My Top 15 African footballers.

As AFCON is happening, I thought I should do a list of my Top 15 best footballers in African football history. Based on performance & accolades:

1) Samuel Eto'o 🇨🇲

2) Roger Milla 🇨🇲

3) Eusébio 🇲🇿

4) Essam El-Hadry 🇪🇬

5) Mohammed Salah 🇪🇬

6) Sadio Mané 🇸🇳

7) Abednigo Ngcobo 🇸🇿

8) Michael Essien 🇬🇭

9) Didier Drogba 🇨🇮

10) Rigobert Song 🇨🇲

11) Emmanuel Adebayor 🇹🇬

12) Jay-Jay Okocha 🇳🇬

13) Vincent Enyeama 🇳🇬

14) Laurent Pokou 🇨🇮

15) Kalusha Bwalya 🇿🇲

The names on this list are probably expected but some odd choices explained;

• Essam El-Hadry is an AFCON legend & applied his trade in diverse lands, he has the second most appearances for the Egyptian national team.

• Abednigo Ngcobo played during a time when black players in South Africa couldn't represent South Africa so a Black XI was chosen once for a one off occasion where they beat Argentina. He's probably the best footballer to come out of South Africa.

• Drogba at number 9: Drogba was good but I think he wasn't as good as he was hyped up to be. I feel everything was aligned for him to be as good as he was. He was good but not as good as many people make him out to be.

• Vincent Enyeama is on this list because I feel he's been one of the best African goalkeepers in recent history & remember him as the goalkeeper who stopped Lionel Messi during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The rest of the list is pretty self-explanatory for most African football fans.

History of the Mpofana by Mthoko M. Mpofana

I'm not very traditional, I'm more straightforward & basic & often disregard cultural nuances so this history of the Mpofana tribe is going to be as direct & concise as possible. Growing up, I grew up knowing that the clan praises or izithakazelo of the Mpofana are "Zulu" & "Ntombela", I never questioned that. What I know now for sure is that there's a lot more that's hidden in history. What I keep seeing being repeated from various sources is that the Mpofana were part of the Amazizi (or AmaTiti) tribe. I now know that in the midlands & perhaps further north, up to the northwestern parts of KZN, they use the greeting "MaZizi okuhlala", perhaps alluding to the fact that the Mpofana as well as other Amazizi tribes were among the original tribes to settle in present-day KZN from 200 AD onwards & the "Dlamini" praise or greeting was used among all Dlamini tribes i. e. the Amahlubi, Amazizi (Mtiti), Hlangwini...

The modern Zulu language.

I always wondered which of the many Zulu dialects modern Zulu is & always thought it was Hlubi (isiMbo) & according to this thesis by a Mr. Isaac Sibusiso Kubeka written in what was apparently 1979, we see modern Zulu is more the original Ntungwa dialect. The Mthethwa dialect (isiLala) that was likely spoken by King Shaka looks more a Tsonga dialect from a Zulu-speaker's perspective. Despite the "Zulu area" speaking many dialects, I'm of the belief that these dialects were mutually intelligible & similar for the most part. This is the only way these Nguni tribes from southern Mozambique up to Umzimvubu River & inland into the Drakensberg Mountains up to Gauteng could understand each other because I, genuinely, think that it was seldom that an African travelled to a land where he couldn't speak the local language in precolonial times. Mild differences between Zulu dialects. Writing Zulu I remember reading a book written in 1930 by ...

Can AmaZulu win the CAF Champions League?

For fans of KZN football, international tournaments on the African continent are rare. In fact, I don't remember any KZN club qualifying for the CAF Champions League or CAF Confederations Cup . Except for the Durban Under-19 International tournament , the 2021-2022 version of the Champions League will be the first time KZN has ever entered into international club football. It would be wonderful winning the tournament on our first attempt but what are AmaZulu's chances realistically speaking? A DREAM: One of the oldest clubs in South Africa with a chance of, finally, getting it's first African champions star. The draw for the groups hasn't been done yet but some of the teams that have already qualified & AmaZulu F. C. could face are: Wydad Casablanca, Al-Ahly (current champions), Espérance de Tunis, Étoile du Sahel, T. P. Mazembe, AS Maniema Union, Mamelodi Sundowns, Zesco United, Zanaco F. C., Horoya AC, CI Kamsar etc. Now, some of these teams are regu...

What's on Mthoko's mind?

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