There is a place with a name clogged in racial and colonial connotation that I love and would be disappointed with anyone who tries to change that name. Even the ruthless ZANU PF has failed to do anything about that name thirty four years on. What they have successfully managed to do is to run down the place it is now in an appalling state. The place is known as Gwelo African Football Association Grounds affectionately known as kuGafa and the place is home to Ndhlovu Youth Centre. In fact when ZANU PF hold their political gatherings they frog march the timid and innocent suffering people to that place, shouting ‘munhu wese kuGafa!’. KuGafa became my second home; it was the only place that had a black and white television set which was placed in a sixty sitter hall while on pick view times it would accommodate up to two hundred viewers. We watched Sounds on Saturday, Western movies and the TV-series the A-Team not forgetting sport. At times we watched while standing outside the overcrowded small hall and only to get a glimpse through the window. Some ZANU PF idiot will predictably argue that it was because the living standards were too low. A television set was a luxury then and I still believe even today it still is. For argument sake lets kick any luxury item at today’s standards, for example Wi-Fi, can the ZANU PF government provide free Wi-Fi to a club house in a high density suburb? Surely if there could be free Wi-Fi today kuGafa, the place would be a second home to most of the youth from my home Mtapa. The tennis courts and an array of musical instruments which included the marimba would glue you to this beautiful reddish-brown face brick under asbestos club house. The club house was awash with games and today I am able to play a lot of the game including Chess beating my computer four times out of ten thanks to Ndhlovu Youth Centre situated in the western corner of kuGafa. To the north and east were the football grounds four of them and that is where real talent was brewed. The heroes of football that emerged from Gafa include among others, Ashton Mhlanga, Roseman Drago, David Magocha, Marhino, Peter Mlauzi. In boxing the legendary Langton School boy Gazi and Steve Sting were all products of Ndhlovu Youth Centre. The Harare Mambo band had vocalist who started their music career kuGafa. The place produced talent that did us proud as an African people. Today we are lame ducks; graduates who take any job available in order to survive. The bravado and pride that came with Independence quickly vanished in the hands of Gukurahundi activists. What happened to Redcliff? It was run down by the President designate. The man failed the people of Redcliff and KweKwe and they rejected him. Now he thinks he can change the fortunes of Zimbabwe. Sad! I love kuGafa and thanks to the white oppressors who provided us with those beautiful amenities and kept them in good shape. Shame to the black liberators who went on to steal even the boundary fence yekuGafa and today the place is in a sorry state. But one thing for sure KuGafa was no place for cowards!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 07:15:01 +0000
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