Reeling from Senzo, now AKA

When South Africa hosted the biggest sporting event in the world, the FIFA World Cup, it set the wheels in motion for frenzied celebration. This, after all, was a historic occasion. The build-up to that edition of the global showpiece was none like any I had ever seen. Perhaps my observation is laced with bias here because, to borrow from former president Thabo Mbeki, I am an African, but thus far it remains my choice for best-promoted World Cup. A couple of songs were released in anticipation, and those that come to mind include Waka Waka by Shakira, Sign Of A Victory by R Kelly, Wavin’ Flag by K’naan and Oh Africa by Akon featuring Keri Hilson.

Growing up in South Africa during the 2010s was quite a ride, not least because our country started gaining more popularity after successfully hosting that tournament. Granted, most of my acquaintances had long caught the football bug by then. However, having a World Cup hosted in my neck of the woods, so to put it, fuelled my love for the Beautiful Game into a full-on passion. Previously, I had seen Benni McCarthy becoming the first South African to lift the coveted UEFA Champions League trophy. The Hanover Park-born lad will always be an icon in the eyes of all South Africans. He paved the way and showed youngsters from the most impoverished of backgrounds, more so the Black and Coloured communities, that it is possible as long as you dream big.

Enter Kiernan “AKA” Jarryd Forbes, who sadly lost his life on Florida Road, Durban, on the evening of 10 February. Now, dear reader, before you pull your hair in frustration and ask how on earth does a hip-hop artist, dead or alive, get to be written about in a football publication, let me bring you up to speed. Not only was AKA a talented rapper who had the ‘bars’ (read lyrics) to back it up, he was also a staunch football fan who was probably the biggest menace on Footy Twitter, in my opinion. In 2011, my beloved Arsenal was going through a transitional period, and it was too much for me, as a fan, to stomach. Players such as Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri were growing frustrated with the club for not investing money into buying new players so they could win trophies. The Gunners were going through a “trophy drought”, much like the one Kaizer Chiefs is currently in the grips of, and the fans were growing increasingly frustrated with Arsene Wenger and the board. Probably the biggest fan of Manchester United in the country, AKA was very loud about Van Persie leaving the “losers” and joining the winning team. That season was very painful for me, for obvious reasons. But the Flying Dutchman winning the Premier League title with a club I loved to hate, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Over the years, AKA continued to be a troll and love the Red Devils out loud, much to my silently harboured discomfort.

Those in the know, Johannesburg-based soccer writers to be exact, have recently shared how he loved a game of five-a-side and would feature in the media league there. Unfortunately, according to one account, much as he could talk up a big game, that’s where it all ended. Not even his treasured friendship with Benni could gift him the skills he needed to flourish with ball at feet. But to be fair, we are blessed with different talents in life, and his was with a mic in hand, vomiting lyrics, selling out venues and entertaining crowds. The showman. The Cape Town-born star had pretty much built up his reputation in the music industry, but his breakthrough most probably came when he dropped his debut studio album, Altar Ego. The headlining single, All I Know, birthed a superstardom that can be likened to Michael Jackson’s popularity in the US.

Many found solace in his music, including this writer. It was the year 2017 and I was in the final year of my Journalism studies. Tell you what, when someone asks me what the worst year of my life was, I unblinkingly tell them it was 2017. That was the year I lost three family members one after the other. It was like a domino effect. Once my grandfather passed away, everything started to fall apart. But there’s one song that got me through the aftereffects of that year, and that is Dreamwork by AKA. After losing a family member who was only 17 and just five days shy of his 18th birthday, in the process of completing his matric exams… I quite literally lost my mind. My mental health was in the gutter, but the aforementioned song held me together. The song ended up having such significance in my life because my little brother and I bonded over it a year before his death. I have the lyrics tattooed on my body, that’s how much it means to me. AKA influenced me. He influenced us. As much as many hate to admit it, he really was a pop culture icon.

But for me the overarching feature of the life and times of Kiernan Forbes is the belief that it was okay to blow your own trumpet and think you’re a big deal. Because let’s be honest, if you don’t believe that you are a big deal, how will you convince everyone around you that you’re worthy of the title? That’s what the man taught us. That’s who he was. When I embarked on this journey as a sports journalist, it wasn’t the easiest of times. First of all, I was the ‘wrong’ gender and secondly, the ‘wrong’ colour. I didn’t let that become a stumbling block though, thanks in no small part to AKA’s music and the message it carried. See, when I started my career, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a sports journalist from the onset, but that’s not how I began this journey. There was a point in my career where I was a junior entertainment journalist and I didn’t really see how much it improved my approach to sports reporting. In light of Supa Mega’s untimely death, I am able to recognise just how much South African pop culture influenced my career choice.

There was obviously more to come from the lyrical genius that was AKA, as evidenced by the upcoming release of his new album, titled Mass Country , but I suppose death had other ideas. The manner in which he was taken away from us, though, should concern us all, especially as we are still reeling from the October 2014 murder of Senzo Meyiwa, a whodunit that remains unsolved to this day. We’re probably the only country in the world where life is so cheap, to such an extent that some random scum thinks nothing of pulling the trigger and killing a national treasure in full view of the public. Think Lucky Dube. If this isn’t treason, I don’t know what is. In a normal society, such inhumane behaviour shouldn’t be normal. However, is ours a normal society, to start with? Is it one that many envisioned when apartheid was defeated and the late Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990? Almost three decades since South Africa was declared a democracy, we’re drifting away more and more from what made us such a unique nation, one that was the envy of the whole world. What happened to us? What happened to the Rainbow Nation of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu?