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In the Bible, after Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God asked him where his brother was.
Cain answered, “I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” which meant that his brother was not his responsibility.
However, Jesus himself said that whatever we do to the needy, the helpless, the oppressed, and the marginalized we do to him.
We are our sibling’s keeper.
Our own well-being is bound forever to the well-being of everyone.
That’s what it means to love our neighbor as our self.
Yet today I write this column with an ache in my heart after the passing of football’s gentle man, Aubrey ‘Stepper’ Sauramba.
He was loved by all and loved all in return.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Lala kahle Stepper.
Rest easy my brother.
What I want to address today may not be favourable to everyone, but it has to be said.
As football players retired or active, we have become the Cains of this world.
We no longer care for each other like we did before especially when we played together and shared rooms in camp, travelled together and shared dressing rooms.
We now look at each with disdain and even after retirement, which is an unnecessary competition.
But the passing of Stepper opened my eyes to something deeply profound: we can only stay relevant if we stay united.
During my playing days, coaches would often say “we can only win if we play as a team” or “there is no I in the team”.
Words like this were meant to unify us and ensure that we played with a unity of purpose and this would translate to results.
It then makes no sense to me why we have stopped thinking along these lines! Retirement does not mean we must throw everything we learnt during our playing days out of the window.
Those things were taught to us not just to use on the field but out of it as well.
I encourage my fellow retired professionals to think long and hard about Stepper’s passing and then ask themselves what they could have done differently just to be there for their brother.
Needs are not always financial or material, but sometimes a need could be just my brother calling or texting to say ‘hey’ and it is this kind of brother affection that I feel is missing and we need to re-cultivate.
I feel that we have stopped being our brothers’ keeper and that in itself is signing a death warrant for your brother, just as Cain killed his and then tried to hide it from God.
We can only prosper and survive if we do the simple things: keep in touch and remember to love each other.
If we could win championships and cup games together, why can we not win conquer life together?
Let’s not wait to hear that our brother is in hospital or unwell and then be surprised by it because if we text or call each other regularly, we would know these things before they are fatal.
We would be able to assist each other when there is still time instead of running around to prepare for a burial when we could have run around and saved a life.
This said, I want us to all take a moment of silence and celebrate Stepper’s life, his contribution to football, his love for people in general and the many good times we all had with him.
I will be my brother’s keeper! We also must
acknowledge the city council’s continued decisions to allow some of us to be buried among the legends of the city over the years.
This is a big deal for us.
I also question our now constant imputation to only be stirred into action only when one of us dies.
Why is it easy for someone to give you US$100 when you are dead rather than give you even US$20 when you are still alive? I’m not saying it’s bad but kungabi yi culture yethu leyi.
Let’s look out for one another while we are still alive and make new memories for ourselves and the sport.