While, obviously, I recognise that there are far more serious threats to our development than our ineffective participation in the Olympics, more powerful voices than mine have been raised to denounce the arbitrary arrests and appalling use of violence against people and, therefore, against the constitution and every human right.
The time has come to revisit our history of the use of torture and violence by the police and our response to it and put a stop to it once and for all. However, we should not overlook other issues. That is why I would like to address our sports policies before they are completely forgotten again for another four years.
When I worked with UNICEF in Ethiopia and travelled around the country, I witnessed office blocks, beautiful hotels, a sports complex and other development structures built by athletic stars such as Haile Gebreselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibab, among others, which also employed a large number of people.
Not only have their successes on the track raised the morale and patriotism of the Ethiopian people, but they have also contributed significantly to the country’s development and employed a large number of mainly young people. Investment in their athletes has paid massive dividends.
The same can be said for Kenya, where the rise of Kenyan athletics to dominate in long-distance running can largely be attributed to one secondary school in a small village in the highlands of Kenya. Just one secondary school! However, due to its success, people from all over the world go to train there—and succeed, such as Mo Farah.
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So, here, we have national pride, economic development, and employment created by the investments of those who succeeded, a lucrative form of employment for the runners themselves, and further development occasioned by the influx of visitors to this successful training area. How many other investments can provide such a lucrative return on investment?
What about Tanzania?
So what about us? We started pretty well in the 1970s and 1980s, when Tanzania was much less developed, with stars like Filbert Bayi, Juma Ikangaa, Suleiman Nyambui, Gidimas Shahanga, among others, and Mwinga Mwanjala on the side of the women. But then what happened?
The world moved on – or ran on–and unlike the Kenyans and the Ethiopians, we did little or nothing to develop our sports, apart, of course, from Simba and Yanga, Yanga and Simba, Simba and Yanga, Yanga and Simba. And for all our ushabiki, how much have they contributed to our national development?
Yet our athletes, especially those from the highlands, have the same body structure, the same upbringing—running many miles with the cattle or going to and from school—and the same tolerance of less oxygen in their bodies as their fellows in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Nothing stopped us from regularly rivalling the Kenyans and Ethiopians apart from our total negligence of this investment opportunity. Indeed, we even want to obstruct any such development.
We even banned sports competitions at school for a long time, and when, despite all obstacles, a great runner emerges, we often refuse to allow them to go abroad for further development. Despite all this, we have still produced great runners who occasionally win a marathon here and there.
They do so despite the lack, not because of investment in their development. What, for example, might come of a dedicated secondary school in a place like Mama Isara in Mbulu with similar conditions to St. Patrick’s Secondary School in Kenya in those days?
Can’t we really compete?
And why only athletics? The Olympic games are rich in every kind of sport. Can we really not compete?
For example, is there not a single Msukuma among the millions of young Wasukuma with bicycles who could not be identified, trained and supported to follow in the footsteps of Biniam Girmay from Eritre, who this year won stages in the biggest bicycle race of all globally, the Tour de France?
Not one. How much would promoting bicycle races among the Wasukuma or other places where bicycles are plentiful and inviting world-class trainers to work with them cost?
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And, in addition to swimming, what about canoeing and sailing? All our ngalawa experts who roam the sea, all our mitumbwi experts on the sea and in the lakes and rivers. Surely, we would send serious contenders to the Olympics and other competitions if we were serious.
The will to prepare
Now there are also climbing competitions. Can none of our mountain dwellers or guides compete? I seriously believe that we can compete on multiple fronts, but as one of our famous athletes, Juma Ikangaa, said, “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”
That applies to individual sportspeople and to us as a nation. We cannot neglect our sportspeople and then expect miracles once every four years. You don’t win medals by attending maombi or praying and practising when possible.
I truly celebrate our great runners like Simbu, who finished 17th in the marathon this year out of 71 when many did not finish and Magdalena Shauri, who finished 40th out of 80 when many did not.
They were competing with global stars who were given every kind of support to enable them to succeed on the world stage. Given our minimal support for our runners, it is a miracle how well they did, and we should celebrate them, not laugh at them for not winning a medal.
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As a side comment, I was fascinated by the British coverage of their team. First, they use the national lottery – not handing it over to private companies to get rich quickly– to fund and support promising sportspeople.
Then, during the Olympics, even those who failed to win a medal were praised, supported, consoled, and defended for their commitment, while we criticised and made sarcastic comments about our sportspeople for not winning.
Are we really fair?
Richard Mabala is an educator, poet, and author. He is available at rmabala@yahoo.com or on X as @MabalaMakengeza. These are the writer’s own opinions, and they do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of The Chanzo. Do you want to publish in this space? Contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com for further inquiries.
One Response
I real support Richard, about our Olympic Teams, so far no efforts has been made to change our status in participation. We remained as loyal attending members without changing the style of preparing our athletes unlike our neighbours. Fortunately Tanzania has an ample land of different features that can produce talented boys and girls in all sports and games that are competed in Olympic games.Let’s change the system and engage our self in investing into sports Industry.All we need as our legend Juma Ikangaa said is the POLITICAl WILL that we enable to plan and implement sports development in Tanzania.