Lessons from Beijing athletes and the ‘Wazungu’ line

One thing I have come to appreciate in Wazungu is their culture of learning from mistakes. These people evolve constantly because they have a culture of evaluating and appraising.

When scandals, accidents, political and legal problems occur they are always investigated and scrutinised. These guys are always probing and searching.

Biggest criticism

At the same time, one of the biggest criticism levelled at Wazungu is the way part of their economic progress occurred. Historical mass killings by whites fill thousands of textbooks.

Hold on a sec, I hear you say.

Right now, terrorists misuse Islam to kill and spread fear. The horrors of ISIS and Al Qaeda are appalling. Beheadings and killings of innocent humans continue marching on, as we speak.

Destruction of cultural sites is one example of this ongoing, endless, senseless waste. Last week Syria’s archaeological Palmyra was ruined, while Ansar Dine demolishment of Mali’s Timbuktu cultural heritage in 2012 shocked our mother Earth.

While we may cringe and wince from such havoc, looking back in history, we see similar details of colonial and Wazungu destruction. We see Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews. We hear over 12 million African slaves sold, two million of those killed, in three centuries.

According to America in Vietnam, a book by a US writer Guenter Lewy, the Vietnam War caused 1,133,000 deaths of Americans and Vietnamese from 1965 to 1974.

We can go on and on...

Killings continue today, but lessons are on the menu too. The UN was created as one way of stopping or avoiding such bloody, murderous conflicts.

However, if we branch off the ladder of politics and look at sports, we can study a situation that is worth learning from.

Recent ended athletics in Beijing saw the phenomenon of Kenya, an African nation that topped the medals table. While Kenyans and Ethiopians (even Uganda lately) excite and capture the imagination of global sports, Tanzania is an embarrassment.

Not because we cannot win. We live in the same terrain as our enterprising neighbours. We are biologically of a similar build and ilk. During the London Olympics in 2012, I interviewed two young swimmers, mixed race Magdalena Moshi and Asian Tanzanian, Ammar Ghadiyali who felt there was no partisan compassion and understanding back home. Even though they did not win anything, the two had worked hard to be in London.

Ghadiyali was only 15, while university student, Moshi just 21. Their coach Sheha Mohammed said he was hopeful these two youngsters would go far. Meanwhile a disheartened Magdalena Moshi felt there was no belief for our athletes.

“You train hard every day but instead of support you are criticised.”

Fast forward to the August 2015, just ended Beijing 15th World Athletics. I was watching the way BBC handles their competitors. Soon after finishing, still panting and sweating, they would be interviewed.

While praise and adulation would be given to winners like Mo Farah and the pentathlon champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill; losers were equally amplified. There was no criticism but constructive assessment of “how and why” they lost.

Take the women’s 200 metres sprint won by Holland’s Dafne Schippers. At number five, Britain was definitely a loser. Instead of dwelling on the aspect of defeat, BBC presenters, partisan, empathetic and supportive said how well the athlete had done. Whereas the women’s 200 metres race was fast, 23-year-old Schippers clocked a world record of 21.63 seconds, while Dina Asher-Smith fifth in position was 22.07...a British record.

You know what the journalists positively commented?

“This is the beginning of this lady...,” meaning Dina has excellent potential. She will do well in the future. What future? Possibly next year’s Rio De Janeiro Olympics and 2017 London Athletics (“is when she will be winning those gold medals”, predicted the presenter). In addition, they were not only analysing this 19-year-old’s is potential. They evaluated her form. They looked at the way, (though still quite young), she managed to keep up with the big sprinters from Jamaica and the US. The theme here is not to dwell on failure but encourage and maintain an athlete’s psychology to win later tournaments.

There is a worse example. Multi-talented Catherine Johnson Thompson competing in pentathlon (where athletes do five different events) was disqualified in the long jump. She was red-flagged three times. Despite such serious errors, she was not merely interviewed and asked how she felt, but eventually hugged sympathetically by the BBC journalist.

Other nations win

This is why other nations win and proceed while we remain in the shadows. Ismail Juma limped out of the 10,000 metres and three marathon runners Ezekiel Jafary (No 27), Fabiano Naasi (42) and Alphonce Simbu (12), flopped too. Naasi has won the Half Marathon twice in the past. Any encouragement and lessons?

How are we going to prepare them for Rio Olympics 2016 and London 2017? How have the assessments been? What do we do to keep Ismail Juma from hobbling and stumbling off the 10,000 metres race again?