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Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

2 SHARES Africa 3Zimbabwe gets $961m in IMF Special Drawing Rights – govt

 Part of $650bn the IMF is distributing to its members.

Image: AdobeStock

Zimbabwe’s government said on Tuesday it has received the equivalent of $961 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund, part of $650 billion the IMF is distributing to its members.

The IMF’s largest-ever distribution of monetary reserves will provide additional liquidity for the global economy, supplementing member countries’ foreign exchange reserves and reducing their reliance on more expensive domestic or external debt.

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SDRs are reserve assets issued by the IMF, backed by dollars, euros, yen, sterling and yuan.

“The immediate effect of this support from the IMF is to increase the foreign exchange reserves position of the country by $961 million,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and central bank governor John Mangudya said in a joint statement.

“This will go a long way in buttressing the stability of the domestic economy.”

Zimbabwe reintroduced its currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, in 2019 after a decade of dollarisation. However, the local unit has struggled for stability amid deep foreign currency shortages in the economy.

The Zimbabwe dollar is officially trading at 86 against the US dollar, but is significantly weaker, at 150 to the greenback, on a thriving black market.

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LOL — how deep into debt trap can a country be plunged into??/

Well done Zimbabwe, the IMF will not likely see the money again.

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