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Uganda: Marvels of Sports, TV Programmes
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The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Jennifer Bakyawa
To tell the truth, I never thought Uganda had a hockey team.
Uganda is among the countries with two seasons - dry and wet. Even with these seasons, we have continuously failed to tell when one ends before another starts.
When it rains in March we are surprised! After all, it rained in November. Why does it rain again only to make the streets muddy?
Anyway, back to hockey, how could Uganda have such a game? The hockey I have seen on TV is played on compacted ice. Uganda, though gifted by nature, cannot supply even half of its entire 28 million people with fresh and clean water. Compacting ice for sports would not feature on the country's priorities.
Without enough water to freeze, snow would be the sensible choice. But Uganda boasts of one snow capped mountain, whose beauty is quickly fading. Global warming is slowly melting the glaciers that made Mt. Rwenzori unique.
But then there we were that Friday, Uganda playing hockey. Ugandans had succeeded in joining the game of torturing a lonely tiny ball. This time it is on grass. Most games such as football or rugby involve over 15 men kicking or throwing the inflated piece of rubber from one end of the pitch to another.
This helps deflate their inflated egos. But what explanation is there for games that involve kicking or pushing non inflatable tiny balls?
The fact that Uganda has a hockey team was just sinking in when another shocker came onto the screen. Uganda had adopted another American practice - cheerleading! To adapt it to the Ugandan taste, boys and girls were included for the rugby game. The girls shook their pom poms so hard that I was afraid their hands would break off. One girl thought that the camera was no longer focused on her team; she dropped her hands as fast as they went up. The juice had gone out of her!
After flexing their hands, it was time for gyrating their hips. There were no original songs by the cheerleading group. All there was, was Congolese music. If copyright laws were seriously implemented in Africa, DR Congo would sue Uganda for its lingala dance.
It is performed in discos, at some religious functions, private parties and now cheerleading?
One rugby player devised a way of portraying one of the things the game is known for - violence. He was a player in the visiting team that participated in the Nile Fun Club games.
When the ball went to the side, he pushed his opponent in an unfriendly manner. As a TV spectator, I thought he was the team's trainer putting his player back in line. But within a few minutes, he repeated it. This time he chose the wrong spot in the pitch to express his fun. He boxed his opponent on the back of the head while in the middle of the field. All this happened during a "fun" game. The referee did not see the humor in his actions and quickly sent him off the pitch.
When the programme Health Zone came on screen, my hearing was alert.
"Today we are going to talk about schistosomiasis, another neglected disease in Africa," the moderator started.
He had two guests, a coordinator of the Bilharzia Programme in the Ministry of Health and a human rights activist.
The coordinator began describing what schistosomiasis is. He gave the different strains found in Uganda and the rest of Africa. Only that for whatever strain he described, he used a scientific term. At the end of his explanation, I could not tell the difference among the three types he was talking about.
I looked at the moderator expectantly. At least, he would ask him to give the difference by describing the symptoms.
No. This was not about to happen!
Instead he said to the activist: "As you have heard, these are very difficult terms. But tell us: why is this disease neglected?"
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The human activist explained: "The disease is neglected because it is not receiving enough attention. And because it is not receiving enough attention, services around it are not well funded."
Hmmm! Is there a disease in Africa whose services are well funded and is neglected?
Just asking.
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