Warriors from the land of the brave


The victorious Brave Warriors class of 2015 (Cosafa website)


The team hoists the coach up in the air (Cosafa website)

One day, I will be a father. I will tell my children about the 30th of May 2015, the day the Namibian men’s soccer team won the Southern African Soccer Championship (COSAFA) cup. In my head, it goes like this.

Daughter: Dad, tell the story of how the Warriors won the COSAFA cup, please.

Me: Guys, I’ve already told you that story twice this week.

Son: But it’s our favourite!

Me: Well, it was the year 2015. We have just changed presidents, his Excellency Hage Geingob and his swag were on the warpath against poverty, Gal level had since long broken up, and Xenophobia was still a thing. We had put faith in Ricardo Manneti as our coach, and his misfiring team had shown promise, albeit flashes of it. Sometimes it was working, and then there were times where it was like watching Bafana Bafana.

How were we to know, that Benson Shilongo actually learnt more than just Sestwana while playing for Gaborone United in Botswana? How were we to know exactly how hot Deon Hotto could get? How were we to know that we’d actually beat Mozambique for the first time in four matches? And how were we to know that the Mannetti’s hamstrings could still handle a sprint across half of the soccer field? We didn’t even expect that his goofy celebratory dance would spark a craze.


Tangeni Shipahu's teamates in Thailand do the Manneti dance. Ricardo what have you done? (Twitter)

Match winner Deon Hotto lights up the final (Namibian Newspaper)

 Son: I don’t think I like this version.

Daughter: Shush! Let him continue, it’s going to get interesting. This is our dad we’re talking about, he tells stories like he’s painting with words. He hasn’t even done the Manetti yet.
Me: (smiling) It starts in the North West Province, against Seychelles, an Island only known because they’re right next to Mauritius. Known for holidaying rather than soccer.

At this point the wife walks in with Groceries, drops everything on the Kitchen table and walks to the living room. Where the two munchkins are totally enthralled by version 3 of the COSAFA story.

Wife: What’s going on? Is it story telling time? Where is he?

Daughter and Son: Seychelles!

Wife: So I didn’t miss the good part.

The wife smiles and whispers, “Do your thing.” 

Me: So, where was I? Oh, yes. Mauritius….

Manetti airways takes off in the Semi-final against Madagascar (Namibian Newspaper)

“The everyday fan on the street. This cup is for you guys. Football is something that puts smiles on Namibian people. Even the dogs and cats at home are smiling right now.”
– Ricardo Bucksy Manneti (Coach, Namibia men’s soccer team (Brave Warriors)).

Manneti against Kenya in his playing days (Namibian Newspaper Archives)

Joy, elation, and absolute ecstasy. Manetti Celebrates with the fans (The citizen)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10.5 in a straight line – The Namib Naukluft Mountains.

Image
A mountain is nature's way of saying take the long way round (Scenic route) May 2012 (The following actually happened, I kid you not) My head was stuck so deep in the map that I was closely analyzing that I hardly noticed when the car stopped, I kept staring at it as though a road to our destination would magically appear. “Why have we stopped, we’re not even a quarter of the way there?” I asked myself. No roads existed to where we wanted to go, just a frighteningly deep valley beyond the rocky hill where we stopped. As I got out of the car all I could see was grass, huge hills and the shadow of three big mountains on the horizon. I glanced at the GPS as I was lacing up my boots while Patrisia grabbed our back packs, what I saw hardly pleased me. “Agreed,” she said as she went left with her technician, and I went right with mine. We agreed to meet at the exact spot where the car was parked at the end of the day.  “10.5 km’s to target,” my technician said with unres
Read more

Trends of deadly passion

I am sure most of you have heard of the phrase ‘a crime of passion’. The reservoir of modern wisdom that is Wikipedia, defines it as “ a violent crime, especially murder, in which the perpetrator commits the act against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage rather than as a premeditated crime.” Wikipedia also states that the act, as is suggested by the name ( crime passionnel - from French language) is often associated with the history of France. However, such crimes have existed and continue to exist in most cultures. Namibia has seen a rise in the murder of young women, usually by their partner in an intimate relationship. Yes, boyfriends who kill their girlfriends. Usually siting a sudden rage brought on by a quarrel or spat which drives them to commit murder. I’ve been in relationships, and girls are weird. So I can understand how frustrated a guy can get, women are frustrating at times it’s like they are from a different planet. They can drive
Read more

Namibian education system language policy - 5 things that could go wrong

A month or two ago, or even three; time feels like it’s moving slower these days. The Namibian Education Minister announced a radical change in language policy, English would no longer be the medium of instruction in the lower primary phase. This means that from grade 1 – 5 children in the Namibian Education system will be taught in their mother tongue. I know what you are thinking, you’re probably going, “Why not? Children should be taught in their local languages.” Which is not necessarily a bad thing, research has shown that mother tongue education improves language acquisition and learning in general. However, no research has ever been done in Namibia to prove this. As it stands, there is no empirical evidence to prove that mother tongue education will work in Namibia. We seem to be copying South Africa who have a similar policy in place, South Africa has also lowered pass requirements from high school to improve results (not pointing fingers, I’m just saying). You’re prob
Read more