Christina Mwagala and Haji Manara: Fan bringers now taking the back se

In the past, there was Haji Manara as a soccer entertainer of the highest level, even if his disciplinary credentials are often unsettling, but for precisely that reason, that he can be daring in what he speaks, aroused crowds and cemented club loyalties. He has imitators.

The best up-and-coming imitator to Haji Manara was Christina Mwagala, who now appears to have been given other duties at Kinondoni Municipal Council FC, where it was not quite visible what the reasons were.

But when changes of that sort take place, what is important to look at is not some hidden inside story of this or that sort of misunderstanding but precisely the same public image that everybody is familiar with. Somebody is either best liked or disliked by proper public image, not others.

Those who have taken the positions of these two have tended to be technicians of communication, capable of managing the flow of information about the club and with the club, more as a channel of news and views rather than anchorman or woman in a vast club choir.

The fans were used to hearing someone who actually speaks for the club with a loud voice and a banging assertion of superiority, now there is hardly more than a whimper in that direction. The bragging is all gone.

It is hard to say what makes the current communication picks ideal for the job, but it is easy to list a few aspects, some of which are not the best reasons to contemplate.

For instance, an audacious communications officer speaking his or her mind with clarity and unaccustomed confidence can take the club image from the proper leader to the crowd.

There is a place for such persons in literature or in various forms of tradition, tied with histrionics, a sort of ‘village idiot’ who can say things the level headed will not touch. The fans’ egos are boosted by those antics.

Everyone would know that the bragging is a bit far-fetched but as a matter of fact it places a burden on club officials to deliver.

When the fans’ cheer leader says that the club is invincible and then it loses, the place becomes altogether uncomfortable and club leaders or sponsors might feel somewhat out of place with their peers.

They are compelled to put on an versized garment each of them - in that they are leading invincible clubs, virtually against any opposition either in the league or outside.

So it is plainly understandable if at some point the bragging voice is replaced so that there is a modicum of peace, while at the psychological level it is the mark of a new period, where club needed are decidedly different.

At times it takes a while o realise this, and when the time comes for a replacement of the communications officer or ‘major domo’ as he or she would have been up to that point, everyone just seems to understand why that is relevant or needful.

They were feeling the burden of the bragging and the anguish of being proved wrong so many times.

Looking at the city archrivals, Simba SC and Young Africans SC (Yanga), one can say they needed the services of someone like Haji Manara for different reasons in respective moments.

That does not mean that they either went out looking for such a fellow, or wished to advertise a job for a communications officer with larger than life characteristics, creating a club image wholly out of his or her imagination, not at all. The point is, when one such fellow showed up, they saw the need for the voice.

In a way the moments that Simba SC needed his services and the period that this ran aground and the officer was picked up by their rivals was a shift in club mood, which has different contributing factors.

One is the need to build an aura where the evel of self-confidence was still inadequate, and another is personal confidence of leading officials.

When they are relatively uncertain of themselves they may take comfort in the bragging as an added layer of confidence, but when they are decidedly more confident, the bragging starts to be a bother. They want a measured voice.

It follows that the discomfort earlier registered at Msimbazi Street outfit was at some point likely to be repeated at Jangwani Street club, despite that the club never eased out the official, but he was eased out for them.

It is a matter of conjecture how many are disappointed with the absence of the ‘major domo’ and how many are quietly satisfied they no longer have to do with his antics and controversies.

They can only take comfort in that exit if the club is at cruising speed, sailing, no booster needed.

It is hard to say if the sort of services that the two larger than life communications officers were offering will be needed by either their former clubs or any others.

Either because no one is ready for the bragging, or it was a passing wind, it may not be repeated. One cannot swear to that as history has a way of being repeated, often.