terms. I am not a general – I am not a planner. I am the man who sweats in the commentary box not to administer. What is the difference between football in the 60s, 70s and 80s and that of today? John Kitwe, Zambia Liwewe: In those days football was physical. There were no systems of play. It was exciting and more physical than technical. These days it is more technical as you have to think. When Dennis Liwewe is gone what do you want people to remember you for? Farayi Mungazi Liwewe: I want people to remember me as that person who was given the opportunities and used them to the full. On my tombstone I want them to write: ‘Here lies the man who put national interest first above personal interest.’ or ‘Here lies the man who put family interest first above personal interest.’
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:16:36 +0000
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