This year's Confederation of African Football Footballer-of-the-Year award, won by Cameroonian international Samuel Eto on April 30, was yet another reminder to East Africans that they are yet to set up a structure to recognise heroes in death or in life.

Eto, of the Spanish First Division side, Real Mallorca, was presented the prestigious award in Yaounde, Cameroon at a ceremony in which two fallen stars of African soccer, Vivien Foe also of Cameroon and South African Leslie Manyathela, were also honoured posthumously.

Foe's wife received the trophy during the emotional ceremony, where posters of the former Manchester City player were a grim reminder of his sudden death. were a painful reminder of his sudden death during the Confederation Cup final between Cameroon and France which was broadcast live around the world.

Orlando Pirates' Manyathela died in a road accident last year on his way home from a match. In passing, Rwanda was also honoured for reaching the Africa Nations Cup final this year on a night when Cameroonian players dominated Africa's first eleven. The show stopper was the induction into CAF's Hall of Fame of Roger Milla, the legendary Cameroonian 1990 World Cup hero.

The recognition of Milla, a household African name, was long overdue but well deserved.

From a regional perspective, the fact that Rwanda's national team was recognised for qualifying for the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations finals 10 years after the genocide, showed Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that they are not performing to the best of their capacities.

Two, much as sports management in East Africa led by that of soccer is mired in controversy, individual players can shape their own destinies.

The Cameroonian soccer body is no better than its Kenyan counterpart. It has been caught in embarrassing situations like the protest by players over unpaid allowances at the World Cup among other internal wrangles. This, however, has not stopped the Indomitable Lions from gaining recognition the world over and acting as a platform to launch the careers of Cameroon footballers in rich European clubs.

Milla has been immortalised by his induction to CAF's Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, Kenya and Uganda were mourning the departure of fallen heroes with not so much as a tear shed by officialdom.

Were it not for a concerted media effort to highlight his death, Julius Sang, a member of the 4x400 metres 1972 Olympic Games gold medallist team, his death would have gone unnoticed, just as he lived his life for 30 years after the win.

He was mourned by his family, close friends and neighbours in Eldoret where he has been farming since quitting the Prisons department.

The burden of burying Steve Odiaga, an ex-Harambee Stars player, was left solely to his immediate family and friends in the Coastal town of Mombasa where he passed away two weeks ago.

By contrast, Ugandan soccer icon Paul Hasule's passing away created a storm in Uganda, eliciting emotional responses from a legion of his followers who paid him their last respects in kind by ensuring a decent burial, pitching in to meet the funeral expenses including the purchasing of a coffin draped in the national flag in his honour.

The fact that the government had ignored Hasule in life and in death mattered little to his fans, who like followers of soccer legend Diego Maradona, recently discharged from hospital, remained with their hero to the end.

But after the burial, how long will his memory live?

Like Foe or Milla, we must honour our fallen heroes in death and in life, just as other societies have been doing since time immemorial.  

pnjenga@nation.co.ke

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