Fantasy football in Zimbabwe drama

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By Jenny Horrocks BBC African Performance

The young Zimbabwean hero of an award-winning new drama eats, sleeps and dreams Chelsea Football Club.

Fortune Mhangani, 15, is trying to escape the harsh realties of daily life in a squatter camp.

His all-time favourite player is the British player Frank Lampard and as he kicks a ball about with friends, he imagines that he is on that pitch at Stamford Bridge.

Such is his passion that he becomes determined to strike up a friendship with Mr Lampard.

Lurking under the water are crocodiles that can snap the legs of those that cross that river Fortune's mother <a class="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1513_afric_perform08/page4.shtml">Listen to Dear Mr Lampard</a>

In the play, Dear Mr Lampard, Fortune's friends tease him relentlessly for his endless letter-writing to the Chelsea star.

"I don't think Mr Lampard will help you dreamer boy," one of them says.

"Nobody cares about the people of Zimbabwe. Our country is sinking fast."

They stop laughing, however, when the footballer replies and sends Fortune a ticket to an England-South Africa match in Johannesburg at Ellis Park Stadium.

But to reach the match in South Africa, Fortune's only option is to cross the border at the Limpopo River like hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans before him.

"Lurking under the water are crocodiles that can snap the legs of those that cross that river," his mother warns him.

"Fifteen of our people were pulled out of the river last month. Dead. Decomposed."

Irony

This is the story that sprang from the imagination of BBC listener South African Risenga Makondo who went on to win the 2008 BBC African Performance playwriting competition.

Many young football fans in Africa dream of playing for Chelsea

It is ironic that such a feel-good tale should be set in Zimbabwe's current climate.

But the script captured the heart of this year's judge, Zimbabwean novelist Shimmer Chinodya.

"I immediately felt this was the number one play. It grabs you emotionally," he said.

"The characters are very engaging and touching and it has great credibility. The backdrop is very contemporary - Zimbabwe in the throes of economic problems."

Mr Makondo is himself a Chelsea fan and comes from Venda near the Zimbabwe border.

"When kids there play football, they adopt players' names and there are always two or three 'Lampards' on the field," he told the BBC.

Football is a place where we are all equal Playwright Risenga Makondo

Mr Makondo was also inspired by the inclusiveness of the game.

"A teacher, a doctor, a churchman or a thief, in rest time, all sit and watch football, and we all jump at the same time," he said.

"Football is a place where we are all equal."

Mr Makondo now lives between South Africa and England, and works as a percussionist, musician and teacher of African music and dance.

From humble beginnings as a shepherd in Venda he became involved with the theatre in Johannesburg during apartheid and began performing poetry.

However, at the time he was unable to read English.

"I had a friend called Job, who used to read the lines to me and I would have to memorise them," he remembers.

And why did Mr Makondo write Dear Mr Lampard and not Dear Mr Drogba?

"Lampard is a great player and I am a Chelsea fan," he says.

"When I'm in my village in Venda and I see the kids love Lampard, I think there's nothing wrong with that.

"The play is not about race or colour, it is about human beings."

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<i>Listen to the outcome of Fortune's journey by tuning into the </i><a class="inlineText" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1513_afric_perform08/page4.shtml">BBC African Performance</a><i> season which starts on Thursday 10 July.</i>