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Albert Marufu in LONDON
UNITED Kingdom-based scribe and author, Lot Danai Chitakasha, hopes his book,which was published here yesterday,will encourage others to share their football experiences.
“First Cut: Memoirs of a football fan,” will encourage others to share their football experiences thereby broadening the country’s football literature.
Chitakasha is not new to football writing, having contributed numerous in-depth articles to various leading newspapers and, four years ago, collaborated with legendary goalkeeper, Japhet Mparutsa, for the latter’s autobiography. The book was published by Dean Thompson Publishing.
The foreword was written by former Zimbabwe international, Cephas Chimedza, the 2004 Soccer Star of the Year.
The 223-page book, which also features 30 pictures, captures the author’s journey into football fandom and seeks to explore how fans help in forming certain habits in the game.
The author also explores the deep rivalry in Zimbabwean club football.
“The book is now available on Amazon in both hard cover and kindle formats,’’ he said.
“We are making efforts to make the book available in Zimbabwe soon.
“What mainly motivated me into writing the book is the desire to capture my football experiences, from a fan’s perspective.
“The book is about the football journey I travelled as a fan and I deliberately focused on the Zimbabwe experience because I feel it is a shared experience for most fans.
“The title is about the first football love, from a young age, and the journey there after.
“We were hoping to do the launch, soon after publication but, with the current Covid-19 pandemic, we will have to wait.
“Hopefully, around September, we will launch the book. I am hoping to travel to Zimbabwe soon and I will arrange a launch.’’
He added that one of the main challenges he faced was the difficulty that comes with gathering information.
“I relied mostly on memory as written information of Zimbabwean sport is a bit limited.
“It may not be perfect but overall, I tried to keep the mistakes to a minimal,” he said.
Former Warriors and 2004 Soccer of the Year, Chimedza described the book as a welcome addition to the country’s literature landscape.
“In Zimbabwe, we have a problem with the keeping of records. The exploits of past football heroes, before the advent of social media, have been lost.
“Very few have made an effort to retrieve these and write books to keep the memories alive. It is, therefore, refreshing to come across a person like Lot Danai Chitakasha, who has vast knowledge of Zimbabwe football history from the 1980’s,” wrote Chimedza.
Online Reporter