by Ritah Aliguma, Vice-president, USPA
KAMPALA, October 31, 2016 - Ubuntu is a
South African Nguni Bantu phrase that translates to human kindness, and that
people are people through other people in any given community.
Whatever the specific words used, we all
continue to find the local aspirations that resonate with the ideal of one
family under one umbrella brought about by football, not only in the ghettos
but in every community.
The Ubuntu African Foundation is a South
African NGO, birthed by a former street child called Marthias Mulumba, who was
raised by a good Samaritan, from Never Again Home.
Mulumba was a victim of rejection, child
abuse and drugs but he managed to overcome the challenges. It was from this
background and this strength that he decided to get back to the ghettos he grew
up, regardless of his academic achievements as a lawyer.
Based in South Africa the NGO has many
different activities in a number of other Africa nations, including kids food
programs, bible teaching and spreading the gospel of reconciliation,
counseling, HIV/AID testing and counseling, and sports. Within its mission
football stands out as it brings an entire community together, both young and
old, across all parts of the continent.
A football
A dozen young legs, with soiled and scarred
knees. Feet covered in torn or rather half-pieced plastic sandals, and some
barefoot. The legs encircled in a curve
to form a spherical hollow between the grounded feet. The legs earthed from
what appears between their legs. A football.
It is what gives them a sense of belonging
here in the slums of Kampala.
Before them is a largely unplayable and
soggy grass-less pitch full of plastic papers and mud on unleveled ground
surrounded by a poor drainage system.
Regardless of the poor state of the pitch,
football still wins. The little feet didn’t even care or pause for caution when
a ball bounced off a rock, or slowed in a hollow ground.
The deepest of ghettos
Acholi Quarters is a slum community mostly
populated with people displaced by the Lords Resistance Army in Northern
Uganda.
Tracing Uganda’s history from 1962 when the
national flag replaced the Union Jack, followed by political upheavals, and a
violent regime under Idi Amin the terror of the the Lords Resistance Army
emerged in the north from 1988 to 2006.
With the current situation in the ghettos,
where drug abuse is rampant and poverty
strikes their bellies, sport has been
the one source of liberation for most, and a solution to others.
In this ravaged community people are seen
running to the community football pitch at the sound of the community public
address system. With football organized by the Ubuntu African Foundation, kids
have left the path of drugs, to live the football dream while the community
sung their praises. Beyond the cheers, hope was restored and discipline was
instilled.
Indeed, football is magical, it knows no
color or tribe or religion.
Regardless of the divisions, they are still
a people who embrace the spirit of a common goal.
The only unifying fact that brings us
together is sports, mostly football, and through this we continue to witness
that philosophy of Ubuntu on a large scale.
With the generous support of the
organization much funding comes from the beadwork and paintings that are
produced by residents and sold abroad. Australian Larren Parkinsh provides the
programme with financial support.
The budget is still limited, yet the number
of kids is overwhelming. Currently there are amost 200 children in the coaching
programme in the slums of the Kisenyi and Acholi Quatres, with the coaches
insisting, that many could have a bright (football) future ahead.
