Charles ” CNN ” Mabika – SOCCER’S MOVING ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

CHARLES CNN MABIKA – SOCCER’S MOVING ENCYCLOPEDIA

A SOCCER COMMENTATOR WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE WARRIORS

BY KAMANGENI PHIRI     11/03/2023

CHARLES Mabika, Zimbabwe’s inimitable soccer commentator, is a moving encyclopaedia of the sport who loves  spicing his commentaries with humour and anecdotes.

With Mabika, there is never a dull moment. Whenever the legendary commentator is behind the microphone the radio comes alive and becomes a must-listen. He provides accurate narratives of the action on the field of play while also sharing vital information on clubs and their players with his nationwide audience.

In between Mabika’s commentary, jokes designed to keep listeners glued to the radio are delivered with flawless regularity.

Even a simple task of announcing a score line can be turned into a light-hearted moment.

“You could be in Kwekwe on your way to the market to buy vegetables or in Chiredzi enjoying your sugarcane. You could be in Hwange, where temperatures can soar to furnace-hot levels and you probably licking your favourite ice cream, or in Binga, attempting to catch that elusive bream fish in the mighty Zambezi River. Perhaps you’re in a kombi in Bulawayo on your way to Gwabalanda. If you are a Highlanders ‘Bosso’ fan, your team is trailing Dynamos ‘Dembare’ by a goal to nil.”

This is a typical commentary from CNN Mabika, the man who, for decades, has kept soccer-loving Zimbabweans entertained and informed on weekends.

Any other ordinary soccer commentator would have simply given the score line as one-nil in favour of Dynamos.

But Mabika is not your ordinary commentator. The man is a unique talent whose biggest asset is his eloquence and good command of the English language. He conveys commentaries with clarity.

A famous moment of brilliance plucked from football’s history is given new life. Just visualise a quartet of Zimbabwe’s finest players, making methodical build-ups from near the centre circle, the movement, the transition from defence to attack, beating their opponents, before slicing through a pass to a striker who in turn unleashes a shot, the bulge of the net as the ball goes in, the scenes of jubilation from teammates and supporters with the accompanying noise perfectly capturing the poetry in the play.

That is how Mabika captures in detail all the greatest moments in the field of play. He is well known for his expert analysis of football matters on both radio and television. CNN, who works for the state broadcaster, ZBC, is Zimbabwe’s leading soccer commentator by a mile.

Mabika is a jovial and lively character who gives the impression that everything is alright all the time in his life and that of the people around him.

When he does sports commentary, his catchy voice always has an element of excitement to it, which most of his fans find contagious.

“Hello there. I am Charles CNN Mabika and I am Zimbabwe’s leading commentator for soccer. I have been that for many years having been involved in the nation’s number one sport. You can say I drink soccer, I sleep soccer, I breathe soccer and I talk soccer. Everything about me is about soccer,” this is how Mabika opens most of his programmes as a way of greeting.

Charles was born at Harare Hospital in the capital to Noel and Constance Mabika. He grew up in the high-density suburb of Mbare and is the second born in a closely knit family of six – four girls and two boys.

Mabika attended the local Chirodzo Primary School before moving to Goromonzi High School for his secondary education. Chirodzo was just a stone’s throw away from his family’s residence.

Charles fell in love with soccer at a very early age and became a keen footballer when he started grade one. His love of soccer at such a young age would always get him in trouble with his mother, a retired nurse.

“My mother would always scold me for skipping meals because of soccer. She would tell me that I should always bathe first and have something to eat before going to play soccer. But she is a very loving mother and I am blessed she is still alive. I think she realised that soccer is my life,” said Mabika.

He also used to play street soccer like any other boy of the time. Charles featured prominently in his primary school teams, thanks to his best friend, former soccer player Stanford Stix Mtizwa. Mtizwa, who was the school’s best player, would refuse to be part of the team if Charles was not included on the team sheet.

“Soccer was, and still is, my life. But I was not anywhere near as good as Stix, my closest friend. We were in the same primary school team with Stix, a former Zimbabwe Warriors captain. The soccer great is still my best friend. For me, Stix is the finest attacking midfielder ever produced in the country. He could do things with the ball that most of us could only imagine when we were still primary school kids,” said Mabika in a recently screened ZBCtv documentary, Lifestyles.

Despite his undying love for soccer, Mabika’s strength lay elsewhere: in academic work. His parents noticed this and decided to isolate him from his friends and the sport he loves by sending him to a boarding school.

“My academic interest was, I think, greater than soccer. Although I was in love with soccer it dawned on me that perhaps my strength was on the academic side. Maybe it was a result of realising that I could never be as good as the likes of Stanford Stix Mtizwa.

My parents’ decision of sending me to boarding school was meant to help me concentrate more on my academic studies. After Chirodzo Primary I went to boarding school but I still failed to completely kick soccer out of my system. I think it was the right decision,” said Mabika.

At Goromonzi High, Mabika decided to try his luck as a goalkeeper. He performed well and ended up earning a spot in the school’s first team as a shot-stopper.

But still, he failed to completely nail a first-team place. He was in and out of the team.

Each time his name was not on the team sheet, Charles would go into the terraces, to entertain his schoolmates with his soccer commentary.

“People, mostly boys and girls, used to flock around me as I did my soccer commentaries. Those days we were listening to vernacular soccer commentaries done by the late great Jonathan Mutsinze and later on, Lisbern Nasasara,” he said.

Mabika is inspired by many people in his life. However, it is at Goromonzi High School that he met his first inspiration in the form of his expatriate English Teacher, Gillian Craig.

Mabika was more of an art student and his favourite subject was the English language. He had a good relationship with his English teachers as a result.

“I used to be top of the class all the time. Ms Craig was my first inspiration, I think, to suggest that I try and marry this English language, which I was so good at, with my football interest. I followed her advice. Gillian Craig was an expatriate who had come from the UK. She showed a passion for football and she was a Liverpool supporter and she came from Liverpool,” said Mabika.

His favourite football commentators were the late English legend, John Motson, and Zimbabwe’s own great, the late Crispen Jesus Choga Tichatonga Gavhure.

After high school, Charles briefly took a break from football and enrolled for a course in print and electronic journalism. He also holds a degree in English and Communications.

Mabika was employed by The Herald in the technical department in the 1980s. Around that time Mabika got the opportunity to join ZBC as a radio commentator after coming out tops from a list of 120 aspiring candidates. He joined another great commentator, the legendary Evans Mambara (late) who was already popular with fans. The duo went on to form a deadly combination that, perhaps, will never be matched in the history of Zimbabwe’s soccer commentary. Charles and Evans would co-present the same match turning their commentaries into football lessons for thousands of fans around the country. The two were good at giving players and their teams nicknames.

Mabika is the one who gave Dynamos FC the nickname Dembare.

A great football analyst and commentator per excellence, Charles walked in both pathways of great happiness and sadness in his life as a soccer commentator.

His beloved team, the Warriors of Zimbabwe have always been a source of pain in his heart.

The most painful game he watched was Zimbabwe v Congo Brazzaville at the National Sports Stadium back in 1991. Zim was leading 2-1 with two minutes into injury time and Charles was doing commentary when the late then-Warriors goalkeeper, John Sibanda committed a howler and conceded a late goal. Congo equalised and eliminated Zimbabwe.

“I don’t know what happened. He had the ball but somehow it just went in. I slumped to the floor in the commentary box and cried. We were almost close to making our maiden appearance at the AFCON finals. That match will go down in my life as the saddest game,” he said.

The veteran commentator has in the past been accused of favouring certain teams in the Zimbabwean top-flight league, something that he dismisses as not true but takes as a compliment.

“What I love about soccer commentary is that some people at times accuse me of being a Highlanders supporter, some accuse me of being a Dynamos supporter, while others reckon I am a Caps United supporter. I think it augurs well because that shows that I am impartial,” he said.

However, Mabika has a lot of favourite players in the various teams, and some of them became his friends.

His overseas favourite club is the English Championship side, Middlesbrough.

Away from soccer Mabika likes watching movies and listening to local and international music.

Some of his favourite artistes are Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, Jah Prayzah, Sulu Chimbetu and Alick Macheso.

He also loves R&B and rock music, especially songs by Boyz 2 Men, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton and Beyonce.

Mabika is married to Emilia (nee Sande) and the couple has two daughters, Constance and Krystle.