Marufu immortalises Memory Mucherahowa

By The Standard | Dec. 31, 2017

Albert Marufu’s book, Soul of Seven Million Dreams: The Memory Mucherahowa story published on April 1 this year by RM Publishers is now on amazon on this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp.1548328057/ref=tsm_fb_lk He is widening the market for his worthwhile effort.

BY CONELIA MABASA

The first time I read Soul of Seven Million Dreams: The Memory Mucherahowa Story, I was chasing the story of the legend. I was too keen to know more about this famous Dynamos footballer, I missed a great deal of detail. After all, an opportunity had presented itself that I could know him at a personal level, his family, football career and even how it ended, also what he is up to now. That ticklish whim to peep into someone’s world even when you do not know them or you have only seen them from afar, got the better of me. Fortunately, I got a chance to go through it for the second time, this time word-by-word, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, making sure the words rang loudly, at least in my mind as I absorbed this detailed and well-researched biography. The second reading was quite a revelation. I was stunned by the many stories of other great footballers, which run concurrently with the main narrative. And Memory has a memory!

Soul of Seven Million Dreams is a complex recollection of the life and football life of a legend and I wonder how such a story was put together. It is deep, personal, private, yet touching a number of lives in an honest, yet not-so-intrusive way. To imagine that Marufu listened patiently as Mucherahowa relived his life from the dirty streets of Mufakose, his family poverty, his deprived neighbourhood, his siblings, losses, heartbreaks, fights, regrets, tragedies, junior football, DeMbare captaincy, national duty, forays into the diaspora, lost friendships, injuries, religious beliefs up to retirement, with everything in between, took a lot of patience and that rare ability to listen, to record, to absorb it all without intruding. And to sit down and put it all together must have required lots of concentration and diligence.

As Mucherahowa’s life unravels, the lives of other great footballers roll out before your eyes. Peter Ndlovu, the generous peace-maker, Sunday Chidzambwa, the stern and no nonsense coach, Elvis Chiweshe, the one who had a unique way of psyching up for a game, Moses Chunga, a brother with a big heart, whose love for Mucherahowa just dissipated after an unfortunate incident at his Waterfalls home and also music legend Thomas Mapfumo, whose love for Dynamos is undying — a team he loved more than his own team — Sporting Lions. And Mucherahowa is not a saint, he lays bare all his weaknesses for both fans and foes.

The book is also structured in a clever way, after a lot of grey, one gets a breather by way of pictures. There is a section where other footballers are given a chance to say something about the legend. That cuts the monotony of a first person narrative. That brings Mucherahowa closer to home. He was not worshipped for nothing at DeMbare, his talent was acknowledged by fellow footballers as his captaincy was also questioned by others.

It is in the epilogue that the legend really comes out, not to say I am undermining his achievements in the field of play, but in the concluding remarks he speaks from the heart. He shows his respect for the game, for the fans, for teammates. He is proud to have played for Zimbabwe, to have been loved by so many people, to have carried their hopes and his dedication to DeMbare for all its squabbles and politicking, even its failure to give him a future. He loves the team all the same. He says: “I want to one day come back to my country and stand under my flag as I hold the hands of emerging youngsters and tell them to follow the ball, but stay far from alcohol, the weed and dangerous substances because what plays the beautiful game and performs lies within you and not in the heart of some green plant or pungent liquid . . . I want one day, when Zimbabweans think of a word to describe dedication to football; love of country, love of Dynamos, an insatiable appetite for winning, the spirit of forgiveness and mental evolution from headstrong youth to maturity, I would want them to think of all that being perfectly summed up in just one word; Memory.” He does not want to be forgotten and he made sure by sharing his life story.

Marufu has immortalised the legend by recording part of the history of DeMbare by shining the spotlight on one of its legends.