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Cover: Players of the all female ‘113’ soccer team take part in a training session in Cabinda, Angola. The team was established ContentsEditorial 20 years ago and competes in the women’s national league.

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2 Message from Jean Ping 22 Profile of Didier Drogba Chairperson of the African Ivory Coast Varun Mathure Union Commission

24 Profile of Michael Essien 3 Message from Danny Jordaan Ghana Chief Executive Officer, 2010FIFA Varun Mathure World Cup Organising Committee South Africa 26 Profile of Samuel Eto’o Cameroon 3 Message from Graça Machel Varun Mathure Chairperson of the ACCORD Board of Trustees 28 Profile of Nwankwo Kanu 4 Editorial Nigeria Varun Mathure Vasu Gounden

30 Profile of Steven Pienaar 5 Make Peace Happen South Africa Varun Mathure 6 Football for Liberation and Peace in Africa: South Africa 32 Beyond the Big Stage Algeria and Ivory Coast Football, Reconciliation and Social Development in Africa Tor Sellström Tor Sellström

16 Interview with Pierre Nkurunziza 48 The Team: A Soap Opera on President of the Republic of Football for Reconcilation and Burundi Peace in Africa Tor Sellström

19 Interview with Roger Palmgren 50 More Than Just a Game Sports Director at AmaZulu FC The Makana Football Association South Africa John Daniel Playing for Peace

Playing for Peace | 1 MessagesEditorial

Message from Jean Ping Chairperson of the African Union Commission

2010 FIFA World Cup has been 2010 is also the Year of Peace THE identified by many as Africa’s and Security in Africa, offering an World Cup, becoming a source of pride for unprecedented opportunity for our people. African governments, citizens and Indeed, through football, children, institutions, in partnership with the women and men share a common international community, to celebrate our language and a spirit of fair play that accomplishments and to review current transcends the divisions and despair that efforts to peace-building on the continent. are the fruit of conflict. In Africa, ‘the This year we are pushing for a day beautiful game’ has become more than a of non-violence in every country on sport. It is a vehicle for rebuilding broken Peace Day, 21 September. So that while societies. Africa makes history by staging the 2010 This is why I am pleased to join in FIFA World Cup, Africans will be making solidarity with the people of South Africa another kind of history too: One billion around this event that will bring hope to people working together to make peace our people, uniting us around a common happen for one day. We will show that positive cause. I am honoured to join peace is possible and establish a stronger ACCORD in this important endeavour platform for sustained peace in Africa. to tell the story of football and its This is Africa’s moment to leave a contribution to peace in Africa through this legacy for our people and to make history. publication. Let’s make peace happen!

Jean Ping

2 | Playing for Peace REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE Message from Danny Jordaan Chief Executive Officer 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa

I am confident that everything possible democracy had won the privilege to host has been done to successfully stage this the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This was not historic tournament on African soil and that only a victory for South Africa, but for the South Africa will make Africa proud. I am African continent as a whole. also convinced that the participating African A better future in Africa requires teams will prove their strength in contests sustainable peace and economic with the best in the world. development for all. In the same way In 1976, we welcomed FIFA’s decision as the game of football has contributed to impose sanctions on South Africa as part towards national reconciliation and of our struggle against racism, apartheid progress in South Africa, we trust that it and minority rule, a system which denied will do so in countries torn by conflict in behalf of the 2010 FIFA World a black child the right to play football with Africa and elsewhere. ON Cup Organising Committee South a white child. We attained our freedom Africa, it gives me true pleasure that, finally, in 1994. Ten years later FIFA made the the FIFA World Cup™ has come to Africa. momentous announcement that our young Danny Jordaan

Message from Graça Machel Chairperson of the ACCORD Board of Trustees

my capacity as Chairperson of the to heal war-torn societies and create the IN ACCORD Board of Trustees, I am necessary conditions for sustainable happy to be associated with this initiative. development. As described in this As we celebrate the FIFA 2010 World publication, from the collines of Rwanda Cup, it is appropriate to recall the positive, and Burundi, via the streets of Liberia constructive role the game of football can and Sierra Leone, to the villages in Kenya play for peace and development, in Africa and Sudan, through football women and and elsewhere. children take the initiative to bridge ethnic women and children who on modest While the competing teams in the divides; offer meaningful recreation to stages beyond the limelight in the most tournament represent the pinnacle of former child soldiers, amputees and other difficult of circumstances truly make men’s elite players in the world, let us war victims; and, thus, lay the basis for football more than just a game! also acknowledge the thousands of post-conflict reconstruction. African women and children who at the As we enjoy the athletic artistry during community level use football as a tool the World Cup, let us not forget those Graça Machel

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development, which in mid-year replaces admirable strides towards sustainable our regular Conflict Trends magazine. As a peace and post-conflict national practitioner organisation, ACCORD has for reconstruction. As will be seen in eighteen years across the continent been our interview with President Pierre directly and actively involved in conflict Nkurunziza of Burundi - himself an active resolution through training, capacity- soccer player - football played a significant building, mediation and sharing of best part in and for this positive development. practices. Training of soccer coaches in In recognition of its peaceful transition conflict management has formed part to democracy, in June 2006 ACCORD of our practice. We are cognisant of the granted its Africa Peace Award to the fact that passions surrounding football at nation of Burundi. The award was the elite, inter-club level - and sometimes received by President Nkurunziza. In April internationally, as demonstrated by the 2010, we similarly had the pleasure of tensions between Algeria and Egypt after handing the award to President Ernest their deciding World Cup qualifier at the Bai Koroma on behalf of the people of end of last year - may turn ugly. In Africa, Sierra Leone. Present at the ceremony however, the game has always been, and in Durban was Jacob Zuma, President still remains, above all a ‘beautiful game’. of South Africa and as a young political Beyond the skills and artistry prisoner on Robben Island the captain displayed by professional stars on the big of one of the teams in the extraordinary the world focuses its attention stage, football on the African continent Makana Football Association. AS on the 2010 FIFA World Cup in has in the past played a major role in In addition to socio-political articles South Africa, ‘the biggest show on earth’, the struggles for national liberation, self- on football, peace and development we must not forget that political instability determination and democracy. Today, in in Africa, this magazine includes and intra-state conflict remain realities on post-colonial Africa, the game is used profiles of African star players who will the African continent. As sadly illustrated by the United Nations, international participate in the World Cup. Coming by the attack on the Togolese national organisations and local NGOs as an from deprived and difficult backgrounds, football team in Cabinda, Angola, just important and effective vehicle to bridge they are using the success achieved before the Africa Cup of Nations in the ethnic or political divides, heal wounds on the football field to uplift, enrich and beginning of the year, and subsequent and pave a way for unity, post-conflict inspire their communities off the field, outbreaks of armed violence in Nigeria, reconstruction and socio-economic often dedicating considerable private as well as continued strife and protracted development. Through its ‘Football efforts and resources to combat racism warfare in the Democratic Republic of for Hope Movement’, FIFA is making and xenophobia, to promote health Congo, Somalia, Sudan, northern Uganda significant contributions in this regard. In and education or to pursue national and elsewhere, there is a dire need for countries such as Rwanda and Burundi dialogue and peace. Together with the peace and stability. Dialogue and peace - with horrific legacies and scars from tens of thousands of boys and girls who are keys to development. Conflicts not recent genocides - football for national in disadvantaged, impoverished rural only result in untold suffering for millions reconciliation, unity and peace is actively areas and urban townships across Africa of men, women and children across the promoted by the state. combine football with schooling, HIV/ continent, but stand in the way of much In the 1990s, Liberia and Sierra Leone AIDS awareness, community services or needed socio-economic progress. Against in the West and Burundi and Rwanda leadership training, they are true African this background, the African Union (AU) in Central Africa were torn apart by role models. declared the year 2010 a ‘Year of Peace fratricidal wars, resulting in hundreds As the World Cup kicks off, let us and Security’, with the clarion call of of thousands of lives lost; uncountable together follow their example and kick out ‘Make Peace Happen!’ numbers of wounded, maimed, orphaned the roots and causes of violent conflict in With 2010 both the year of the and internally displaced; streams of Africa! Let us Make Peace Happen! World Cup and Peace and Security in refugees; collapse of state institutions; Africa, ACCORD is issuing this special and enormous material losses. Vasu Gounden, Founder and publication on football, peace and Today, these four countries have made Executive Director of ACCORD

4 | Playing for Peace SOUTH AFRICA hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup epitomises Africa’s dream of transcending strife and struggle. On another field of play, the leaders of the African Union (AU) have declared 2010 the ‘Year of Peace and Security’ through a ‘Declaration on the Elimination of Conflicts in Africa and the Promotion of Sustainable Peace’. Adopted in Tripoli, Libya in August 2009, the call is to ‘Make Peace Happen!’. Africa’s wars are commonly advise on new ways to build peace. initiatives crucial to ending violence low-intensity conflicts, where The organisation is further building and rebuilding communities groups of armed combatants an African Standby Force (ASF) affected by conflict. engage in battles inside a country. which will be comprised of troops The AU’s ‘Year of Peace and Civilians are cut off from protection from each region in Africa, trained Security’ calls on us all to take and services. Hardest hit by direct to be deployed as peacekeepers. action to achieve a lasting peace in violence in recent times have been These institutions and Africa’s war-torn societies, making the people of Somalia, Sudan, the mechanisms are poised to support peace happen for all. Democratic Republic of the Congo local, national, regional and, (DRC), northern Uganda and Chad. indeed, global efforts. Through In each of these conflict zones, interaction with citizens in Africa men, women and children have and beyond, during this ‘Year of been forced to leave their homes Peace and Security’, the AU seeks and are faced with starvation and to shore up support for mediation, disease. Fortunately, elsewhere disarmament and reconciliation - all For more information about the in Africa accords and elections in part of a spectrum of peacemaking, “Year of Peace and Security” visit countries such as Liberia and Sierra peacekeeping and peacebuilding . Leone promise hope, but peace is unlikely to last without significant GETTy IMAGES political, socio-economic and security reforms. Africa has the highest number of deaths due to war, but the continent has also established significant institutions and mechanisms for securing peace. The AU’s Constitutive Act gives it powers to intervene in African countries in order to stop war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and serious threats to peace and security. The body has established a Peace and Security Council to moderate over conflicts and threats. It’s Panel of the Wise is composed of African elders keen to

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Football for Liberation and Peace in Africa: South Africa, Algeria and Ivory Coast

Tor SellSTröm, Senior AdviSor To ACCord

Introduction independent Africa, were either prominent fueled Africa’s broader quest for political The history of sports - in particular football players themselves or promoted liberation”.2 football1 - in Africa is intimately linked to the game in their quest for national unity Although not an active athlete, the struggles for racial justice, national and freedom. Largely overlooked by Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, liberation and peace. Several of the historians, “[f]ootball constructed a fragile identified football as an efficient vehicle leaders of the anti-colonial campaigns, sense of nationhood in political entities for unity in the former British colony as well as many founding fathers of arbitrarily created by colonial powers and and took a close personal interest in

6 | Playing for Peace the national team, the ‘Black Stars’. 3 In Whites, Indians and Africans. In the or other services. Against this background, neighboring Nigeria, Benjamin Nnamdi beginning, football mainly took hold in and and recognising the mobilising force of Azikiwe, the father of modern nationalism around the port city of Durban, but soon the sport, it is not surprising that football and chief architect of the country’s spread to Cape Town, Johannesburg and drew the attention of the first generation independence, was an accomplished across the country. As with all other social of South Africa’s resistance and liberation football player and sportsman.4 Popularly activities, it was strictly segregated and leaders. known as ‘Zik’, during the independence organised along racial lines. John Langalilabele Dube, who in 1900 struggle he founded Zic’s Athletic Club The first formal soccer organisation, had founded the Ohlange Institute, in (ZAC), which not only became a hub of the all-White Pietermaritzburg County 1903 launched Ilanga Lase Natal - the first sporting and social activity, but also an Football Club, was set up in 1879. newspaper in isiZulu - and in 1912 became important anti-colonial platform. 5 And Seven years later, there were four the founding President of the then South in Algeria, the leading liberation fighter, Indian soccer clubs in Durban, and in African Native National Congress, later founder of the National Liberation Front 1903 a South African Indian Football re-named the African National Congress (Front de Libération National - FLN) and Association was founded. As the African (ANC). Dube played an important role in future President, Ahmed Ben Bella, had workforce expanded, so also did football the early history of football in Natal and in in 1939–40 been a mid-field player for in the African locations, as well as among South Africa at large. Ohlange Wild Zebras the French professional football club Africans at their leading (mostly mission) FC was formed in 1901, and from its first Olympique de Marseille.6 As will be schools. Among the first African clubs year of publication Ilanga regularly covered seen in this magazine, the tradition of were Wild Zebras at the Ohlange Institute, the local African soccer competitions. combining football with politics is today Shooting Stars at Adams College and Less known, but of considerable historical continued by contemporary African Natal Cannons at the Inanda seminary. By significance, is that Dube’s neighbor at leaders such as Presidents Paul Kagame 1910, there were at least seven African the Phoenix settlement outside Durban, of Rwanda and Pierre Nkurunziza of soccer clubs in and around Durban. In Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, similarly Burundi.7 1916, they formed the Durban and District promoted football in his non-violent Most African nations are as Native Football Association (DDNFA), the campaign against racial discrimination. independent entities only 50 years old, first major African football organisation in Gandhi came to South Africa in 1893, or younger.8 After a long and hard-fought the country.9 setting up the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) struggle, South Africa achieved democracy Not only was football racially the following year. While in South Africa, only 16 years ago. With six African nations segregated, but the conditions under he developed his guiding philosophy of among the 32 participating in the 2010 which the game developed were satyagraha. A firm believer in non-violent FIFA World Cup - the first ever on African fundamentally unequal, unjust and resistance against racial injustice, he was soil - this article looks at how historically discriminatory. All over the country, white- actively involved in local Indian affairs. the game of football in Africa has been ruled town councils refused to provide Little known is the fact that this included a powerful force for social and political recreational facilities for non-whites, football. In or around 1913 - not long mobilisation against injustice, racism and with the result that African, Indian and before his return to India - he organised foreign domination, a dimension which is Coloured clubs had to play their matches three football teams in Natal. To the very much alive in the psyche of the young in open, unattended fields, without stands author’s knowledge, Gandhi himself did nations. Examples will be taken from the history of the host nation, South Africa, as well as from Algeria, two countries that are competing in the World Cup. A note on the role for peace played by the Ivory Coast’s ‘Elephants’ with regard to the civil war in that country will conclude the text. Captained by Didier Drogba, African Footballer of the Year in 2009, Ivory Coast is also a participant in the World Cup.

South Africa: From Gandhi via Robben Island to Bafana Bafana Introduced to South Africa by working- class British soldiers sent to fight in the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War, not only did football become a popular military pastime, but The Passive Resisters: Mahatma Gandhi set up football teams as part of the struggle soon also an organised activity among against racial discrimination in South Africa (circa 1913).

Playing for Peace | 7 LUTHULI FAMILy COLLECTION, LUTHULI MUSEUM

Chief Albert Luthuli with the ‘Shooting from 1952 until his death in 1967. Luthuli Vice-President of the Durban and District Stars’ of Adams College in Durban, South was closely involved with the sport. As Native Football Association, which - as Africa, 1929. a national political leader, administrator mentioned - was the first of its kind in and organiser, he was in particular drawn South Africa. Describing himself as a to football as it brought African mission- “compulsive football fan”13, three years not produce anything in writing about educated elite together with African later he was instrumental in uniting the these teams, nor about the game of migrant and non-migrant workers. In his Natal and Transvaal associations under the soccer. For posterity, however, he had a autobiography Let My People Go - first South Africa African Football Association photo taken of him and other NIC leaders published in 1962 - he noted that “what (SAAFA), of which he also became Vice- with two of the Indian teams, appropriately has attracted me as much as the game President. And in 1952, when the ANC dubbed the ‘Passive Resisters’.10 [itself] has been the opportunity to meet launched the Defiance Campaign against From the beginning, football in South all sorts of people, from the loftiest to the the apartheid state and Luthuli was Africa became an integral part of the quest most disreputable”. Strongly opposed to elected President-General of the liberation for racial justice and equality, playing an Pretoria’s segregation policies, he added movement, he combined political work increasingly important role on the political that “I confess that when I watch matches with that of President of the Natal Inter- agenda. In the 1920s, for example, under between White South Africans and visiting Race Soccer Board, set up to oversee and its President, Clements Kadalie, the teams, I invariably want the foreigners to bridge the racial division between African, Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union win. So do other Africans”.11 Indian and Coloured soccer associations. (ICU) recognised soccer’s contribution to In addition to his involvement in At a historic conference in Durban the formation of a politically conscious national politics, as well as in traditional in 1951, the South African Soccer popular culture. Together with boxing, the governance, missionary affairs and Federation (SASF) had in the meantime ICU actively promoted football among its agriculture at Groutville north of Durban, been launched. Barring nobody from followers. Luthuli was a prominent football membership on the grounds of race, More important in the longer-term administrator.12 After serving for many colour or creed, it brought together more perspective was the role of Chief Albert years as Secretary of Adams College’s than 46,000 members of the African, Luthuli, President-General of the ANC Shooting Stars, in 1929 he became Coloured and Indian associations under

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one umbrella body. The strong link founded the Co-ordinating Committee for FIFA President Sepp Blatter (centre) and between non-racial liberation politics International Recognition of Sport (CCIRS), South African Minister Tokyo Sexwale and football was further underlined with “the single, simple principle [t]hat (right) with former members of the when in 1953 the recently formed all South Africans should be allowed to Makana Football Association on Robben Congress Alliance14 organised a highly represent their country - if they are good Island, South Africa, December 2009. publicised soccer match between enough”.16 In 1958, Brutus also set up ‘Veterans’ and ‘Youth’ on a farm outside the South African Sports Association Johannesburg. Together with the future (SASA), which with support by the ANC by denying them access to proper playing ANC President Oliver Tambo, stalwarts lobbied international sports federations to grounds. The Soweto giants Orlando such as the Communist Party leaders withdraw recognition of whites-only South Pirates and Moroka Swallows were forced Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Moses Kotane took African affiliates. Football represented to use the open field in Kliptown, where in part in the non-racial match.15 around 50,000 of its 70,000 members. 1955 the ANC and its allies had convened This was the context in which In the early 1950s, occasional, the historic Congress of the People. 18 different non-racial South African sport non-league matches between white and Eventually, however, the African clubs associations in the mid-1950s sought black, i.e. African, Indian or Coloured, were evicted also from Kliptown, which international affiliation. Claiming national football teams did take place in in 1966 led to the demise of the popular representativity as it had more than 80 Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. In South African Soccer League. % of South Africa’s registered football 1956, however, the apartheid regime ruled After the 1960 banning of the ANC players, in 1954 SASF applied for that “[W]hites and Blacks should organise and the PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress), international recognition within FIFA. their sporting activities separately; there and the sentencing to life imprisonment Opposed by the apartheid government should be no inter-racial competitions on Robben Island of Nelson Mandela and by the all-White South African […]; mixing of races in teams should be and the ANC leadership four years later, Football Association (SAFA), it marked avoided; and sportsmen from other lands the silence of the grave descended the beginning of a protracted and bitter should respect the country’s customs”.17 upon South Africa. In 1961, however, struggle. This was also the context At the same time and with particular the Fédération Internationale de Football in which the poet, journalist and anti- wrath, Pretoria clamped down on the Association (FIFA) decided to suspend apartheid activist Dennis Brutus in 1955 increasingly popular African football teams South Africa for not adhering to the

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principle according to which “a national allowed to play football on weekends on French football legend Zinedine Zidane [member] association must be open to condition that their weekly quota of hard (centre) and Algerian President Abdelaziz all who practice football in that country, labour had been fulfilled. The prisoners Bouteflika (centre right) with former whether amateur, ‘non-amateur’ or set up eight teams and organised a members of the FLN Team in Algiers, professional, and without any racial, league system. Following FIFA rules and Algeria, December 2006. religious or political discrimination”.19 In running for over twenty years, the league 1976, finally, South Africa was expelled was highly successful. Operating within from FIFA. While these measures - among the belly of the beast and organising the very first international indictments of thousands of anti-apartheid prisoners, the Mandela, two years later FIFA accepted the apartheid system - were welcomed by Makana Football Association on Robben South Africa back into world football. the anti-apartheid movement, exclusion Island made no little contribution to the The country returned with a bang. At from international contacts, in combination erosion and, eventually, the downfall of a packed stadium in Durban, in July with the state’s onslaught on Black soccer, apartheid. 1992 South Africa played its first official had, nevertheless, negative consequences Among those active in the Makana international match in three decades, for the development of the sport in the Football Association was Jacob Zuma, beating Cameroon 1–0. 21 The first country. who in 1963 as a young man was democratic elections were held in 1994, In the meantime, the political imprisoned on Robben Island for a period putting a formal end to centuries of racial prisoners on Robben Island were using of ten years. As captain of Rangers oppression and decades of apartheid. football as a means to preserve their FC on the island, Zuma - since 2009 In 1995, the ‘new South Africa’ erupted humanity. The story of the Robben Island the President of South Africa - had in unity into wild celebrations when the Makana Football Association appears the reputation of being both an active ‘Springboks’ won the Rugby World Cup elsewhere in this magazine.20 Suffice it administrator and an uncompromising, and - as portrayed in the movie Invictus here to note that after a long, protracted no-nonsense defender. - President Mandela handed over the struggle the political prisoners on the After the 1990 unbanning of the ANC, coveted trophy. Later that year, Orlando island - barring those in isolation, i.e. the PAC, the South African Communist Pirates won the Africa Champions Cup, Mandela and his closest Rivonia Trial Party and other political organisations, the first and so far the only South African colleagues - in 1969 reluctantly were followed by the release of Nelson football club to achieve this honour.22 And

10 | Playing for Peace in 1996, on home soil, Bafana Bafana increasing nationalist mobilisation in favour headquarters in Tunis, and represent triumphed in the Africa Cup of Nations.23 of majority-rule and self-determination. it in international matches. It was both Beginning in November 1954, a protracted, a dangerous and sensitive proposal, FLNf o Algeria: A Team Without a notoriously vicious war for national which had to be carried out in outmost Country liberation followed, resulting in more than secrecy. The National Liberation Front The tale of the Makana Football one million lives lost. On the nationalist was considered a terrorist organisation Association has been described as “the side, the liberation struggle was led by by the French government, and any direct most important soccer story ever told”.24 the National Liberation Front (FLN), which contacts with the movement would lead Across the continent, in North Africa, assumed power in the independent state to imprisonment. In addition, in France the the extraordinary formation, purpose of Algeria in July 1962. players were well paid and enjoyed life as and success of the Algerian FLN Team Football was a popular sport in celebrated stars. It was an exceptionally could similarly have been taken from a Algeria29, and during the struggle the heavy demand that was put on the young political novel. It has been described as FLN successfully used the game both footballers’ shoulders, who one by one “something dreamed up by [John] Le at home to boycott events organised by over the following months were contacted Carré”.25 the French30 and abroad as a powerful by Maouche. Until national independence was propaganda weapon. In the latter arsenal, Most of the Algerian players in France achieved in 1962, Algeria was linked to no weapon was as potent and effective as were sympathetic to the cause of the France in a unique relationship, with its the FLN Team.31 FLN.33 Many of them - such as Maouche three northern departments (Algiers, In the 1950s, Algeria had become the himself - had lost relatives to the violence Constantine and Oran) formally a part of African continent’s principal exporter of in Algeria. He later stated, “Okay, I would France itself.26 While this status facilitated football talents. By 1958, more than 50 have to give up my club. And yes, I was migration across the Mediterranean, Algerian players had contracts with French thinking of the World Cup, but what did for the indigenous population it did not first and second division professional that count for in comparison with my entail any privileges. On the contrary, clubs. Some of them - such as Mohammed country’s independence? The aim was to French settlers maintained a total make a statement, because at grip on political and economic Maouche himself - had lost relatives to the time the French propaganda power, relegating the Muslim had the FLN as a band of the violence in Algeria. He later stated, Arab majority to a subservient terrorists”.34 status. The gulf between the two “Okay, I would have to give up my club. Eventually, the plan was communities was huge, and the carried out in April 1958, two And yes, I was thinking of the World Cup, Arabs were, in general, “seen months before the World Cup in as an inferior race, treated with but what did that count for in comparison Sweden. Secretly leaving France disdain, indifference or outright after playing for their respective with my country’s independence? The abuse”.27 This said, contrary teams in the regular weekend to the situation in apartheid aim was to make a statement, because at matches, a total of ten players South Africa, there was no legal safely made it to Tunisia. Others the time the French propaganda had the system of institutionalised racial were not so lucky. Maouche and discrimination. On the football FLN as a band of terrorists” Chabri of Monaco were arrested pitch, for example, French by the French police, badly and Arab teams often met28, and a Maouche at Stade de Reims, Mustapha beaten and sent to prison. considerable number of Algerian players Zitouni at Monaco and Rachid Mekhloufi In France, news of the flight of the were signed up by professional clubs in at Saint-Étienne - were not only star Algerian footballers came as a great shock. France. players in their respective teams, but had Among those who had left was Zitouni, For the French, Algeria was the as French citizens also been shortlisted to who was due to represent Les Bleus crown jewel of its Maghreb empire, represent France in the FIFA 1958 World in a friendly match against Switzerland the north-western part of Africa which Cup in Sweden.32 a few days later. Derogatorily called also included Morocco and Tunisia. The Through Maouche, the FLN in late fellaghas, or terrorists, all the defectors latter two, however, were governed 1957 set in motion a dramatic plan to had their French club contracts cancelled. as ‘protectorates’ under international recruit Algerian professional football In Tunisia, however, the FLN announced treaties, which in the early 1950s paved players based in France for the cause that the players had “answered the call to the way for national independence, a of national liberation. According to the arms”35 and that they henceforth would status both of them gained in 1956. plan, a sufficient number of players to represent the Algerian government-in- In the case of Algeria, France resisted constitute a football team should at a exile. Preparations were immediately change and was determined to keep the given moment leave the country, gather made for an FLN Team, the forerunners of territory at all costs. This, in turn, led to at the liberation movement’s exile today’s ‘Desert Foxes’, who in addition to

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the ten ex-professionals would include an possible to pursue a footballing career Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba with soldiers eleventh player and some substitutes from also under the banner of the FLN. In 1960, from the rebel New Forces after a match the liberation movement’s own ranks. To two years after the first group had left, against Madagascar in Bouaké, Ivory compensate for their loss of income, the the largest single defection of Algerian Coast, June 2007. FLN granted them stipends which were footballers took place, bringing the number considerably lower than their salaries of ex-professionals in the squad to 32. as professionals, but higher than those Over the following two years, the received by the leaders of the movement. Algerian FLN Team - a national team FLN Team requested their government On and off the pitch, the story of the without a country - embarked on highly for permission to go back to their French FLN Team was a resounding success. In successful tours to the Middle East, professional clubs. Mekhloufi, the national their first match, they beat Union Sportive Eastern Europe and the Far East. In hero, was one of them. Perhaps due to the Tunisienne 8–0 and then proceeded to Yugoslavia, they beat the Olympic side fact that President Ben Bella himself had defeat the Tunisian national squad twice, 6–1, and in Hungary the national team by played football for Olympique de Marseille, scoring a total of 15 goals and conceding 5–2. At the time of Algeria’s independence the request was granted. Although some just one. Before long, they had registered in July 1962, the team of defectors of the players were not warmly welcomed victories over the national teams of representing the liberation movement in back39, most were. Mekhloufi re-joined Morocco and Libya too, establishing exile had played 91 matches, out of which Saint-Étienne, who won the French themselves as arguably the best team in they had won 65, drawn 13 and lost 13.37 championship in 1964. By then captain of North Africa.36 As many wanted to watch As noted by Hawkey, “that’s some record the team, in 1968 he also triumphed in the players such as Mekhloufi and Zitouni, the for a team who never played a match French Cup final. And in 1982, he finally team’s success through ticket sales was at home”.38 made it to the World Cup, although not as also financially profitable for the FLN. More Upon their return to Algeria, and a player, but as the coach of the Algerian importantly, it revealed for the Algerian as relations with France were being ‘Desert Foxes’. After sacrificing his place in players still based in France that it was normalised, some of the members of the the French team for the 1958 tournament

12 | Playing for Peace GETTy IMAGES

in Sweden, two and a half decades later Once hailed as a model of political A spectator displaying a peace banner Mekhloufi successfully steered his native stability and economic development in with the portrait of Didier Drogba Algeria to the FIFA 1982 World Cup in West Africa, the Ivory Coast experienced at a match between Ivory Coast and Spain. It was the first time ever Algeria had increasing instability following the death Madagascar, Bouaké, Ivory Coast, managed to do so.40 in 1993 of President Félix Houphouet- June 2007. Boigny42 and a downturn of its primary Ivory Coast: With the ‘Elephants’ export product, cocoa. In 1999, the for Peace protracted crisis culminated in a military peacekeepers was deployed to separate In apartheid South Africa and colonial coup, which in turn plunged the country the warring parties and prepare conditions Algeria, the popularity of football was used deeper into a vortex of violence. While for peace. This objective, however, was by the leaders of the liberation movements politicians, the military and the media not initially achieved, and only after a to further the cause of freedom. In post- resorted to ethnic rhetoric in which the prolonged, concerted mediation effort independent Africa, there are examples issues of citizenship and ‘a true Ivorian by the Economic Community of West of popular soccer players who have used identity’ played a paramount part, in African States (ECOWAS), the African their influence to impact positively on 2002 Ivory Coast was split between a Union (AU) and the UN, was the so called events and on the leadership in their Muslim-dominated area in the North - Ouagadougou Peace Accord signed by countries. During the civil war in the 1990s, with a considerable portion of people Soro and Gbagbo in March 2007. In terms for example, Liberia’s George Weah - a who over the years had immigrated from of the agreement, Soro was appointed national hero, who in 1995 was voted FIFA neighboring countries - held by insurgents Prime Minister and President Gbagbo World Footballer of the Year - repeatedly from the New Forces under Guillaume could declare that the war was over. Ivory appealed to the warring factions to lay Soro, and the primarily Christian southern Coast, however, is far from being at peace. down their arms.41 Similarly, in the Ivory parts, controlled by the government of The key issues of citizenship and identity Coast, Didier Drogba and other hugely Laurent Gbagbo. still remain to be solved, and presidential celebrated stars in the national team, In the ensuing civil war, thousands elections have been postponed time and known as the ‘Elephants’, have during the of lives were lost and an estimated time again. conflict in that country intervened in favour 750,000 people displaced. In 2004, a During the prolonged conflict, the of peace and reconciliation. first contingent of United Nations (UN) immensely popular and star-studded

Playing for Peace | 13 national football team has been one of since the beginning of the civil war - long”.54 And when the Ivory Coast team the main voices in favour of peace in Ivory Drogba showed the spectators his recently in December 2009 collectively won the Coast. With players originally coming received award as African Footballer of 2009 SCORE4africa Peace Award, Kalou from both the rebel-held North and the the Year, and said, “[This] date will be a said, “Our country went through a difficult government-controlled South, the multi- memorable day. It will be a victory for time during the troubles. Our football team ethnic, closely-knit team43 has consistently Ivory Coast football, a victory for the Ivory stayed together. Football helped in the pleaded for reason and peace. Famously, Coast people and, quite simply, there will peace process. As we go to the World Cup and only moments after leading Ivory be peace”.50 Later he explained that “I [in South Africa], we hope that the country Coast to the FIFA 2006 World Cup in have won many trophies in my time, but can unite behind the team and that we can Germany44, the captain, Didier Drogba, for nothing will ever top helping win the battle help further with reconciliation”. 55 example, summoned a cameraman from for peace in my country”.51 the Ivorian television and stated that he Drogba is not only a mega-star in Endnotes had a message to deliver. Live on national his native Ivory Coast and across Africa, 1 In the text, the terms ‘football’ and ‘soccer’ are used interchangeably. TV and surrounded by his team-mates, but a highly celebrated football player in 2 Peter Alegi: ‘African Soccerscapes: How Drogba fell to his knees in the dressing England, where he plays for Chelsea, and a Continent Changed the World’s Game’, room and made an emotional appeal for a in the world at large. He has twice been Hurst & Company, London, 2010, p. 36. 52 cessation of the hostilities in the country. voted African Footballer of the Year , runs 3 Ian Hawkey: ‘Feet of the Chameleon: “We have proved that all Ivorians can live a private, charitable health and education The Story of African Football’, Wild together”, he said, “and we can unite with foundation for under-privileged children Dog Press, Lyndhurst, 2009, pp. 74–75. In 1957, Ghana was the first country in the same objectives. Please, put down Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independ- 45 your weapons!” Later interviewed about At a time when war, ence, with Nkrumah as President. the spectacular appeal, Drogba explained, 4 Azikiwe, who became Nigeria’s first “It was just something I did instinctively. violence and ethnic President in 1963, was in his youth All the players hated what was happening and religious tensions prominent in athletics, boxing, football, swimming, tennis and other sports. to our country, and reaching the World continue to obscure our 5 Hawkey op. cit., pp. 72–74. Cup was the perfect emotional wave on common humanity, the 6 Ibid., p. 71. Ben Bella played for which to ride”.46 World Cup has the real Olympique de Marseille as a recruit to the Less known is that Drogba behind French army during the Second World the scenes has taken an active part in potential to break down War. He was based in Marseille. mediation efforts between the Ivorian barriers and challenge 7 See the article by Tor Sellström else- warring parties. In May 2007 - shortly after where in this magazine. Both Kagame stereotypes. [It] may do and Nkurunziza are actively involved with the signing of the Ouagadougou Peace more to bring our planet the game of football. While leading the Accord - the West Africa Network for Rwanda Patriotic Front’s (RPF) military Peacebuilding (WANEP)47 reported that it together than any treaty campaign, Kagame was instrumental had “suggested the use of Ivorian soccer or convention could ever in the formation of its APR FC (Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Football Club). stars and heroes to broker the peace. That hope for Formally established in 1993, APR FC suggestion seems to have found fertile soon emerged as the leading football ground. Didier Drogba […] [was over a Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary- club in the country, for the first time period of] three to four months involved General, Chairman of the Africa winning the Rwandan premier league Progress Panel two years later. President Kagame is also in lots of quiet, but successful soccer behind the re-development of the East diplomacy between the two sides. [He] and Central African Cup competition, has admitted that he personally intervened in Ivory Coast53 and serves the United which is financially supported by his to convince President Gbagbo and (now Nations Development Programme (UNDP) government. Formerly called CECAFA, it is today known as the Kagame Inter-Club Prime Minister) Soro to agree on the as a UN Messenger of Peace. As captain Cup. APR FC won the competion in 2007. 48 Ouagadougou Accord”. and spokesperson of the Ivory Coast With a university degree in physical As a unifying gesture between the national team, it is only natural that he is education and sports, Nkurunziza of North and the South, Drogba further at the centre of attention. In the case of Burundi - like Kagame a former leader of the armed struggle - is an active foot- convinced President Gbagbo that the the ‘Elephants’, however, the urge for ball player and coach. Often called ‘the ‘Elephants’ next match - a qualifying peace is - as the game of football itself - a footballing president’, the born-again game for the Africa Cup of Nations against shared effort. In an interview with the BBC Christian is the driving force behind Haleluya FC, which plays in Burundi’s first Madagascar - should be played in Bouaké, in January 2008, for example, Drogba’s division. the city of birth of Kolo and Yaya Touré49, much younger team-mate Salomon 8 In 2010, seventeen African nations will but in this context more importantly the Kalou stated that “with war nothing can celebrate 50 years of independence. stronghold of Soro’s New Forces. Before work. Ivory Coast is a good country that 9 This section is mainly based on Peter the match - the first staged in Bouaké does not deserve to be in a war for so Alegi: ‘Laduma! Soccer, Politica and

14 | Playing for Peace Society in South Africa’, University of Tunisia beat France 3–2. The legendary fully agreed to reach a result which saw KwaZulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, Moroccan Larbi Ben Barek, the ‘Black them through to the next round at the 2004, and on Joe Latakgomo: ‘Mzansi Pearl’ of Olympique de Marseille, played expense of the North Africans. Algeria Magic: Struggle, Betrayal and Glory - The a prominent part in the match. lodged a complaint with FIFA, but to no Story of South African Soccer’, Tafelberg, 29 Among the many Algerian personali- avail. Nevertheless, as a consequence Cape Town, 2010. ties who were attracted by the game of of the match-fixing, FIFA changed the 10 The author found the photo in the football was the writer and philosopher rules for future World Cups. Matches that Bessie Head Library, Pietermaritzburg. Albert Camus, in his youth a goal keeper decided final group positions would from It also appears in Amy Pastan: ‘Gandhi: at Algiers university. Camus later wrote, then on take place simultaneously. (West A Photographic Story of a Life’, DK “All that I know most surely about Germany eventually reached the final of Publishing, London, 2006, p. 43. morality and obligations, I owe to foot- the 1982 World Cup, losing 1–3 to Italy). ball” (Quoted in Peter Woodward: ‘Extra 11 Albert Luthuli: ‘Let My People Go’, 41 Weah also appealed to the United Time’ in Gary Armstrong and Richard Fontana Books, London and Glasgow, Nations to send a peace-keeping force to 1984, p. 35. Giulianotti (eds): ‘Football in Africa: Conflict, Conciliation and Community’, Liberia. 12 Peter Alegi: ‘Sport, Race and Liberation Palgrave MacMillan, 2004, p. 275). 42 At independence in 1960, Houphouet- Before Apartheid: A Preliminary Study of Boigny became the first President of Albert Luthuli, 1920s–1952’, South African 30 FLN put pressure on the Muslim popula- Ivory Coast. He held that position until his History Online (SAHO), www.sahistory. tion to boycott the local Algerian soccer death in 1993. org.za league. One effect was that some of the best Algerian players moved to clubs in 43 The majority of the players in the Ivory 13 Ibid. France, without - as will be evident from Coast national team have known each 14 The Congress Alliance included the ANC, the text - giving up their nationalist other since they were very young. Many the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), allegiance. of them are graduates of the famous the Coloured People’s Congress (CPC), 31 The presentation is mainly based on ASEC Mimosas’ football academy in the (White) Congress of Democrats (CoD) Hawkey op. cit., pp. 100–122. See also Abidjan. Among them are Aruna Dindane and the South African Congress of Trade Alegi ‘African Soccerscapes’, pp. 45–50. (who plays for Portsmouth in the English Unions (SACTU). 32 There were four Algerian players origi- Premier League), Emmanuel Eboué 15 Riason Naidoo: ‘The Indian in Drum nally selected for the French squad to the (Arsenal), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Magazine in the 1950s’, Bell-Roberts World Cup in Sweden. During the World Bakari Koné (Olympique de Marseille), Publishing, Cape Town, 2008, p. 88. Cup, the French-Moroccan Just Fontaine Kolo Touré (Manchester City), yaya Touré 16 Quoted in Alegi ‘Laduma’, p. 112. excelled for France, scoring an unbeaten (Barcelona) and Didier Zokora (Sevilla). record 13 goals for the eventual winners 17 Quoted in ibid., pp.113–14. 44 The incident took place in Omdurman, of the bronze medal. 18 Attended by 3,000 delegates from all Sudan, in October 2005, after the final over South Africa, the Congress of the 33 The Monaco player Hacene Chabri had qualifying match against the host People was held in Kliptown outside been identified by French intelligence as country. It was the first time that Ivory an FLN supporter, suspected of smug- Johannesburg on 25–26 June 1955. It Coast had qualified for the World Cup. adopted the Freedom Charter, which gling money and arms to the liberation 45 Quoted in Hawkey, op. cit., p. 274. subsequently became the political movement. programme of the ANC. 34 Quoted in Hawkey op. cit., p. 106. 46 Alex Hayes: ‘Didier Drogba brings peace to the Ivory Coast’ in The Telegraph, 19 Quoted in Alegi ‘Laduma’, p. 117. The 35 Ibid., p. 111. principle had been adopted by the 1960 London, 8 August 2007. 36 The FLN Team did not play against Egypt, FIFA congress in Rome. who had won the first African Cup of 47 Together with the Nairobi Peace Initiative- 20 See the article by John Daniel on the Nations in 1957. Politically, Nasser’s Africa (NPI-A) and WANEP, ACCORD Makana Football Association . Egypt supported the FLN. The most has established the African Alliance for 21 South Africa and Cameroon played three plausible reason for Egypt’s reluctance to Peacebuilding. games. The second was played in Cape play football against them is that FIFA did 48 WANEP: ‘The Ouagadougou Peace Town, where Bafana Bafana lost 1–2. The not recognize the Algerian team and that Accord: Breakthrough for Peace at Last?’, third was in Johannesburg, ending in a Egypt as a founder member of the FIFA- WARN Policy Brief, Accra, Ghana, 31 May 2–2 draw. aligned Confederation of African Football 2007, p. 8. (CAF) did not want to risk its international 22 Orlando Pirates met Ivory Coast’s ASEC status (cf. Hawkey op. cit., p. 114). 49 The Manchester City defender Kolo Touré Mimosas in home and away games. and the Barcelona mid-fielder yaya Touré 37 Hawkey op. cit., p. 122. The FLN Team 23 South Africa beat Tunisia 2–0 in the final. were born in Bouaké, some 350 km north scored a total of 385 goals, or more than of Abidjan. 24 Chuck Korr and Marvin Close: ‘More than 4 goals per match. Just a Game: Soccer v Apartheid’, Collins, 50 Quoted in ‘Football can score for African 38 Ibid. London, 2008. Quote from the cover of peace’ in The Citizen, Dar es Salaam, the book. 39 Said Amara, who had defected in 1960, 9 January 2010. received a death threat when he returned 25 Hawkey op. cit., p. 107. to Girondins de Bordeaux. 51 Quoted in Hayes op. cit. 26 The three departments had the same 40 In Spain, Algeria caused a sensation 52 In 2006 and 2009. status as the departments in metropolitan by beating West Germany 2–1 in their France. 53 The Didier Drogba Foundation is first match. After losing 0–2 to Austria, presented in this magazine. 27 Martin Meridith: ‘The State of Africa: A they won their last group match against 54 BBC Sport: ‘Kalou makes Ivorian peace History of Fifty years of Independence’, Chile (3–2), in the process threatening plea’, BBC, London, 24 January 2008. Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg to eliminate the fancied West Germans and Cape Town, 2005, p. 45. from the tournament. In what has been 55 Quoted from www.score4africa.org. 28 In 1954, a North African XI composed called “the scandal in Gijón”, West Score4africa is a London-based soccer of players from Algeria, Morocco and Germany and Austria, however, shame- magazine, focusing on Africa.

Playing for Peace | 15 TOR SELLSTRöM Editorialinterview

ierre Nkurunziza was born in the northern province Pof Ngozi in 1963. His father, a member of the National Assembly, was assassinated in the 1972 massacres. Two of his six brothers and sisters were similarly killed during the 1993 conflict, while another three were reported to have died in the bush. In 1987, Nkurunziza entered the University of Burundi, where he four years later took a Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education and sports. Working as a sports teacher at secondary schools and as a lecturer at the university, in 1995 renewed clashes between the Tutsi and Hutu population groups prompted Nkurunziza to flee the country. “I was pushed into rebellion by the inter-ethnic massacres that were taking place at the university”, he later stated. Joining the armed opposition movement CNDD-FDD (Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie - Forces de Défense de la Démocratie) in 1999 Nkurunziza Pierre was seriously wounded in a mortar attack. He hid in the bush without proper medical care, an experience which turned him into a born-again Nkurunziza Christian. Rising through the ranks of CNDD-FDD, in 2001 he was President of the elected to the leadership of the Hutu- dominated movement. Two years Republic of Burundi later, he signed a ceasefire accord with the government of Burundi, joining the cabinet as Minister of State for Good Governance. In 2005, Nkurunziza was sworn Above: President nkurunziza at the moses mabhida Stadium in durban, in as President of Burundi for a South Africa, April 2010. five-year period. On behalf of the

16 | Playing for Peace interview

Burundi nation, in 2006 he received three years have joined forces with the pupils has doubled at primary and ACCORD’s Africa Peace Award rural population to promote this game. secondary level, and we are heading “for outstanding achievements in We have already participated in more towards universal, free and compulsory than 80 matches in different parts of the settling years of civil war in a process education. This means that, in the country, and we have noticed that this near future, Burundi will have enough resulting in a negotiated settlement has produced favorable conditions for educated personnel to plan and carry out and the successful democratic community mobilisation around other sustainable development projects. election of a new government”. ideals, such as peace and development. What has been the impact of football Often called the ‘footballing Football attracts crowds around leisure, on the peace process in Burundi? president’, Nkurunziza is closely but also in favour of determined joint As mentioned, football enables the actions. involved with the game of soccer, population to meet in all its diversity, In this way, hundreds of schools and as a supporter, coach and player. He i.e. displaced persons, returnees, the health centres have been built through military, peasants, etc. Segregation has is the driving force behind Haleluya community work. In only four years, been one of the consequences of the FC, which plays in Burundi’s first more than 1500 primary and secondary inter-ethnic crisis which cast a shadow division. schools have been built and tens of over Burundi for more than half a The interview was carried out by millions of fruit trees have been planted. century. Previously, small groups were These are examples which speak for ACCORD in Bujumbura, the capital formed on the basis of ethnicity, regions themselves. Football has been a driving or professions. This created a climate of Burundi, in February 2010 force for these social achievements, of hatred and suspicion between the as well as for the protection of the Your excellency, in your view, how country’s different social categories. In can football, in general, contribute environment. this way, for example, the military was to peace, reconciliation and socio- The starting point for these once considered to be “assassins”, economic development? What is the impressive accomplishments was and every Hutu was regarded as a experience of Burundi in this regard? football, which managed to unite Hutu, “genocide killer”. Football is one of the most loved Twa and Tutsi, men and women, young Football is one of the means which games in the world. It gives joy and and old, around development projects. has enabled Burundians to discover each promotes physical and mental hetalth. The contact made with the population other and bring to the fore the aspiration It attracts huge audiences without there in almost all districts also enabled of peace and security which all of them necessarily having been any previous us to launch many farm and cattle have close at heart. In fact, after our bonds of friendship. It unites people associations across the country. With sports events, exchanges focusing around a common ideal, which is sport, the increase in production, we anticipate on peace and security are constantly or in other words, competition, leisure setting up factories to process our crops organised, as well as meetings to plan and socialization. for export. During such chance occasions, We are thus expecting an increase activities to consolidate peace. people who have never met before in monetary value and stabilization of At the highest level, a framework exchange and share experiences and food security, which ties in with the for dialogue between different partners may even discuss joint projects. Such is fight against famine and poverty. On has been established. It has recently the reconciliatory magic of football. From my initiative, I have personally created led to a forum between the political a chance meeting, ideas can emerge a Football Academy which comprises parties for the strengthening of peace. which come together for common goals. 300 young footballers. From these, Security committees are operational at Joy and leisure always create good professionals will emerge who one all levels, and a Truth and Reconciliation ideas. day will contribute not only to the Commission is under preparation. It is In the case of a problematic past, development of football, but also to largely inspired by that which took place football provides a focus around which social and economic development some years ago in South Africa. it is possible to sit down and hold in general. The African Union has declared 2010 constructive discussions. We have At the social level, the many recently the Year of Peace and Security in experienced that in our country. opened schools have effectively Africa. What message could you in In fact, many people have been implemented the decision on free this context convey to the FIFA 2010 surprised to see that we over the past schooling. Currently, the number of World Cup?

Playing for Peace | 17 strategies which can further the game of football, both at the continental and at the global level. My most heartfelt wish is that the holding of this FIFA 2010 World Cup in Africa will create an everlasting image in the minds of the Africans, as well as an unequalled honour for FIFA.

President nkurunziza playing for his team, Haleluya FC, in Burundi.

The holding of this tournament in others. The tournament presents the Africa is an unforgettable event in the continent with a good opportunity to history of the continent. In the fairly make the most of diverse experiences recent past, it was unthinkable that from around the world. It is a true the World Cup could be staged on the meeting place for giving and taking in poorest continent, with very significant various fields. political and social instability. Certainly, The event should also give humanity increasingly understands that rise to deep reflection, in sport, football in particular, has a role to particular aiming at reducing play in the search for efficient solutions the inequalities we observe to the multiple challenges which plague in world football. FIFA should this part of the world. seize this opportunity to propose strong Taking into account the way in interventions to promote the inclusion of which we have used football to build African youth. An integrated programme and consolidate peace in Burundi, we for the building of grounds to develop can state that the FIFA 2010 World the game of football and thus contribute Cup is not an end in itself, but rather an to social cohesion is called for. efficient means which contributes to the As far as I am concerned, as a player strengthening of peace and promotes and as a coach licensed by FIFA who development on the continent as a already has contributed to the promotion whole. of professionals currently progressing Without doubt, Africa, through South overseas, and as the founder of a Africa, is ready to welcome thousands football academy hosting more than of visitors from various backgrounds, 300 youth, we are ready to contribute bankers, entrepreneurs, politicians and our expertise to the development of

18 | Playing for Peace Editorialinterview TOR SELLSTRöM Roger Palmgren

Sports Director at AmaZulu FC, Durban, South Africa

urrently holding the position of sports director at the South African premier league Cfootball club AmaZulu FC in Durban, at the age of twenty-seven Roger Palmgren started his coaching career with FC Café Opera in his native Sweden. After consecutively winning the fourth, third and second Swedish divisions, in 1993 he moved to AC Arezzo in the Italian third division. Despite his young age, he was the following year contracted as national coach of the Sierra Leone ‘Stars’, taking them to the African Cup of Nations in both 1994 and 1996. After a spell with Degerfors IF in Sweden and, again, AC Arezzo in Italy, in 1999 Palmgren returned to Africa as technical director of the national selection of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Once again, he steered his team to the 2000 African Cup of Nations. Thanda Royal Zulu FC. He moved to AmaZulu FC in 2009. Between 2004 and 2006, he served as national coach During the World Cup, he will in an unofficial capacity assist and technical director of the Rwanda national squad, the Swedish head coach of the Ivory Coast team, Sven-Göran the ‘Bees’ (Amavubi), who famously held Nigeria Eriksson. to a 1–1 draw in the qualification for the FIFA 2006 Closely involved with the national teams of Sierra Leone, World Cup in Germany. During his years in Rwanda, the DRC and Rwanda, Palmgren has first-hand experience of the Amavubi twice became runners-up in the East and football at the national level in African countries ravaged by Central CECAFA Cup. war, conflict and genocide. Staying in Africa, in 2006–2007 Palmgren coached The interview was carried out by ACCORD in Durban, South the Nigerian first division team Kwara United FC and Africa, in March 2010. in 2007–2009 the South African premier league club

Playing for Peace | 19 After a year with AC Arezzo in the 1994–96. During this time, Sierra Leone used to call me the day before our games. Italian third division, in 1994 - only 30 qualified for the 1994 Africa Cup of He wanted to know about my game plan years old - you became the coach of the Nations in Tunisia and the 1996 Africa and the starting line-up. Only once did he national team of Sierra Leone. How did Cup of Nations in South Africa. How did interfere with my team selections. The you end up in Sierra Leone? the successes impact on the divisions reason he gave was a private, economic I was in Sweden on vacation from AC in the country? issue between him and two players who Arezzo. At the same time, the national Believe me, I know. Football in Africa played professional soccer in Belgium. team of Sierra Leone was at a training is very, very important! Whether we Were you ever under pressure by any of camp there. I was asked if I had the time played at home or away, everybody was the feuding factions to support them? and interest in leading the team for two happy and celebrated for a couple of Yes, I was kidnapped by two soldiers weeks at the camp. I did. We played a days. It seemed that everything else was from the rebel leader Foday Sankoh’s couple of friendly games and also took forgotten, or gone. army. It was just after finishing a World part in a tournament, which we won. Vice versa, how did the civil war affect Cup qualifying game in Abidjan, the capital The Sierra Leone Football Association the performance of the national team? of Ivory Coast. I was in my hotel room was satisfied with my work and offered It was hard to tell what the players having a rest before the dinner. It was not me the job as national coach. That same really were thinking about when they were as frightening as it may sound. Although day I got a telephone call from the then playing, but during my time the Sierra they were demanding, the two soldiers President of Sierra Leone, Valentine Leone national team performed as never were also friendly. They took me in a big Strasser. He personally invited me to meet before or after. In the changing room Toyota 4x4 Landcruiser to some place in him in the capital, Freetown. before the games, we always said, “Let Abidjan, where I stayed overnight. Mr. I am crazy about football and I am us make our people happy and proud!” Sankoh and I, or should I say, he had a long always looking for opportunities to But I also remember an away game very talk. At first, he talked about his ideology, educate and develop myself to become a well. There had been an outbreak of how he wanted to rule and develop Sierra more understanding human being. There violence back home in Freetown, and two Leone. Then he said that he wanted me to is no better way to do that than to live in of the players came to my room and said bring money to the Sierra Leone Football other countries, with different cultures. that they did not want to play the next Association to show his support. He also So, I had no doubts. To lead a national game. Members of their team was - and is - an honour. I did not families had been killed. We Im a crazy about football and I am know that Sierra Leone was in turmoil and were then preparing for our deeply divided. But the opportunity was return game against Algeria always looking for opportunities too big not to be interested. during the qualifications to educate and develop myself During my first visit, and before I had for the 1996 Africa Cup of to become a more understanding made up my mind and signed a contract, Nations in South Africa. President Strasser told me that a lot of There was a lot of talent human being. There is no better people in Sierra Leone already knew about in Sierra Leone at the time, way to do that than to live in other me and about the great results we had even though some of the achieved in Sweden. “Roger”, he said, players were very young. countries, with different cultures “football unites people! Especially if the Among them was Mohamed results are good!” I never asked him what Kallon, who was only sixteen years old wanted to give the players some kind of would happen if we did not win… and went on to play for Inter Milan and bonuses for the game we had played. How were you received by the football Bologna in Italy, as well as for Monaco in In 1999, you were appointed technical fraternity and the people of Sierra France. Kewullay Conthe was seventeen. director of the national team of the Leone? He later played for Atalanta, Chievo Verona Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was just magic! Almost everybody and Palermo in Italy. This was at the height of the war in that greeted me wherever I went. From In a highly divided environment, to what country. Once again, you managed to day one, I was treated like a good king. extent could you act as an independent qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. Of course, I was also lucky with the team selector? Are you driven by a belief that the game results we achieved. As long as you are a winning coach for of football can act as a reconciling and You stayed as national coach of a national team, nobody will interfere. That unifying force? Sierra Leone during the difficult years said, the President of Sierra Leone himself

20 | Playing for Peace JENNy PALMGREN

Roger Palmgren leading a training session with the Rwandan national team in Kigali, Rwanda, June 2005.

the youth will learn for the future and spread the message. Football players are ambassadors, whether you like it or not. If we educate them at an early age, they will spread good messages and also vibes in the future. In this context, do you have a message for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa? Yes, South Africa must seize this big Yes, I do believe that football Nevertheless, the Amavubi became opportunity to show the world the beauty reconciles and unites. When I came to a force on the African football scene. of the country and its people. To send a the DRC, I had already seen that happen How did you approach the challenge of message around the world that although in Sierra Leone. Although life for many is building a national team? it has a recent past of turmoil and division, difficult, the game of football seems to From day one, I was advised by people with many different ethnic and give people hope and joy, even if just for the President of the Rwandan Football cultural backgrounds can actually live in a short time. And it is important to give Association, who at the same time was peace. people dreams and hope. Football can to a an army officer, never to ask or talk about certain extent do that. the horrors of the genocide in front of During my last six months in Sierra the players. I did, however, sometimes Leone, I was helping at a boys camp talk about it in private with some of the one hour’s drive outside Freetown. There players if there had been tensions in the were about one hundred boys from ten team. I could not see that by myself. to between sixteen and eighteeen years Naturally, I emphasised to the media the of age in the camp. They had been used importance of having united supporters by the rebel army in one way or another. behind us. Many of them had killed a lot of people. I also enjoyed a personal friendship They had all run away from the rebels with President Kagame, which, of course, and had been found by the government was on his initiative. Although he wanted soldiers in the forest. I was visiting them to know about every single moment I had twice a week and started a soccer league with the national team, he never interfered in the camp. The people working there or tried to change things. However, before said that I was like a Messiah for the boys. every game he invited the entire team to There was no bigger satisfaction for me his place and “pumped up” the players. than to see these boys smile every time I The African Union (AU) has declared came to the camp. The feeling can not be the year 2010 the Year of Peace and described in words. Security in Africa. How can football Your position as national coach of the contribute towards this objective? Rwanda national team - the Amavubi, or If those of us who are working with ‘the Bees’ - during the period 2004–2006 football on a daily basis want to change appears as particularly challenging. Ten things in life for the better, we must years after the genocide, the country teach our children to do it in the right was still struggling to come to terms way. We must start by putting more with the horrors of the recent past. efforts into youth development, so that

Playing for Peace | 21 REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE EditorialProfile Coast Ivory Didier Drogba

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winner of the 2009 The foundation, which aims to make Programme (UNDP) as a UN Messenger African Footballer of health care and education more accessible of Peace. In recognition of his huge The the Year award, Didier in Drogba’s native Abidjan, is supported by following and humanitarian contributions, Drogba is arguably the best player Ivory many of his colleagues at Chelsea and Time magazine named Drogba one of the Coast has ever produced, and his success other players from around the English 100 most influential people in the world in on the football pitch is matched by his Premier League. May 2010 activities off it. “I am lucky enough to Together with the other players in The Sky Sports television crew call have made a career out of my passion the Ivory Coast national team, Drogba him ‘The Bull’, but for his adoring Chelsea and to play at Chelsea, one of Europe’s has been closely involved with the peace fans he is just ‘Drogs’. For a man who has biggest clubs. Now it is my turn to process in his home country. During the etched his name into the history books of return the favour”, he writes about the civil war, he appealed to the warring sides the Premier League, Didier Drogba carries Didier Drogba Foundation . “I want to put down their weapons, and later he an aura of humility around him. others to have the same chance. I want took part in the mediation efforts leading “My son came to me four months underprivileged children to blossom out to the 2007 peace accord. He represents after I had joined Chelsea and said he and to make something out of their lives”. the United Nations Development wanted to go back to Marseille. I didn’t

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“Just imagine what it would mean to the people in our country and the whole of Africa if we won the World Cup. It will be one of the great sporting moments of them all. This is our chance of a lifetime”

know what to do”, Didier told BBC in world in financial and in sporting terms, Didier Drogba appointed UNDP Goodwill an interview last year. But to the delight but this year gives us a chance to show Ambassador in Geneva, Switzerland, of the Blues’ fans, the Ivorian decided people a different Africa”. He believes January 2007. to stick around. He has claimed eight that a successful tournament can be a trophies in the past five years, scoring landmark change in perceptions. “Africa 122 goals in the process. The best foreign has some problems, we all know that, player in Chelsea’s ranks may be a fierce but we all have a chance to make 2010 competitor on the field, but off it he is the special year that puts this continent a family man who holds Africa close to on the sporting map forever”. his heart. “People have an opinion of Ivory Coast have been drawn in the Africa that is not so good, but we have so called ‘Group of Death’ with Brazil, to let sport unite us all”, he said at the Portugal and North Korea. Despite the start of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations daunting odds stacked against his side, Created in 2007, the Didier Drogba tournament. Drogba is not intimidated, “Just imagine Foundation aims to provide financial and Drogba perceives the World Cup in what it would mean to the people in our material support in health and education South Africa to be a great opportunity country and the whole of Africa if we to the underprivileged in Ivory Coast, to change the image of the continent won the World Cup. It will be one of especially women and children. For more in the minds of outsiders. “[People] the great sporting moments of them all. information about the foundation, visit see us as being behind the rest of the This is our chance of a lifetime”. www.thedidierdrogbafoundation.com

Playing for Peace | 23 REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE EditorialProfile

Michael Essien

Ghana’s Michael Essien is one of the game’s most versatile players and his resourcefulness extends beyond the field

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ike his Chelsea team-mate Didier through the Michael Essien Foundation”. a journey, not a sprint, and as long as we Drogba of Ivory Coast and many The charitable organisation aims to provide work hard we will be able to put a smile Lother African football stars, Essien basic health care and other amenities to on the faces of normal people who are is dedicated to improving conditions the underprivileged in both his home town suffering through no fault of theirs. Let in his home country. His recently of Awutu Breku in central Ghana, as well the story of hope and inspiration start from established Michael Essien Foundation as to other deprived communities in the here”. (MEF) in Accra, Ghana, is a sign of this country. At the launch of his foundation “Football has become a way out of commitment, “I would love to win more in November 2009, Essien said, “I have poverty in Africa, as it is a way for people trophies and keep playing football. But my won many trophies and accolades, but I to get away from where they come from”, personal dream is to enrich peoples’ lives reckon this tops them all. The MEF will be Essien said in an interview last year.

24 | Playing for Peace Profile REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE He recognises the impact football has on kids from around the continent. “If you’re a kid in Africa and you’re into football, you just want to play every day. It doesn’t matter where; anywhere you go, you can just play with other people or yourself”. At a recent event is South Africa, he expressed his concern about the limited opportunities people from Africa have to follow the game, “I am among a few from Africa who have made it on the international football scene. Yet very few people from this continent get the opportunity to watch us perform”. However, Essien is hopeful that the upcoming World Cup will change the way things stand, “The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be a rare platform for ordinary people to witness the world’s most talented players on the soccer pitch doing extraordinary things”.

“Racism is not a good thing. We are all human beings and it is only the colour that changes”

Essien’s involvement with awareness activities and charitable work is not limited to his own foundation. Along with Didier Drogba, he is part of ‘Kick It Out’, an organisation aiming to clamp out racism in football. “Racism is not a good thing. We are all human beings and it is only the colour that changes”. More recently, he has been selected as a part of FIFA’s ‘Eleven for Health Programme’, which aims to use football to improve the health of both individuals and communities around the world. Essien participates in The Michael Essien Foundation was set up in Michael Essien of Ghana during a match the programme together with a group of November 2009. For further information, visit against Bafana Bafana in Johannesburg, elite players which include Drogba, Lionel www.michaelessiengh.com South Africa, June 2005. Messi of Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.

Playing for Peace | 25 EditorialProfile GETTy IMAGES

CAMEROON Samuel Eto’o A winner of three consecutive African Footballer of the Year awards (2003, 2004 and 2005), Samuel Eto’o is one of football’s household names and an idol for millions around the world vArun mAThure

Cameroonian striker he has had to fight his way to the top, CNN’s World Sport. Eto’o has since has an enviable trophy enduring racist abuse along the way. joined hands with many black players The cabinet, but most He once almost walked off the field from across the African continent in their football fans will always remember him after racist taunts were directed at him battle against racism. “I think we are all as part of the ‘Majestic Barcelona’ side during a league game in Spain. “In that humans. Everyone’s blood is the same of 2009. moment, you start thinking whether color and we all have the same heart. I Eto’o hasn’t always had the best there is something wrong in being don’t see any differences in skin color”. of times playing football. As an African, black?”, he said in an interview with In mid-2009, he visited South Africa to

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the various other activities around Cameroon, He is eagerly looking forward to Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South including sports scholarships and the World Cup. “Africa must seize this Africa, September 2006. The Nobel Peace rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. “I’m opportunity to demonstrate that we are laureate is a patron of the ONE Movement a believer, and one day I said to myself: able to organise such an important event. for social change. ‘If God gave me all these possibilities, I think that it will be the best World Cup why shouldn’t I share what I have with ever”. Eto’o has been nominated by FIFA others?’” to be the face of the 2010 World Cup, an launch a campaign against xenophobia honour for which he is extremely grateful and racism. Initiated by the International “Africa must seize this and proud. With regard to Cameroon’s Organisation for Migration (IOM), the opportunity to demonstrate prospects, he says, “We have a good campaign is carried out in collaboration team with [both] young players and with his own foundation. It forms part that we are able to organise veterans - a great mixture. I am optimistic. of the ‘ONE Movement’, an initiative such an important event. Cameroon could well cause a surprise at for social change under the patronage I think that it will be the best the finals”. of South African Nobel Peace laureate The African continent has provided Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It aims World Cup ever” many football superstars over the course at promoting unity and human rights of the years. Samuel Eto’o is one of its throughout South Africa and Africa at Eto’o feels very close to his home finest - not just on the pitch, but also in his large. country. During his introduction to fans personality. The two-time UEFA Champions at Inter Milan, he asked Cameroonians League winner is also involved in carrying the national flag to join him on Samuel Eto’o’s foundation, Fundación charities in Cameroon and elsewhere the field. “I feel like an older brother for Privada Samuel Eto’o , was registered in Africa. His Samuel Eto’o Foundation children of my country. I’ve discovered in Spain in 2006. For information aims to educate children through the that what really makes me happy in life is on the foundation (in English), visit game. The organisation also helps with to share what I have with other people”. www.fundacionsamueletoo.org

Playing for Peace | 27 REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE EditorialProfile wankwo Kanu n nigerian striker If one was to pick a contemporary player who made soccer fans sit up and take note of Africa’s footballing skills, it would have to be the Nigerian striker and captain, Nwankwo Kanu

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he winner of virtually every career stretching back to the FIFA playing for Ajax Amsterdam in Holland, conceivable title in European club Under-17 World Cup in 1993, Kanu is Internazionale in Italy and Arsenal in Tfootball, Kanu has played a pivotal the most decorated African footballer in England he has a host of titles under role in enhancing the image of African history. In 1996, he won an Olympic gold his belt, including the UEFA Champions football players in England, Europe and medal with Nigeria - the first Olympic League with Ajax in 1995. Kanu has twice the world at large. In an international victory of any African nation - and been voted African Footballer of the

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Year (1996 and 1999). Throughout Africa With this attitude, it is no wonder that Nwankwo Kanu set up his Kanu Heart he is admired for his philanthropic work. Kanu has been appointed a Goodwill Foundation in 2000. Here, Kanu at a The Nigerian captain was diagnosed Ambassador by the United Nations promotion event in London, England, with a serious heart condition shortly Children’s Fund (UNICEF). February 2003. after winning the gold medal at the 1996 Commenting on the importance of Atlanta Olympics. Subsequently, he set football in his home country, Kanu recently up a heart foundation to help children noted, “Football pulls the whole country the advisers consult both the players and and young adults in Nigeria and other together. [It is] something that can bring their parents. countries in Africa. “My heart problems peace and unity to Nigeria”. At the same The Nigerian captain is looking changed my aspect on life. No one knows time, he is acutely aware of the problems forward to the World Cup in South Africa, what the future holds, and that’s why I footballers, and especially young Africans, where he believes an African side can started to think about others more”. He face when they start their professional come out victorious. “I think we have became one of the first African players to careers. “For years, African players have learned our lesson, and playing in Africa set up a charity to help the people from been exploited”, he explained at the where you have all the supporters behind his continent. launch of his new Football Foundation you is the time to really do it”. Kanu plans The Kanu Heart Foundation was in 2008. “Agents have preyed on young to hang up his boots from international established in 2000. It has so far been Africans, ripping them off and leaving duty after the event and will be releasing responsible for fully sponsoring the them penniless”. His organisation looks a book thereafter. The career of this great treatment of close to 300 children, but to help young African football players footballer may be drawing to a close, Kanu wishes to expand it further by from falling into the trap of middlemen but his contributions will forever be building hospitals around Africa. “I get and agents. “In Africa, the young players remembered in Africa and beyond. hundreds of letters from all over Africa have to go through a lot of things, many of For more information about the and that’s where the pressure comes in. which they don’t know how to deal with”. Kanu Heart Foundation , visit You hear the story, and everyone’s story The Foundation helps with the careers of www.kanuheartfoundationng.com deserves help, and you want to help”. the aspiring stars free of any cost, and

Playing for Peace | 29 REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE EditorialProfile

South Africa Steven Pienaar

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Like many of his Bafana Bafana team mates, Pienaar’s childhood in apartheid South Africa was harsh and difficult

afana Bafana’s midfielder Steven year, he made his international debut of Westbury, which was notorious for Pienaar is widely regarded as one for Bafana Bafana. After a spell with violence and drugs. Pienaar remembers Bof South Africa’s most talented Borussia Dortmund in Germany, in 2007 being asked to serve as lookout for drug players. Growing up in Westbury outside he was transferred to Everton, where he dealers and hearing gunfire punctuate Johannesburg, in 1999 - at the age of 17 has firmly booked a place in the hearts of the nights. Interviewed in 2009, he - he joined the ranks of the South African the English team’s fans. noted, “It was difficult to stay out of premier league side Ajax Cape Town. Like many of his Bafana Bafana trouble. It was a dodgy area and the His abilities soon caught the attention of team mates, Pienaar’s childhood in temptation was huge. I’d be so envious the big professional clubs in Europe and apartheid South Africa was harsh and of the boys who’d turn up with new in 2002 he moved to Ajax Amsterdam difficult. He grew up with his mother and sneakers from their drugs money. But I in the Dutch first division. The same three sisters in the coloured township knew I’d get a hiding from my Mum if

30 | Playing for Peace REUTERS / THE BIGGER PICTURE I got involved and I didn’t want to go to school covered in bruises”. Through football, how- ever, Pienaar found an escape and managed to move on in life. At the tender age of ten, he was taken for training at the Johannesburg School of Excellence at Elandsfontein, where soccer was combined with secondary education. But he did not turn his back on his home area, “Westbury is well known in Johannesburg for gangsterism and drugs and that kind of thing. But there’s a lot of talent there too, like in all of South Africa. You’ve just got to try and get people out of there and develop it. I was fortunate that I was scouted at the age of ten, so I was taken out of Westbury. But it is still the place I come from, so when I go back to South Africa I go there”. In Westbury, Pienaar organises an annual football tournament and supports the Jordan House for senior citizens, “Coming from a disadvantaged background without role m`zaodels to guide me has enforced the spirit of humility and encouraged me to invest back in my community by helping the needy. I am not doing this for publicity, but out of love. I have an insight of what it is like growing is looking forward to completing his Steven Pienaar during a World up without knowing when your next childhood dream when he takes the field Cup qualifier against Uganda in meal is”. for South Africa in the opening World Cup Johannesburg, South Africa, March 2005. Pienaar is hopeful that the World game against Mexico at the impressive Cup will bring peace and joy to Africa, Soccer City stadium in Soweto, “Not far “There’s a cry throughout the continent from where my mother lives, you can This profile is largely based on the booklet for guns to be put down. For a few actually see the stadium. I used to dream ‘Steven Pienaar: The World is Watching’ by weeks, people will forget problems of playing in the old stadium, so to play Lesley Beake (Penguin Books South Africa, and civil wars and have a smile on their in this new one is something [else]”. Johannesburg, 2010). faces. Sport can be that powerful”. Nicknamed ‘Schillo’ after former Varun Mathure comes from India and is currently pursuing a Master’s Italian player Salvatore Schillaci, Pienaar degree in Journalism at the University of Westminster in London

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Beyond the Big Stage: Football, Reconciliation and Social Development in Africa

TOR SELLSTROM, SENIOR ADvISOR TO ACCORD

Introduction exists somewhere between sport and big be used as a tool for reconciliation and In an oft-quoted statement, Bill Shankly, business, in Africa […] [football] remains a social development. With simple rules, former Scottish international football potent symbol of hope and healing”.1 regulations and an independent arbitrator; player and manager of Liverpool FC in Football in Africa is more than just a allowing for collective organisation England, argued that “some people game. On a continent where intra-state and individual skills; open to men, think that football is a matter of life and conflict and political turmoil much too boys, women and girls, as well as the death. I can assure them that it is much often have reversed necessary progress physically disabled; and requiring just a more serious than that.” Shankly, of towards socio-economic development, ball of whatever kind, one or two pairs of course, referred to competitive soccer pitting citizens against each other and goalposts and an open space, the game in Europe. In Africa, the statement could resulting in untold suffering and prolonged of football can be played everywhere. It be more than a metaphor. As noted by misery for millions, football is not only does not require expensive equipment or ESPN’s Roger Bennett, whereas “in played for pleasure and as a respite infrastructure, and is therefore particularly the United States and Europe the game from harsh daily realities, but can also attractive to people in the shantytowns or

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in the rural areas on the African continent. from both internationally-supported and Members of Team Alexandra at the At the same time, its force of attraction indigenous community-based initiatives, inauguration of the Football for Hope is such that it bridges the divide between the overview that follows will illustrate Festival site in Alexandra, Johannesburg, rich and poor, the urban middle class, the how in Africa the game of football beyond South Africa, March 2010. township dwellers and the villagers. For the big stage is, and has been, used for the economically disadvantaged, it also conflict resolution and socio-economic offers a possibility to escape the vicious development. for Hope’ and are approached under circle of poverty. the guideline “development through The Fédération Internationale de FIFA and the ‘Football for Hope football”, as distinct from FIFA’s core Football Association (FIFA), the United Movement’ football development mandate. Nations and a range of international No follower of the game of football can To implement its social programmes non-governmental organisations (NGOs) be ignorant of the fact that the World and contribute towards the achievement active in Africa have taken note of the Cup - ‘the biggest show on earth’ - is of the UN’s 2015 Millennium role football can play in promoting peace organised by FIFA. Less well known is Development Goals (MDGs) (see Box and social development on the continent, the fact that FIFA has been supporting on page 34), in 2005 FIFA entered into a particularly in the fields of education social development initiatives for many strategic alliance with streetfotballworld, and health. More often than not, these years. In 2005, following a decision by the a social profit organisation that brings international organisations build upon FIFA congress to “build a better future”, together actors in a worldwide network existing structures and partner with local the world governing football body took its of more than 80 local members in around African organisations. In addition, all over corporate social responsibility to a new 50 countries, many of them in Africa. the African continent there are cases level. Mirroring the United Nations appeal Together, FIFA and streetfotballworld where conflict-ridden or disadvantaged to the industrialised countries to set launched the ‘Football for Hope urban and rural communities on their aside 0.7% of their GDP for development Movement’ which focuses on the own initiative have found that football assistance, FIFA agreed to assign the game of football as a central vehicle can heal wounds and lay the basis for same portion of its total revenues in for development programmes in the improved social conditions. Far from favour of social programmes. They are five areas of health promotion; peace comprehensive, and with examples taken grouped under the umbrella ‘Football building; children’s rights and education;

Playing for Peace | 33 2015 Millenium Development Goals Football, Reconciliation and With 1990 as the base year, the goals range from halving extreme poverty to Reintegration in Liberia and Sierra halting the spread of HIv/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by Leone the target of 2015 Whereas the ‘Football for Hope Movement’ mainly uses soccer as a tool Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger for socio-economic development, focusing Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education on health and education, FIFA has over the Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women years also paid attention to the game’s contribution to reconciliation and peace- Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality building in post-conflict situations. In 2004, Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health for example, it entered into cooperation Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to specifically support football Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability in countries affected by conflict. On the Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development African continent, the programme involves Burundi, Guinea, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra For More information, Visit: Leone, Somalia and Sudan. In the field of conflict resolution, it is, anti-discrimination and social integration; Rwanda, and Cape Coast, Ghana, will be however, the United Nations which as part and the environment.2 inaugurated. of its expanded peace-building mandate The ‘Football for Hope Movement’ Each centre will in cooperation with from the early 1990s has increasingly explicitly targets youth. By 2010, it the local community be administered by promoted the game of football. Within the had supported some 40 organisations a member organisation of the ‘Football framework of various UN peace-building around the world, about half of them in for Hope Movement’. In addition to missions in Africa, agencies such as Africa. Among them were the Mathare public health services and classrooms UNICEF and UNHCR (United Nations Youth Sports Association in Kenya, the for informal education, it will offer space High Commission for Refugees) have Association des Jeunes Sportifs de Kigali for community meetings and have a identified football as a particularly efficient (Espérance) in Rwanda and Grassroot small-size football pitch with grandstands. means for successful implementation Soccer in South and Southern Africa. The first centre - managed by Grassroot of disarmament, demobilisation and Focusing on the 2010 World Cup, the Soccer - was opened by the FIFA reintegration (DDR) processes, partnering official campaign of FIFA’s ‘Football for President, Sepp Blatter, in the sprawling, with national institutions and local Hope Movement’ is ’20 Centres for 2010’. impoverished township of Khayelitsha grassroots organisations. With regard to The objective is to build twenty centres on the outskirts of Cape Town, South the physical rehabilitation of ex-soldiers for public health, education and football Africa, in December 2009. The centre in and their victims, the same applies to in disadvantaged communities across the Alexandra township in Johannesburg international organisations such as the Africa, of which five are in South Africa. will during the World Cup in South Africa ICRC (International Committee of the Red A similar campaign will be implemented play a particular role. To highlight the Cross). in Latin America in connection with the social objectives of the ‘Football for Hope This is notably the case in Liberia 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The costs of Movement’, 32 mixed-gender teams and Sierra Leone4, the two West African the twenty centres have been estimated from across the globe made up of boys countries which from the early 1990s at US$10 million, of which a part has and girls aged between 15 and 18 years until 2003 and 2002, respectively, were been raised by FIFA through the donation will during the final week of the World torn apart by particularly savage conflicts. of US$ 500 for every goal scored in the Cup converge on Alexandra’s centre for It falls outside the scope of this text to qualification matches for the World Cup. a ‘Football for Hope Festival’. Supported discuss the horrors of these conflicts. The first five centres will be ready by by FIFA, it is an official event of the As - in the case of Sierra Leone - vividly June 2010 - in Khayelitsha (Cape Town) World Cup. Africa will be represented by portrayed in the movie Blood Diamonds, and Alexandra (Johannesburg), both in thirteen teams from various countries, the suffice it to note that all armed actors South Africa; Baguinéda, Mali; Nairobi, Americas by eight, Asia by two, Europe by made extensive use of child soldiers; Kenya; and Windhoek, Namibia. Shortly six, the Middle East by one and Oceania that children - boys as well as girls5- were after the World Cup, the centres in Kigali, by two teams.3 both the perpetrators of atrocious acts

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communities.7 On behalf of UNICEF, seven different child protection agencies (CPAs) were responsible for the centres. Among them were Save the Children, Christian Children’s Fund and Don Bosco, a faith- based organisation established by the Salesian Order. Writing in ACCORD’s magazine Conflict Trends on the reintegration of child soldiers in Liberia, Janel Galvanek noted in 2009 that “most CPA representatives wholeheartedly agreed that recreational activities, particularly football, were an excellent way to help the children find their way back to a normal childhood. Often, children from opposing factions were present at the same ICC, which had the potential to cause serious problems. Placing them on a football team together proved to be the best option of avoiding any conflict. After some time, the children were much more concerned about their teams’ names and the goals they had scored than in what [armed] force they had previously fought. […] The busy schedule and sports activities also proved to be a very good way to deal with children with drug addictions. […] The specific punishment of not being allowed to play football [further] seemed to work remarkably well - the children simply did not want to miss out on the day’s game”.8 Similarly, Reverend Joe Glackin of the Don Bosco Youth Project (DBYP) has Child soldiers riding through the streets of 2003.6 Organised and monitored by the underlined the significance of football and Monrovia, Liberia, April 1996. United Nations, the DDR process began mixed-identity teams for the success of in earnest in 2004. Child soldiers were the Liberian Interim Care Centres, “Players disarmed with their commanders and other on the team had come from five different adult combatants, but the subsequent warring factions. In the war, some had demobilisation and reintegration processes been winners, some losers, but the only of violence and the victims of these were separate. ‘Children associated thing they discussed were the tactics brutalities; that a large proportion of the with the fighting forces’ (CAFF), as child for their next game. There have been no child soldiers became drug addicts; and soldiers are called, were for a period of reconciliation workshops, no formal hand that their rehabilitation and reintegration up to three months housed at Interim shakes, no signing of any treaties, but into the wider post-conflict society has Care Centres (ICCs), camps or live-in for this group of young people the war is been particularly challenging. facilities where they received physical and definitely over”.9 In Liberia, there were an estimated mental treatment, basic skills training and Post-conflict reconciliation and 15,000 child soldiers when the war reunification services until their families reintegration are complex processes. In officially came to an end in August were traced and they could return to their the case of Liberia, by 2005 around 12,000

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child soldiers had been demobilised and network to report abuses such as rape. Demobilised child soldiers at a gone through the Interim Care Centres. With regard to DBYP, it could be noted rehabilitation centre in N’Djamena, Chad, The success rate in the subsequent that what started as a tool for rehabilitation July 2007. family reunification and reintegration of child soldiers subsequently grew into processes has been estimated to be as a successful football club. Thus, in 2005 high as 90%.10 This is to a large extent Bosco United Sports Association (BUSA) due to the commitment of a number of competed in the Liberian second division World Vision International’s Youth NGOs, many of which have used football and had a network of over 100 feeder Reintegration Training and Education as a gateway for former child soldiers to teams - comprising of about 4,500 children for Peace (YRTEP) programme has been access longer-term rehabilitation projects, - in and around the capital Monrovia.11 particularly innovative and merits a more such as night shelters, skills training and In neighboring Sierra Leone, football detailed presentation. Using football both theatre or music workshops. In addition has similarly been used extensively to dispel tensions and as a long-term to the abovementioned Don Bosco Youth as an efficient vehicle for post-conflict vehicle for the reintegration of former Project (DBYP), the Christian Home in reconciliation, rehabilitation and rebel fighters leaving disarmament camps Liberating Destitute (CHILD) is a case in reintegration. Established in 2002, for their home communities, YRTEP point. Targeting both children and adults Youth in Action Sierra Leone (YASAL), designed a simple, but comprehensive aged between ten and thirty years of age, for example, has since the end of open approach which at the village level CHILD promotes football as a vehicle for hostilities focused on internally displaced comprised a truth and reconciliation peace, conflict transformation and the persons (IDPs) and returning refugees element, as well as trauma treatment. building of an inclusive environment, in by utilising football as a non-violent The point of departure for YRTEP’s particular in the rural areas of Liberia. As is approach for the design and promotion approach was the fact that during the war the case with DBYP, CHILD focuses on the of programmes for reconstruction and many members of the armed rebel forces - UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sustainable development. Targeting child children as well as adults - had been forced and encourages members of its football soldiers as well as adult combatants, to participate in atrocities against their own

36 | Playing for Peace PLAy 31 villages, and families, as a means to block their possible return to social acceptance.12 After the war and the demobilisation process, bitter and frightened villagers were often reluctant to allow their return. Conversely, the ex-combatants themselves were often unwilling to go home out of shame or fear of retribution. To overcome the distrust, at the village level YRTEP launched a programme in which football played a central role: The three-day reintegration programme started with the ex-combatants being marched into their home village in the presence of the villagers and the family members. On the first day, the villagers played a football match, watched by the former rebels. In the evening, a musical show, a ‘bush disco’ or some similar event, would be arranged to ease tensions and lower levels of mutual distrust. On day two, YRTEP addressed the village, explaining that it would hand Working in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Republic of Guinea, the organisation Play 31 over responsibility for the ex-combatants. takes it name from Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Thereafter, the former rebels would each in turn confess to what they had done The YRTEP method was in 2002–04 the Rights of the Child, stipulating that all and what had led them to do it. Once they applied in a total of 149 chiefdoms all over children have the right to play (see Box). had explained their actions and shaken Sierra Leone. In this way, some 80,000 In partnership with the local organisation hands with the villagers, a second football ex-rebels were successfully reintegrated Fambul Tok (‘Forum of Conscience’), match would be played, this time with the into their home communities. Although Play 31 started its work in the eastern demobilised rebels against the villagers. there were instances where YRTEP parts of the country and has since 2009 On the third day, yet another match would failed14, a centrally placed coordinator has extended its area of operations across the be played, but this time between mixed estimated that the success rate of the borders with Liberia and Guinea (Conakry). teams of ex-rebels and people from the combined reconciliation and reintegration Recently, it held a tri-nation tournament village.13 process was no less than 94%.15 between communities from the three Followed up with a three-month Whereas World Vision International countries. Organising football matches training programme in trauma counselling, has closed the YRTEP programme, other and tournaments at the community level, democracy and good governance, health organisations in Sierra Leone continue Play 31 aims at uniting former combatants, education, HIV/AIDS awareness etc., the to use football as a unifying vehicle for victims and witnesses of the war on the format of the initial three-day session was sustainable peace-building. Notable among pitch, as well as in gatherings off the repeated to bring the reintegration process them is Play 31, which takes its name pitch, including communal dinners for the to an end. from Article 31 of the UN Convention on promotion of dialogue and healing.

UN Convention on the 1. States Parties recognise the right 2. States Parties shall respect and Rights of the Child: of the child to rest and leisure, to promote the right of the child to Article 31 engage in play and recreational participate fully in cultural and activities appropriate to the age of artistic life and shall encourage the the child and to participate freely in provision of appropriate and equal cultural life and the arts. opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

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The Sierra Leone national amputee football team before the opening match of the first All-African Amputee Football Championship in Freetown, Sierra Leone, February 2007.

or their victims. Playing in mixed teams, the amputee football movement is very much part of the wider rehabilitation and reintegration effort in the two countries. In Liberia, for example, amputee football started as an initiative of the National Commission for Disarmament, Reintegration and Rehabilitation. Amputee football has its own rules and regulations. Although these may vary from region to region, at the international level they have been codified: The size of the pitch, as well as that of the goals, is about half in size to those used in able-bodied football. The size of the ball is the same. Each team consists of six outfield players and one goalkeeper. The outfield players may only have one foot and the goalkeeper only one hand. The game is played without prosthesis and with metal crutches. The crutches may not be used to advance the ball. If they are, it is considered the same as a hand pass. Residual limbs may also not be used to advance the ball.18 Use of the crutch against another player in an offensive manner will result in a red card and the offending player being sent off. If the ball strikes the crutch of a defending Since the start, it has reached more Against a common background of player or the arm stump of a goal keeper than 200 villages with thousands of particularly devastating conflicts, with tens in or around the goal area, a penalty is participants. According to the organisation, of thousands of physically injured victims awarded. There is no offside rule, and 17 “we have seen former combatants from of war , it is not surprising that Liberia the duration of play is two periods of 20 rival warring groups play together on the and Sierra Leone should be at the forefront minutes each. with regard to amputee football. The Single In February 2007, the first same team. We have seen women walk Leg Amputee Sports Club Sierra Leone ever All-African Amputee Football proudly onto the field with the vocal (SLASC), a member of the FIFA ‘Football Championship was held in Freetown, backing of their entire communities. We for Hope Movement’, has gained particular the capital of Sierra Leone. Some 10,000 have seen surprisingly harsh conflicts over fame, but there are many other clubs, such people watched the opening game alleged off-sides or fouls being resolved in as the Liberia Amputee Sports Association between Sierra Leone and Ghana, with a peaceful manner between people who (LASA). In both countries, the amputee the hosts winning 3–0. The other national just years ago succumbed to resolving footballers - today often stars in their teams in the tournament were Angola, conflicts with AK-47s and machetes”.16 own right - are either former combatants Liberia and Nigeria. In 2008, Liberia hosted

38 | Playing for Peace President Paul Kagame of Rwanda coaching a government selection for a match against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s team Haleluya FC in Bujumbura, Burundi, August 2008.

the tournament, which it eventually won.19 Since 2006, there is also a biennial Amputee Football World Cup. The maiden tournament was held in Brazil. Argentina will host the 2010 tournament.

Football as State Policy for Peace and Unity in Rwanda and Burundi With a shared history of deep divisions between the Tutsi and Hutu population groups, both Rwanda and Burundi experienced horrific mass killings in the 1990s. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which close to one million people - primarily Tutsi - were slaughtered in a period of 100 days, counts among the greatest human tragedies in history.

GETTy IMAGES After several waves of massacres since independence, in Burundi, similarly, some 300,000 - mainly Hutu - were killed in 1993–94. Against this background, once peace had returned it was a gigantic challenge to reconcile perpetrators and victims, establish trust between them and on this basis consolidate unity. In both countries, this challenge is being faced by heads of state - Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi - who are passionate soccer enthusiasts and actively promote the game of football for national reconciliation, unity and development.20 While some of the approaches used in Liberia and Sierra Leone have been applied also in Rwanda and Burundi, due to their personal involvement the use of football for peace and reconciliation has in the two Central

Burundian President Nkurunziza during a training session at the ASEC Mimosas Football Academy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, February 2007.

Playing for Peace | 39 GETTy IMAGES

AIDS-affected female soccer players in occasion, and to send a clear message of has enabled Burundians to discover each Nairobi, Kenya, December 2006. peace and unity to the people of Burundi, other and bring to the fore the aspiration some of the national soldiers played for of peace and security which all of them the rebels and some of the rebels for the have close at heart. In fact, after our sports army. Once again, it is not surprising that events, exchanges focusing on peace the game was tied at 1–1. and security are constantly organised, African countries been elevated to official Beyond the protocollary aspects, in as well as meetings to plan activities to state policy. Rwanda the government’s National Unity consolidate peace”.23 Many examples could here be quoted. and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) It would, however, be wrong to When President Kagame in August 2008 regularly arranges football matches in conclude that in Rwanda and Burundi paid a state visit to Burundi, his host, its efforts to reintegrate perpetrators football as a vehicle for peace and President Nkurunziza, arranged a football of genocide into the communities. The development is the monopoly of the match between the visiting Rwandan same is true for Burundi. Interviewed higher echelons of state. On the contrary, delegation, coached by Kagame, and by ACCORD in Febuary 2010, President in both countries there are many NGOs Nkurunziza’s own Haleluya FC, captained Nkurunziza noted that “many people active in this field. Among them, the by himself.21 Not surprisingly, the match have been surprised to see that we over Association des Jeunes Sportifs de Kigali ended in a 2–2 draw. Similarly, to celebrate the past three years22 have joined forces (Espérance) stands out. Established in the the peace agreement with the armed with the rural population to promote this Rwandan capital Kigali in 1996, Espérance opposition Palipehutu-FNL, in September game. We have already participated in forms part of the FIFA ‘Football for Hope 2008 the Burundi government in more than 80 matches in different parts Movement’ and will during the 2010 cooperation with the UN Integrated Office of the country, and we have noticed that World Cup in South Africa be represented in Burundi (BINUP) organised a match this has produced favorable conditions at the ‘Football for Hope Festival’ in between the armed forces of Burundi and for community mobilisation around other Alexandra, Johannesburg. The organisation the former rebels in the capital Bujumbura. ideals, such as peace and development. will together with the community of To underscore the significance of the […] Football is one of the means which Kimisagara also manage the centre which

40 | Playing for Peace PLAy 31

Young African women often take an active in other countries, for example, by late 2007, the Electoral Violence Response part in peace initiatives involving football, Espérance’s sister organisation in Mali Initiative (EVRI) - set up by Partnership as here in Sierra Leone. within the ‘Football for Hope’ network, the for Peace, an umbrella body hosted by Association Malienne pour la Promotion de PeaceNet Kenya - the Africa Sports and la Jeune et de la Femme (AMPJF). Talents Empowerment Program (A-STEP) within the FIFA campaign ‘20 Centres for In 2002, Espérance launched the used football in its work in Kimumu on the 2010’ will be built in Kigali. In addition to programme ‘Football for Peace in the outskirts of Eldoret in the western parts of peace, Espérance carries out education Great Lakes Region’.24 It includes the the country. Here, clashes between the and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes. eastern part of the Democratic Republic Kikuyu and the Kalenjin population groups Espérance works with young boys of Congo (DRC), where the organisation had seen some 20 people lose their lives and girls, and has in pursuit of unity and in 2009 took part in activities to promote and more than 1,000 driven from their reconciliation in deeply divided, male- conflict resolution and reconciliation homes into temporary camps. As in other dominated communities across Rwanda among tens of thousands of Rwandan cases presented here, football proved to designed its own approach to the game refugees in and around Goma, across the be a peacemaker in the conflict. More than of football. When football matches are border from Rwanda. 600 young people participated in matches arranged, each team consists of six organised by A-STEP. After the games, players - three boys and three girls - and Football and Local Peace Initiatives discussions around reconciliation and it is only the girls that can score goals. In in Kenya - Women Footballers peace were arranged, often in cooperation addition, the matches are played without in Rwanda, Mali, Cameroon and with local religious leaders. a referee. With no independent arbitration Kenya Also in Kenya, with support from the or guidance, the players themselves Elsewhere in Africa, local NGOs or Horn of Africa Development Initiative must peacefully arrive at solutions to individuals have identified football as an (HODI) a woman in the Marsabit area in the problems and situations that may efficient peace-making vehicle. When the extreme north-east of the country, arise during the match. This successful Kenya, for example, descended into Fatuma Abdulrahaman, is the architect approach has been replicated by NGOs violence after the presidential elections in behind a successful football-for-peace

Playing for Peace | 41 T or initiative. Deeply troubled by violence FIFA ‘Football for Hope Movement’ has Football against HIV/AIDS and for S ellstr ö m between local communities, after the Turbi decided to build one of its ’20 Centres for Education in Nigeria and Southern massacre in July 2005, she decided to 2010’ in Baguinéda and not in Bamako. Africa organise boys and girls from the warring Like AMPJF, Women in the Field All over Africa, football is being used to clans into mixed football teams and (ELENA) in Cameroon uses football create awareness around HIV/AIDS and to arrange matches between them. In this, to promote inter-cultural and inter- further education. Information regarding she has been highly successful, both with generational discussions in favour of the disease has been a regular feature in regard to reconciliation and to athletic rural women’s social awareness. The rehabilitation and reintegration processes, achievements. “I don’t know why our organisation is based in the small town of and HIV/AIDS campaigns are prominent fathers always fight”, one boy said. “Aunt Mamfe, in the north-western part of the when women organise around the game. Fatuma has made us realise that we are country, 60 kilometres from the border In some cases, the spread of the pandemic not different and that we should live in with Nigeria. It was set up in 1991, but has been one of the main motivating peace. We are all brothers and factors for the introduction and 25 sisters”. And in late 2008, the Every week, some 50 football teams organisation of football. girls’ under-17 team travelled all In Nigeria, for example, the the way to the capital Nairobi clear garbage and drain ditches around organisation Search and Groom to play against a team from their homes. In recognition of this was established in 2003 to the Mathare Youth Sports promote HIV/AIDS awareness, Association. environmental responsibility, in civic studies and community In 2010, HODI will organise 1992 MYSA was invited to the UN services. Through street football the third Kenya-Ethiopia Cross tournaments and a league Border Football for Peace Earth Summit on Environment and system,31 it provides capacity Championships in Marsabit. The Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, building, rehabilitation and event brings together youth and employment opportunities for young warriors from feuding where it was awarded the United Nations young people in disadvantaged clans in northern Kenya and Environment Programme’s (UNEP) areas of Lagos. Attracting huge southern Ethiopia “to shoot to attention across the city, Search score goals instead of shooting Global 500 Award and Groom started its activities to kill”.26 It is divided into in the impoverished area of two parts. The first is a peace Ajegunle, which has produced conference, where the participants will only started to use football as a vehicle some of the players for the Nigerian discuss conflicts in the area, as well as for change in 2005. Two years later, it national team, the ‘Super Eagles’.32 Over action plans for conflict resolution. The had established no less than 27 women’s the last years, Search and Groom has also second is the football tournament itself. teams with over 400 active members.28 been increasingly active outside Nigeria. Young African women often take an Even more spectacular is the In 2006, it participated over a period of active part in peace initiatives involving development of Moving the Goalposts five months in an exchange with the football. This is notably the case in (MTG), an organisation active in the organisation United Action for Children Rwanda, where, for example, the Kenyan coastal district of Kilifi, just north of (UAC) in Cameroon, aimed at improving Association of Kigali Women Footballers Mombasa. Due to unwanted pregnancies HIV/AIDS awareness.33 During the 2010 (AKWOF) runs a programme called and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, girls and World Cup in South Africa, it will take part ‘Women’s Football for Unity in Rwanda’. young women in this disadvantaged area in the ‘Football for Hope Festival’. To empower women and promote gender are often trapped in a cycle of poverty. To In Southern Africa, where the HIV/ equality, AKWOF is also training 100 tackle these issues, in 2001 MTG started AIDS pandemic is particularly devastating, female football coaches in all the provinces to use football to develop essential life Grassroot Soccer (GRS) was in 2002 of Rwanda. Although less focused on skills and leadership training.29 At the set up by professional football players conflict resolution, in Mali the Association start, MTG organised some 120 girls. in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Through the Malienne pour la Promotion de la Jeune Today, there are over 3,000 girls playing, involvement of local role models, including et de la Femme (AMPJF) administers a coaching, refereeing and administering soccer stars, the organisation implements similar training programme. Launched in football clubs, tournaments and leagues an interactive programme focusing 2000 and based in the impoverished, rural in the district.30 Focusing on gender on football and HIV/AIDS prevention area of Baguinéda on the Niger river some disparities, MTG has of late launched an in schools, at community centres and 35 kilometres from the capital Bamako, economic empowerment programme. on football fields. Boys and girls are AMPJF has had a notable success. Starting Together with MYSA (see below), Moving empowered as peer educators, who in with only four women football teams, at the Goalposts will during the World Cup turn carry out educational programmes the end of 2009 the number had grown to in South Africa represent Kenya at the in their communities. Highly successful, 42.27 It is perhaps for this reason that the ‘Football for Hope Festival’ in Alexandra. within a year Grassroot Soccer extended

42 | Playing for Peace TOR SELLSTRöM Sven Tumba Education Fund: Young players at Nomfihlela Primary School, Kwa-Ximba, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, October 2008.

from FIFA, STEF was established in 2006. Its focus area of operation is the Kwa-Ximba district, situated some 60 kilometres north of Durban in what during the late 1980s and early 1990s due to protracted, violent conflicts was known as ‘the killing fields of Natal’. Here, STEF is rolling out a programme which combines teacher training with school upgrading and sports, in particular football. One of its sub-programmes is ‘Soccer for Success’, which involves 4,000 children and 100 teachers in five schools.39 With regard to infrastructure, the first upgraded school - Nomfihlela Primary School, catering for around 600 pupils - was re-opened in October 2008. Believing that education “acts as a mental vaccine against drugs, crime, its activities outside Zimbabwe and set of instruction” for its life-skills courses, violence and preventable diseases such up programmes in Botswana, South workshops and campaigns.36 In KwaZulu- as HIV/AIDS”40, STEF’s aim is to cover Africa and Zambia. It also works in Natal, WKU runs a health academy in all of the 18 primary schools in the Lesotho, Namibia and elsewhere on the Edendale outside Pietermaritzburg and district. “This”, Sven Tumba says, “is African continent.34 To coordinate its a youth centre in Lamontville, Durban, the most important match in my life”.41 operations, in 2008 GRS established an but it also operates in the provinces of In this effort, he enjoys the support of a office in Cape Town, South Africa, where Western Cape and North West. Like series of international sporting legends.42 - as earlier mentioned - it also manages Grassroot Soccer, WhizzKids United In Sweden, Tumba’s former club, the recently opened FIFA-sponsored has extended its activities across the Djurgårdens IF, has agreed to ‘adopt’ one multi-activity centre in Khayelitsha. borders and is today present in Ghana of the schools. Grassroot Soccer has been and Uganda.37 Together with its Southern implementing a South Africa programme African sister organisation and as a Football against Deprivation: The since 2006. While it covers community- member of the FIFA ‘Football for Hope Mathare Youth Sports Association based activities at ten different sites Movement’, it will during the 2010 World in Kenya across the country, the main area Cup feature in the ‘Football for Hope This overview of football as a vehicle for of operations is in and around Port Festival’. At a ceremony in Barcelona, peace and socio-economic development Elizabeth, where it is one of the leading Spain, in March 2010 WhizzKids United in Africa could not be concluded NGOs in the field of HIV/AIDS education won the Global Sports Forum Award without a presentation of the Mathare and prevention.35 in the category ‘Best Sport and Health Youth Sport Association (MYSA). Another South African organisation Programme’. For more than twenty years, it has which successfully uses football to Also active in the South African been an outstanding exemplar of create awareness about HIV/AIDS is province of KwaZulu-Natal, but focusing good social practice through football - WhizzKids United (WKU). Based in on education at the primary school level, not only in Africa, but in the world at Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, the province is Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF). large - focusing on youth, relying on the with the highest HIV prevalence rate in A private initiative by the legendary principle of self-help and developing the country (and one of the highest in the Swedish ice-hockey and football player innovative approaches to combine world), it “uses football as the language Sven Tumba38, and with encouragement football with community work and to

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bridge ethnic divides. Using football is endemic. Educational facilities are Manchester United and England football as the entry point for programmes in a limited. Thousands of children do not legend Sir Bobby Charlton with members number of areas, such as environmental attend school, facing the prospect of of the Mathare Youth Sports Association services, outreach to jailed street children, unemployment and crime. In the absence (MYSA) in Nairobi, Kenya, April 2001. education, HIV/AIDS awareness, arts, of any sanitation services provided by leadership training and, in general, the state, the area is heavily polluted. As community development, MYSA, in fact, a consequence, disease is common and has successfully paved a way where many easily spread. Football Federation. In the case of MYSA, traditional aid development agencies have From humble beginnings in 1987, the league points are thus not only won on the failed. It is against this background not Mathare Youth Sports Association has pitch, but also earned through community surprising that the organisation, which is grown to become the largest independent work, such as garbage collection and other home-grown and managed by the young youth organisation in Africa.44 By 2010, it clean-up service s.46 In addition, MYSA is members themselves, has “attracted had around 20,000 members, first and governed by its own fair play code, which considerable interest among aid workers, foremost in Mathare, but also in other states that “fair play is only for those who researchers and politicians dealing with slum areas of Nairobi. In addition, some want to be winners on and off the field”.47 development”.43 Owned by community 10,000 destitute children from neighboring If this principle is violated, sanctions are youth and guided by a self-reliant countries have been organised by MYSA in applied. If, for instance, a player verbally bottom-up policy, with regard to both the the huge Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya’s abuses a referee, it results in automatic game of football and social development extreme north-western Turkana region. In suspension until the offending player MYSA, indeed, sets an example. Mathare itself, the organisation has set up himself, or herself, has refereed a total of MYSA is based in the Mathare Valley around 100 football leagues, with a total ten games. on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital of of some 1,000 teams of players ranging Environmental services, such as Kenya. With a population of between from 9 to 18 years of age. In 1992, the garbage collection, clean-up operations 500,000 and one million, Mathare is one first girls’ teams were established, and and waste management, have due to the of the biggest urban slums in Africa. today there are over 3,500 girls playing conditions in the Mathare slum since the While the dwellers are of various ethnic for more than 40 teams in the girls’ start in 1987 played a prominent part in backgrounds, an estimated 70% of the leagues.45 The leagues are organised MYSA’s community work. Every week, households are one-parent families, in 16 different zones, grouped into two some 50 football teams clear garbage almost invariably a woman with many regions. As MYSA’s approach to football and drain ditches around their homes. children. Incomes average less than goes beyond the game itself, the leagues In recognition of this environmental one US Dollar per day and poverty operate independently of the Kenyan responsibility, in 1992 MYSA was invited

44 | Playing for Peace to the UN Earth Summit on Environment grew the need for salaried administrative And at the end of 2008 - as the country and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, staff became obvious. Today, some descended into post-election violence, where it was awarded the United Nations 60 people, all locals from the Mathare resulting in around 1,000 people killed Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Global area, are employed to administer MYSA and close to 250,000 internally displaced 500 Award. Also growing out of local activities, including coordination of foreign - Mathare United were crowned Kenyan conditions is the ‘Jail Kid’ programme. funding and domestic sponsorships. football champions. Reporting for the BBC, Many of the street children in Nairobi The bulk of foreign financial support has David Goldblatt53 stated, “Despite the are taken into custody by the police. come from the government of Norway poverty and the spectre of ethnic violence, MYSA offers them help by providing food and the faith-based Norwegian Strømme Mathare United’s triumph is testament and establishing contacts with family Foundation. to the amazing talents and energies of Hugely successful off the pitch, Kenya’s poor”.54 the Mathare Youth Sports Association As earlier noted, Mathare Youth has over the years also registered great Sports Association is a member of the results on the pitch. After drawing the FIFA ‘Football for Hope Movement’ and attention of the great football legend will during the 2010 World Cup in South Pelé, in 1992, for example, a MYSA team Africa take part in the Alexandra ‘Football was invited to Brazil 48, and since that for Hope Festival’. Within the FIFA year the organisation has regularly sent campaign ’20 Centres for 2010’, MYSA teams to the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, will, finally, administer the centre which Sweden, and the Norway Cup in Oslo, will be constructed at its headquarters at Norway, the world’s two biggest youth Komarock in Mathare. football tournaments.49 Here, both the Mathare boys and the girls have excelled Endnotes in competion with the best youth teams on 1 Roger Bennett: ‘Soccer plays a critical the planet. role in Africa’, ESPN.com, 30 January 2010. Partly against this background, in 1994 2 FIFA/streetfotballworld: ‘Football for a senior football team, Mathare United FC, Hope: Football’s Commitment to Social 50 was established by MYSA ‘graduates’ Development’, Zurich/Berlin, (no year). as a professional outfit and member of the 3 Some of the African organisations here Kenyan Football Association.51 In a country presented will participate in the ‘Football where professional football has suffered for Hope Festival’, namely Espérance (Rwanda), Grassroot Soccer (South members in order to get them released. from ethnic divisions and animosities, Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Moving Since the start of the programme in 1997, Mathare United was explicitly set up “out the Goalposts and Mathare Youth Sports tens of thousands of street children have of a principle of social reconciliation, rather Association (Kenya), Search and Groom (Nigeria) and WhizzKids (South Africa). It been assisted in this way. Under the than local or ethnic rivalry”52. In order to can be noted that the representative from slogan ‘Kicking Aids Out!, MYSA, finally, represent Mathare United, the players the Middle East region is the Peace Team, combines football with information with must have gone through the MYSA league made up of boys and girls from both regard to HIV/AIDS. Hundreds of young system. Their varied backgrounds reflect Israel and Palestine. boys and girls have been trained as peer the ethnic diversity of the Mathare slum. 4 Fans of football will know that although the national teams of Liberia and Sierra counselors on AIDS. Although members of a professional Leone are not among the highest ranked What makes MYSA unique is that it is team, as noted above all of them have in Africa, in the midst of civil war the two run from below by the youth itself through to contribute towards community work, countries produced some of the best players on the continent. Among them elected zonal Sport and Community which normally amounts to as much as 40 was George Weah from Liberia. After a Service Councils. They, in turn, elect the hours per month. successful spell in France with Monaco representatives on the organisation’s The rise of Mathare United is a true and Paris Saint-Germain, Weah shot to Executive Council. Most of the several ‘rags-to-riches’ story. Having worked stardom at AC Milan in Italy, where he twice was voted European Footballer of hundred elected officials, as well as their way up through the lower divisions, the year. In 1995, Weah was awarded the volunteer coaches and referees, are under already in 1998 - four years after the team accolade of World Footballer of the year. 16 years of age. It should be noted that the was established and while still playing in In the case of Sierra Leone, Mohamed Kallon should be mentioned. At the players in the senior team, i.e. Mathare the Kenyan second league - they won the tender age of 16, he joined Inter Milan United (see below), are involved as national cup, the Moi Golden Cup, a feat (Internazionale) in Italy in 1995, later inter coaches for junior teams, referees or AIDS’ which was repeated in 2000. In 1999, alia playing for Monaco in France and counselors, and that they also take part in they progressed to the Kenyan premier AEK Athens in Greece. community work. While the organisation league, at the same time representing 5 During the war, many young girls were kidnapped and used as sex slaves by heavily relies on volunteers, as it rapidly Kenya in the African Cup Winners Cup. the rebel fighters. Their rehabilitation

Playing for Peace | 45 and reintegration processes have been 23 See the interview with President (South Africa); the tennis players Björn particularly difficult. Nkurunziza. Borg (Sweden) and Chris Everts (USA); 6 In 2003, three major battles took place in 24 Also known as ‘Football Amahoro’, after the sprinters John Carlos (USA) and which no less than 40 % of the combat- the Kinyarwanda word for ‘peace’. Tommie Smith (USA); and the ice-hockey players Peter Forsberg (Sweden), Mario ants were child soldiers. In Liberia, 25 Quoted in Kibiwott Koross: ‘Football for Lemiux (Canada) and Mats Sundin particularly, girl soldiers were known for Peace’ in Young Nation/Sunday Nation, (Sweden). their ferocity. Nairobi, 1 February 2009, p.3. 43 Hans Hognestad and Arvid Tollisen: 7 Janel B. Galvanek: ‘The Reintegration 26 Process for Child Soldiers in Liberia’ in ‘Playing against Deprivation: Football and Conflict Trends, No 3, 2009, p. 20. 27 Development in Nairobi, Kenya’ in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti (eds): 8 Ibid., p. 21. 28 ‘Football in Africa: Conflict, Conciliation 29 MTG was founded by Sarah Forde, a 9 Quoted in Jonathan Lea-Howarth: ‘Sport and Community’, Palgrave Macmillan, former reporter and soccer coach from and Conflict: Is Football an Appropriate Basingstoke, 2004, p. 211. Tool to Utilise in Conflict Resolution, England. She is the author of the book 44 Ibid. Reconciliation or Reconstruction?’, MA ‘Playing by Their Rules: Coastal Teenage dissertation in Contemporary War and Girls in Kenya on Life, Love and Football’, 45 Peace Studies, University of Sussex, Moving the Goalposts, Kilifi, 2009. 46 A combination of achievements on the 2006, p. 41. 30 football field and with regard to commu- 10 Galvanek op. cit., p. 22. Many families 31 Street children’s football is increasingly nity work also serves as criteria for were reluctant to take back children organised and promoted around the MySA’s scholarship programme. whom they saw as having perpetuated world. In March 2010, the Street Children 47 Hognestad and Tollisen op. cit., p. 226, n. the war. In other cases, the families could Football World Championship was held in 24. On the pitch, the fair play code inter not be found. Durban, South Africa, with participating alia demands ‘no fouls’ and ‘no appeals’. 11 Lea-Howarth op. cit., p. 39. teams from Brazil, India, Nicaragua, 48 Pelé personally paid for MySA’s expenses Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, during their stay in the country. 12 This particularly savage ‘tactic of war’ has United Kingdom and Ukraine. been extensively applied by other rebel 49 Both the Gothia Cup and the Norway Cup movements in Africa, such as UNITA 32 Among them, Jonathan Akpoborie and annually hosts some 1,500 youth teams in Angola, RENAMO in Mozambique Samson Siasia. In the 1990s, Akpoborie from between 40 and 60 countries. played professional football in Germany and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) 50 The most senior MySA league is the and Siasia in France. in Uganda. It is commonly used in the under-18 league. At the age of 18, a ongoing conflict in the eastern parts of 33 Both Search and Groom and United MySA member becomes a ‘graduate’ the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Action for Children form part of FIFA’s and can try to get a contract with Mathare 13 Lea-Howarth op. cit., pp. 35–36. ‘Football for Hope Movement’. United FC or any other team. 14 Fights broke out in nine chiefdoms. In one 34 For example, in Ethiopia and Liberia. 51 Until 2000, the Norwegian company case, notorious former rebels were killed 35 Grassroot Soccer will participate in Norsk Hydro was the main sponsor, by the villagers once yRTEP had left. the FIFA ‘Football for Hope Festival’ subsequently followed by the Kenyan 15 Lea-Howarth op. cit., p. 37. in Alexandra, Johannesburg, with a steel and barbed wire producer KD Wire. combined delegation from South Africa, 16 52 Hognestad and Tollisen op.cit., p. 221. Zambia and Zimbabwe. 17 During the wars, thousands of people had 53 Goldblatt is the author of the book ‘The 36 their arms or legs hacked off. Ball is Round: The Global History of 37 In Ghana, WKU is active in Northern Soccer’, Riverhead Books, New york, 18 This rule aims at keeping the game fair, Province, where it operates in partner- 2008. since a player with a longer residual limb ship with Planned Parenthood Ghana. would have an advantage over those with 54 In Uganda, the base is in Bombo, north shorter residuals. of the capital Kampala. Here, the local 19 It is said that the President of Liberia, football team has been renamed ‘Bombo Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is the number WhizzKids United’. Its players wear one fan of the national Liberian amputee messages of HIv prevention on their selection. shirts. 20 See the interviews with Roger Palmgren 38 Active in the 1950s and 1960s, Sven and President Nkurunziza in this maga- Tumba represented Sweden in both ice- zine. hockey and football. STEF is financially 21 A born-again Christian, President supported by the Swedish pharmaceu- Nkurunziza is an active football player tical company Astra Zeneca. and has established Haleluya FC in 39 Burundi. It should not be confused with 40 Hallelujah FC in the national league of South Korea. 41 Ibid. 22 Nkurunziza became President in August 42 Among them, the golf players Jack 2005. National elections will be held in Nicklaus (USA), Greg Norman (Australia), Burundi in mid-2010. Arnold Palmer (USA) and Gary Player

46 | Playing for Peace youth in Action Sierra Leone (yASAL) Association Malienne pour la Promotion Single Leg Amputee de la Jeune et de la Femme (AMPJF) Sports Club Sierra Leone(SLASC)

Fambul Tok Search and Groom fambultok.org> Horn of Africa Development Initiative (HODI) Community

Moving the Play 31 Soccer Goalposts (MTG) Christian Home in Projects Liberating Destitute (CHILD) Association des Jeunes Around Sportifs de Kigali (Espérance) Liberia Amputee Sports Association (LASA) Africa Africa Sports and Talents Empowerment Program (A-STEP) Don Bosco youth Project (DByP)

Women in the Field (ELENA) Mathare youth Sports Association(MySA) United Action for Children (UAC) Association of Kigali Women Footballers (AKWOF) Grassroots Soccer

WhizzKids United (WKU) Sven Tumba Education Fund (STEF)

Further reading There is an expanding literature on football in Africa. The following titles have been useful for the production of this magazine: Peter Alegi: Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Scottsville, 2004 Peter Alegi: African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game, Hurst & Company, London, 2010 Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti: Football in Africa: Conflict, Conciliation and Community, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2004 Franklin Foer: How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, Harper Collins, New York, 2004 David Goldblatt: The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer, Riverhead Books, New York, 2008 Ian Hawkey: Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Football, Wild Dog Press, Lyndhurst, 2009 Chuck Korr and Marvin Close: More Than Just a Game: Soccer v Apartheid, Collins, London, 2008 Joe Latakgomo: Mzansi Magic: Struggle, Betrayal and Glory - The Story of South African Soccer, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 2010

Playing for Peace | 47 THETEAM A Soap Opera on Football for Reconcilation and Peace in Africa

TOR SELLSTRöM, SENIOR ADvISOR TO ACCORD

ainly associated with North and be noted, not least as it has been replicated importantly, mobile cinema screenings in West Africa, at the international, in other African countries and is rapidly areas where access to television is limited or Mcompetitive level the game of football spreading over the continent. non-existent. As a rule, such screenings have is less prominent in East Africa. With regard Initiated in response to the outbreak been followed by moderated discussions to sports, Kenya and Ethiopia, for example, of post-electoral violence in late 2007, with involving the local communities. In addition, are widely known as global powers in initial funding from the UK Department the outreach activities have been targeted athletics, regularly harvesting gold medals for International Development (DfID) 3, on areas which were particularly hard hit in middle and long-distance running at the the ‘edutainment’ production The Team by ethnic clashes after the 2007 elections, World Championships and at the Olympic premiered on national television (Citizen-TV) including Kisumu, Naivasha, Eldoret and Games. On the FIFA rankings, however, the and radio (Jambo) in Kenya in May 2009. Mombasa. As a result, young Kenyans two East African countries are far from the From the start, the soap opera attracted have taken responsibility for some of the top. Out of 202 countries in the world, in scores of viewers and listeners, and was violence, formed local peace groups and March 2010 Kenya was ranked number 114 soon ranked as number seven on the list of begun a bottom-up process of reconciliation. and Ethiopia at 123, with both also appearing the nation’s most popular TV programmes.4 In Naivasha, the screening of The Team has on the lower part of the African list.1 Neither During the first season, the combined encouraged the formation of an inter-ethnic Kenya nor Ethiopia has ever qualified for the television and radio audience was each youth group involved in income generation in FIFA World Cup. This said, in both countries week estimated at 3.5 million people. 5 favour of people displaced by the violence. football enjoys wide popular support and Developed, written and directed by Kenyans, The first season of the Kenyan - as described in the texts above - notably the 26-part series tells the stories of seven production of The Team lasted from May in Kenya the game is effectively used at young footballers from different ethnic and until August 2009, with a repeat from the the local level as a vehicle for inter-ethnic socio-economic backgrounds who must end of the year until early 2010. Season reconciliation, community development and overcome mutual distrust to put their team, two will begin broadcasting in April 2010. the promotion of gender equality. Imani FC6, on a winning path. Each episode Inspired by the positive impact in Kenya, In Kenya, the extraordinary story of the highlights issues that many Kenyans SFCG has in the meantime embarked Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) regularly confront, such as poverty, ethnic on similar productions in Ivory Coast, the has been mentioned elsewhere in this prejudice and corruption. Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia magazine. Produced with foreign funding Designed to demonstrate that conflicts and Morocco, with plans to also include through Search for Common Ground may be inevitable, but that everyone can Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and other (SFCG), a non-profit conflict transformation respond to them in a non-violent way, The African countries.7 As in the case of Kenya, organisation with headquarters in Team is more than a regular soap opera. each national production of The Team - or Washington, USA2, the success and impact From the beginning, the broadcasts on L’Equipe as it is called in the French-speaking of an initiative to create soap operas for television and radio were accompanied by countries - follows the members of a football Kenyan national television and radio on interactive social media such as a website team who must rise above their differences football, peace and reconciliation should also and a Facebook group page, but, more in order to work together and be successful

48 | Playing for Peace MEDIA FOCUS ON AFRICA FOUNDATION

A scene from the production of The Team In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Endnotes Kenya in 2008. L’Equipe RDC highlights gender issues 1 Out of 52 African countries ranked by FIFA, in March 2010 Kenya was placed as through the adventures of a women’s number 30 and Ethiopia as 34. on the field. All of the series are created football team which has to overcome 2 Founded in 1982, Search for Common and produced locally, through a partnership challenges in the form of HIV/AIDS, Ground operates in 18 countries in Africa, between Common Ground Productions and sexual violence, rape and corruption. Shot Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. a local company. Actors, scriptwriters and in the suburbs of the capital Kinshasa, Guided by the principle to ‘understand differences and act on commonalities’, others participating in the making of the the storylines inter alia tackle the topics through its media arm - Common Ground series are drawn from communities who of tribalism and electoral manipulation, Productions - the organisation is particu- have firsthand experiences from violent as well as reconciliation after years of larly dedicated to harnessing the power conflicts. war and conflict. In Ethiopia, The Team of the media for reconciliation and peace, ranking among the biggest producers of In Ivory Coast, a country which from - known locally as Tena Budin - was radio soap operas in the world. In Sierra 2002 until 2007 was divided between produced as a 50-episode radio drama, Leone, for example, it is estimated that 90 a rebel-held North and a government- broadcast nationwide in 2009. It discusses % of the population with access to a radio controlled South and where the civil war in particular community problems and listens to SFCG-produced programmes. In Burundi, it set up the country’s first inde- has resulted in thousands of lives lost and collaborative ways to find non-violent pendent radio station - Studio Ijambo - in three quarters of a million people displaced, solutions to conflict. In Morocco, finally, 1995. L’Equipe focuses on ethnic, religious the gulf between rich and poor is the focal 3 Subsequently, USAID, the Norwegian and socio-economic divisions, promoting point. The objective is to provide young Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the youth empowerment for peace. Here, the people from marginalized communities US-based Skoll Foundation have joined DfID in funding the production and the production started in 2008 and has, as in with positive messages that encourage outreach activities of The Team. Kenya, been broadcast on both national active civic participation, tolerance and 4 television and radio. During the first season, mutual understanding. Currently showing 5 the televised production had an estimated on Moroccan television, it is estimated 6 ‘Imani’ is kiSwahili for ‘faith’. weekly audience of 3.4 million people. In that more than 20% of the country’s 7 Outside Africa, The Team has been 2009, it was awarded first prize for the best 32 million inhabitants regularly follow produced in Palestine. African television series at the African Film The Team, which is produced in the local 8 8 9 Festival in Verona, Italy. Arabic dialect. 9 Ibid.

Playing for Peace | 49 More Than Just a Game The Makana Football Association JOHN DANIEL

ore than just a game’ is an most important history to emerge from oft-used cliché to describe post-apartheid South Africa.2 It is certainly ‘Mthe socio-political impact of the most heart-warming and inspiring. It sports. It is particularly apt in regard to is also a rare commodity, a wholly original some of the great inter-club (for example, work. It tells a story that, apart from the Glasgow Rangers v Celtic, or Real Madrid prisoners and their warders, nobody knew. v Barcelona in football) and international Neither could anybody beyond the Island (Russia v Canada in ice-hockey) sporting ever imagine what took place. rivalries. Annually, tens of thousands of The 1960s was the grimmest of football fans trek across Europe in support decades in the struggle against apartheid, of their teams as they battle it out for where nothing seemed to be working coveted pan-European soccer trophies, for the liberation movements. Outlawed while growing numbers of English cricket in 1960 and forced underground, the supporters - the so-called ‘Barmy Army’ anti-apartheid leaders and thousands - flee the European winter to follow their of their followers were either banned, team around the ‘old Empire’ of India, exiled or gaoled on Robben Island, a Sri Lanka, South Africa, the Caribbean, prison described by Knorr and Close as Australia and New Zealand. games. It lasted only for 100 hours, but “horror incarnate”.3 On the Island, they Elsewhere in this magazine, Sellström cost 2,000 people their lives.1 were presided over by arrogant white has presented soccer’s impact in Africa To the accounts of soccer as a supremacists to whom the impulse as an instrument for peace-making, positive and liberating force in Africa, to hurt and humiliate was instinctive. reconciliation and the forging of national we should add an inspiring story from In these harsh circumstances and dire identities. In each of the examples given the apartheid era in South Africa. It is times, the political prisoners demanded - be they from Sierra Leone, Rwanda or the extraordinary tale of how thousands to be allowed to play soccer. Every week colonial Algeria - soccer was a common of political prisoners on Robben Island denominator, the positive force which formed the Makana Football Association for three years, one prisoner after another contributed decisively to the ending of (MFA) and used soccer not only to reclaim made this an official request, and every the deadly spirals of hate and killing. Not their humanity, but also to undermine week it was refused with the petitioner in and of itself, of course. It was rather apartheid. The story premiered as a often being punished. But then, in 1967, soccer’s potential which skilful and docudrama in Cape Town in November the authorities relented. They hoped and visionary leaders recognized and tapped 2007, coinciding with the draw for the believed that the agreement would be into in order to effect profound changes. 2010 World Cup qualifying rounds. The the end of a drawn out, tiresome matter - In the wrong hands, chauvinistic football movie drew on eleven years of meticulous and that after a few weeks the prisoners’ rivalries can have an opposite effect. No research by the American historian Chuck desire to play the game would dissipate. one should forget the 1969 soccer war Knorr. Assisted by the scriptwriter Marvin They could not have been more wrong. between El Salvador and Honduras, which Close, his account More Than Just a In many ways, it was at this moment that followed a round of World Cup qualifying Game: Soccer v Apartheid is perhaps the the South African authorities began to lose

50 | Playing for Peace GETTy IMAGES

their monopoly control over the infamous prison outside Cape Town. Conceived among the political prisoners in the collective cells, the MFA never included Nelson Mandela and his colleagues in the ANC leadership. They were all locked up in isolation cells. In the meantime, however, the MFA spawned a league of many different teams, some formed along party or ideological lines and others which recruited players irrespective of their affiliations or political leanings. Run according to FIFA rules, the MFA presided over a network of working groups, including referees’ and disciplinary committees. It became, in the words of one of its active members, Tokyo Sexwale, “a vehicle that united all of us. It ran across all political barriers”. 4 While doing hard labour in the quarries, the prisoners may have been powerless automatons. In their cells, however, they reclaimed a degree of control over their lives. There, they debated for hours, planning upcoming fixtures and keeping detailed records of everything they did and decided on. Preserving the records became the task of prisoners dubbed ‘the archivists’. And preserve them they did. On a visit in August 1993 - 24 years after the formation of the MFA - to the the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) today Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon on Robben University of the Western Cape’s historical reduced to a political smidgen, it may be Island, South Africa, for a ceremony archives known as the Mayibuye Centre, hard to understand the bitterness of the celebrating the Makana Football its then Director André Odendaal, himself schism which emerged in 1959 with the Association, July 2007. a distinguished sports historian, directed breakaway of the so called ‘Africanists‘ Knorr to no less than seventy boxes simply from the African National Congress (ANC). labeled ‘Robben Island - Sports’. Knorr It was deep to the point of paralysis when later stated: “At that time I was totally it came to the possibilities of any united unaware that there had been any sport on front operations. Yet, on the Island the between the prisoners and some of Robben Island. If anyone had mentioned PAC and the ANC worked and talked their gaolers. The exceptional friendship the two words together, I would have said together, sometimes playing on the same between Nelson Mandela and his gaoler, that it was an oxymoron”.5 team. Two ‘young Turks’ of the time, James Gregory, has been documented.7 Two important points should be Dikgang Moseneke of the PAC and the Another of Mandela’s warders, Christo made about the MFA’s impact on political ANC’s Indres Naidoo6, worked hand in Brand, basically changed sides, after life on the Island and, at a deeper level, glove in the MFA. In the process, they apartheid taking a job at the Robben Island on the transition process underway in did much to defuse the prevailing hostility Museum. Something similar took place South Africa in the late apartheid era. between the two parties, laying a basis for with warders identifying with different The first pertains to the MFA’s capacity a future where they could cooperate. MFA teams and in a myriad of ways to transcend the great political divide in The second relates to the remarkable becoming part of the football scene. In the the post-1960 liberation movement. With chemistry which developed over time process, each side became demystified in

Playing for Peace | 51 GETTy IMAGES Editor-In-Chief

vasu Gounden

Guest Editors

John Daniel Tor Sellström

Editorial Advisors

Bhavya Jeena Angela Ndinga-Muvumba Charles Scott

Design & Layout

Immins Naudé

Contributors

John Daniel varun Mathure Tor Sellström

Publisher

The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) Private Bag X018 FIFA President Sepp Blatter, South Endnotes Umhlanga Rocks 4320 South Africa African Minister Tokyo Sexwale and 1 On this conflict, see Ryszard Kapuscinski’s ‘The Soccer War’, vintage Tel: +27-031-502 3908 former members of the Makana Football Books, New york, 1991. Fax: +27-031-502 4160 Association on Robben Island, South 2 Chuck Korr and Marvin Close: ‘More Email: [email protected] Africa, December 2009. Than Just a Game: Soccer v Apartheid’, Website: Collins, London, 2008. 3 Ibid, p. 259. ACCORD is a non-governmental, the eyes of the ‘other’. If not humanity, a 4 Tokyo Sexwale: ‘Football Kept Us non-aligned conflict resolution sense of community emerged between Alive’, . Accessed 27 March people on the two sides of the great Africa. The institution is constituted 2010. Sexwale is since 2009 Minister of as an educational trust. apartheid divide. A small blow, it should be Housing and Human Settlements in the said, to those who persisted with notions Cabinet of President Zuma. He is also a views expressed in this publication of the herrenvolk. former Premier of the Gauteng Province. are the responsibility of the individual In 2007, FIFA awarded the Makana 5 Korr and Close, op. cit., p. 259. authors and not of ACCORD. 6 Moseneke is today Deputy Chief Justice Football Association associate member Conflict Trends is a quarterly of the Constitutional Court, i.e. the status in recognition of its role in keeping publication. Back issues can be highest court in South Africa. Naidoo alive the hope that one day South Africa became an ANC Member of Parliament in downloaded from the ACCORD would change and that the Robben Island 1994. With Albie Sachs, he is the author website at generation would rule. In May 1994, that of the account ‘Island in Chains: Ten years on Robben Island’ (Penguin Books, hope, once so distant, became a glorious ISSN 1561-9818 Harmondsworth, 1982). reality. 7 See James Gregory: ‘Goodbye Bafana: Printing Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Colour Planet, Durban, South Africa John Daniel is a retired professor Friend’, Headline Books, London, 1995. of political science who lives in Durban, South Africa

52 | Playing for Peace he African Centre for the Constructive Resolution Working to Make Peace Happen of Disputes (ACCORD) is a civil society institution T working to ‘make peace happen’ through finding creative African solutions to the challenges posed by conflict on the continent. Our Mission For over 10 years, ACCORD has published two key ACCORD seeks to encourage and promote the constructive resolution of disputes by the publications, Conflict Trends (CT) and the African Journal peoples of Africa and so assist in achieving political stability, economic recovery and on Conflict Resolution (AJCR). Conflict Trends is a quarterly peaceful co-existence within just and democratic societies. publication that explores trends in current and emerging conflicts and their resolution in Africa. Our Work in Africa REINTEGRATION AND RECONCILIATION ACCORD welcomes submissions to the magazine Since it was founded in 1992, ACCORD has grown from an We also contributed to the successful mediation of several from writers in Africa and beyond. Prospective authors organisation of four people to its current capacity of eighty-five conflicts in Africa, including in Burundi, the Democratic Republic are encouraged to submit well-balanced contributions full-time staff and almost as many external resource persons of the Congo and Sudan. We have prepared armed groups for that address the contemporary challenges faced by African and associates. negotiations, contributed to mediation process strategy and states and societies to bring about sustainable peace. In the last 18 years, ACCORD has contributed to building the established expert groups to contribute to the content of peace The African Journal on Conflict Resolution is a capacity of the people of Africa by training over 15 000 political agreements. Through our work we have forged a close working semiannual peer-reviewed journal for the and community leaders, youth and women, staff of NGOs, relationship with the United Nations, the African Union, the multidisciplinary subject field of conflict resolution. governments and inter-governmental agencies, military Regional Economic Communities, African Governments, NGOs Contributors are encouraged to reflect on theoretical personnel and mediators. and the African private sector. approaches and practical aspects of conflict prevention, management and peacebuilding, from a scholarly perspective. Visit our website to learn more about writing Our Approach: Turning Experience Into Excellence for these flagship publications.

Our work is informed by a continuous analysis of conflict Peacebuilding: Recognising the nexus between development, ACCORD also publishes subject-specific reports situations in Africa. These assessments are complimented by governance and security, our Peacebuilding Unit seeks to manage and studies. Our latest publications include Mediating lessons learnt from our 18 years of on-the-ground experience. transitions in post-conflict situations. By building frameworks Peace in Africa, a research report based on a seminar Today we are striving to turn that experience into excellence. under which the diverse dimensions of conflict management held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March 2009, organised Our substantive work is carried out by two departments. can be brought together under one common framework, the by ACCORD and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of

1. Interventions Department unit contributes to consolidating short-term peace and laying Volume 9, Number 1, 2009 Finland. The seminar focused on strengthening the

the basis for long-term development. Resolving African crises: Leadership role for mediation and conflict prevention aspects of the African This department drives the core of our work and is divided African States and the African Union in Darfur The end of humanitarian intervention: Evaluation of the African Union’s right of intervention Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Participants into three units: 2. Knowledge Production Department Strategic culture of the Southern African Development Community: Militarised pathways to security? reviewed the role of mediation within the peace and The spirit of the National Peace Accord: The past and Peacemaking: This unit engages in proactive conflict This department complements interventions by working to enhance future of conflict resolution in South Africa Assessing South Africa’s strategic options of security architecture of the African Union (AU) and soft power application through civic interest groups prevention in situations where there are early warnings of policy, research and practice in the field of conflict management. explored mediation support challenges and conflict and where conflict has already broken out. Our By producing academically-rigorous research from practical opportunities in Africa. Peacemaking Unit will engage with all the relevant stakeholders experiences in the field and through its publications, the department A recent research report on Natural Resources, the to assist in forging a peaceful settlement to the conflict. provides a platform for policy makers, academics and conflict Environment and Conflict examines the role that natural resolution practitioners to investigate significant events on the All publications are free and can be downloaded from our website. Peacekeeping: In a context where the majority of victims of resources and the environment play in complex conflict continent and address major practical dilemmas of conflict For information please visit contemporary conflicts are civilians, approaches to situations with a focus on Burundi, the Democratic peacekeeping must respond to the needs and plight of civilians management and resolution. The department publishes ACCORD’s ACCORD’s address Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. in conflict. To this end, our Peacekeeping Unit has been at two flagship publications, the semiannual African Journal on Conflict Physical: ACCORD House • 2 Golf Course Drive • Mount Edgecombe 4300 • South Africa the forefront of developing the civilian dimensions of Resolution (in its eleventh year), the quarterly Conflict Trends (in its Post: Private Bag X018 • Umhlanga Rocks 4320 • South Africa peacekeeping in Africa through training, research twelfth year). It also produces policy and practice briefs and Tel +27 (0) 31 502 3908 • Fax +27 (0) 31 502 4160 and policymaking. research reports on a number of key thematic focus areas. he African Centre for the Constructive Resolution Working to Make Peace Happen of Disputes (ACCORD) is a civil society institution T working to ‘make peace happen’ through finding creative African solutions to the challenges posed by conflict on the continent. Our Mission For over 10 years, ACCORD has published two key ACCORD seeks to encourage and promote the constructive resolution of disputes by the publications, Conflict Trends (CT) and the African Journal peoples of Africa and so assist in achieving political stability, economic recovery and on Conflict Resolution (AJCR). Conflict Trends is a quarterly peaceful co-existence within just and democratic societies. publication that explores trends in current and emerging conflicts and their resolution in Africa. Our Work in Africa REINTEGRATION AND RECONCILIATION ACCORD welcomes submissions to the magazine Since it was founded in 1992, ACCORD has grown from an We also contributed to the successful mediation of several from writers in Africa and beyond. Prospective authors organisation of four people to its current capacity of eighty-five conflicts in Africa, including in Burundi, the Democratic Republic are encouraged to submit well-balanced contributions full-time staff and almost as many external resource persons of the Congo and Sudan. We have prepared armed groups for that address the contemporary challenges faced by African and associates. negotiations, contributed to mediation process strategy and states and societies to bring about sustainable peace. In the last 18 years, ACCORD has contributed to building the established expert groups to contribute to the content of peace The African Journal on Conflict Resolution is a capacity of the people of Africa by training over 15 000 political agreements. Through our work we have forged a close working semiannual peer-reviewed journal for the and community leaders, youth and women, staff of NGOs, relationship with the United Nations, the African Union, the multidisciplinary subject field of conflict resolution. governments and inter-governmental agencies, military Regional Economic Communities, African Governments, NGOs Contributors are encouraged to reflect on theoretical personnel and mediators. and the African private sector. approaches and practical aspects of conflict prevention, management and peacebuilding, from a scholarly perspective. Visit our website to learn more about writing Our Approach: Turning Experience Into Excellence for these flagship publications.

Our work is informed by a continuous analysis of conflict Peacebuilding: Recognising the nexus between development, ACCORD also publishes subject-specific reports situations in Africa. These assessments are complimented by governance and security, our Peacebuilding Unit seeks to manage and studies. Our latest publications include Mediating lessons learnt from our 18 years of on-the-ground experience. transitions in post-conflict situations. By building frameworks Peace in Africa, a research report based on a seminar Today we are striving to turn that experience into excellence. under which the diverse dimensions of conflict management held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March 2009, organised Our substantive work is carried out by two departments. can be brought together under one common framework, the by ACCORD and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of

1. Interventions Department unit contributes to consolidating short-term peace and laying Volume 9, Number 1, 2009 Finland. The seminar focused on strengthening the

the basis for long-term development. Resolving African crises: Leadership role for mediation and conflict prevention aspects of the African This department drives the core of our work and is divided African States and the African Union in Darfur The end of humanitarian intervention: Evaluation of the African Union’s right of intervention Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Participants into three units: 2. Knowledge Production Department Strategic culture of the Southern African Development Community: Militarised pathways to security? reviewed the role of mediation within the peace and The spirit of the National Peace Accord: The past and Peacemaking: This unit engages in proactive conflict This department complements interventions by working to enhance future of conflict resolution in South Africa Assessing South Africa’s strategic options of security architecture of the African Union (AU) and soft power application through civic interest groups prevention in situations where there are early warnings of policy, research and practice in the field of conflict management. explored mediation support challenges and conflict and where conflict has already broken out. Our By producing academically-rigorous research from practical opportunities in Africa. Peacemaking Unit will engage with all the relevant stakeholders experiences in the field and through its publications, the department A recent research report on Natural Resources, the to assist in forging a peaceful settlement to the conflict. provides a platform for policy makers, academics and conflict Environment and Conflict examines the role that natural resolution practitioners to investigate significant events on the All publications are free and can be downloaded from our website. Peacekeeping: In a context where the majority of victims of resources and the environment play in complex conflict continent and address major practical dilemmas of conflict For information please visit contemporary conflicts are civilians, approaches to situations with a focus on Burundi, the Democratic peacekeeping must respond to the needs and plight of civilians management and resolution. The department publishes ACCORD’s ACCORD’s address Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. in conflict. To this end, our Peacekeeping Unit has been at two flagship publications, the semiannual African Journal on Conflict Physical: ACCORD House • 2 Golf Course Drive • Mount Edgecombe 4300 • South Africa the forefront of developing the civilian dimensions of Resolution (in its eleventh year), the quarterly Conflict Trends (in its Post: Private Bag X018 • Umhlanga Rocks 4320 • South Africa peacekeeping in Africa through training, research twelfth year). It also produces policy and practice briefs and Tel +27 (0) 31 502 3908 • Fax +27 (0) 31 502 4160 and policymaking. research reports on a number of key thematic focus areas.