It was so inspiring on Sunday to see the entire stadium at Old Trafford in England’s city of Manchester standing and singing praise songs for Manchester United’s 78 year-old legend Sir Bobby Charlton before the team’s premier league match against Everton.
Fans held up coloured tiles, spelling out the name of Charlton, now one of the club’s directors, who joined United in 1953 and made 758 appearances, scoring 249 goals.
A member of the England team which won the 1966 World Cup, Charlton won four league titles with United and the 1968 European Cup and was one of the survivors of the Munich air disaster, which killed eight of his team-mates in 1958.
On Sunday the South Stand at Old Trafford, which contains the only remaining part of the original 1910 stadium infrastructure and houses the directors’ box, was being renamed the “Sir Bobby Charlton Stand.
Such are common occurrences in England and many other countries around the world where sports men and women as well musicians and other artists who attained remarkable achievements during their prime are still idolised and celebrated, even in old age.
I grew up watching football players such as Lawrence Waya, Young Chimodzi, Kennedy Malunga, Jack Chamangwana, Kanock Munde, Leonard Malunga, Bob and Albert Mpinganjira, Ojukwu Malunga, Walter Nyamilandu, Philip Madinga, Gerald Phiri, and many others winning trophies for both club and country they used to be our idols.
In netball, we had greats like Emmie and Mary Waya as well as Peace Chawinga and others.
And I have read about what people like Kinnah Phiri, Yasin Osman and others did in Malawi football during their time. The same is the case in other sports disciplines such as boxing as well as in music, drama and other forms of art.
But I have rarely heard or seen any of these being cheered at the stadiums or honoured with special titles in recognition of what they achieved for the country’s football. We mostly tend to wait until one dies to recognise their achievements and contributions to national pride and development.
One trending South Africa prophet is quoted on some social media to have said that Malawians don’t celebrate and are not happy with each other achievements. He went on to allege that Malawians are not even happy about the achievements of their own country and that this was on of the reasons the country remains the least developed in the world.
Perhaps he was right. Malawian’s culture of frowning at other people’s success is indeed everywhere, starting from families, communities, workplaces and churches.
You hardly ever hear Malawians discussing somebody’s positives. When we talk about another person, it’s about their failures, embarrassments, scandals and anything negative.
When somebody is successful, it’s either he is a witch, he steals or he sells human parts. If it’s at the workplace, he or she has been favoured by the boss because he or she is a relation or is in exchange for sex.
Yet there are many people who are doing well because of hard work.
It’s high time we as Malawians started celebrating other people’s achievements and recognising our heroes, without waiting for them to die to be honoured.
Celebrating people’s achievements and remarkable contributions to the country is a means of a developing a country as it motivates people to extra work hard, register milestones and get recognition in later life.
What people do in England do, for example, as it happened at Old Trafford to Sir Bobby Charlton on Sunday, inspires people to serve their institutions and countries with strength and dedication, thereby contributing to national development.
Let’s us be happy when others are doing well and work hard on our part to achieve the same and beyond. That way, Malawi will develop and we shall all live in a prosperous country one day.
The bring him or her down syndrome has certainly failed this country. And unless we change, we shall remain a poor country for ever.
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