The Power of Sports
Sport is a lot more than dirty kit, sweaty bodies and broken bones. Sport has within it, the power to entertain and teach, and in the process create avenues for sustainable progression in communities.
In Kenya the Rugby Super Series, brings together top players from the premier rugby clubs in the country and places them in different franchises. For the duration of the five-week long tournament, players from different clubs must learn to put differences aside and play as a team. For five weeks, players must submit to the leadership of someone else other than their own club captain and coach. They learn to respect each other and appreciate each other’s unique contributions to the team because at the end of the day, they need each other to emerge as winners of the tournament. These positive attitudes are then transferred by players to their individual clubs for the remainder of the rugby season, which I venture to suggest, has a lot to do with the genteel nature of your average rugby player.
This is not to say that the Rugby Super Series has been the redeeming feature of Kenyan rugby and its players. Rugby and sports generally does however have the incredible power to transcend borders, ethnicity, and generations. Sport makes it necessary to structure teams and bonding and interaction become inevitable. Sports inspire communication, friendship, healthy living, and good sportsmanship and with it, respect for each other. Sports provide an opportunity for everyone to experience inclusion in a society often marginalised by social, cultural or religious barriers.
Consider football and it enormous following in Kenya. Masses from every corner of Nairobi congregated at the stadium to watch Harambee Stars, the national football team, play a World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe’s “Warriors”. When it was over, chants of “Oliech! Odinga! Obama!” filled the air celebrating a Kenyan win. People of all ages, and tribes joined in. People from all ranks in society leaped in the air celebrating and for that moment, oblivious of the diversity that ordinarily beleaguered our society.
When Jason Dunford came back home, a seven-minute Olympic 100 metres butterfly record holder, no one, despite the racial inferiority complex that many possess , cared about the colour of his skin. What mattered for that moment was that he was an athlete representing his country; Kenya.
Sports create a euphoria that can be channelled towards meeting several goals. Most of the people who attend the Safari Sevens do not understand the game but will diligently attend all three days of the tournament, spending countless hours on their feet for lack of sitting space, to cheer the “Virgin Boys” to victory. Astute executives use such opportunities’ to promote their brands.
What better opportunity to sensitize, mobilise, activate a cause than in a gathering engulfed by cohesiveness? What better setting to drive messages of peace, social justice and community development?
Sports is a means of social growth, which greatly benefits individuals. Self-esteem is raised by the inspiration of being an integral part of a group; being a cog necessary for the successful realisation of an objective. No one wants to exist in isolation. We all get a sense of pride and fulfillment from being part of a team representative of a bigger group. The thought that a community or a country has charged us with representing them instils us with a sense of pride in ourselves and in our community and gives us encouragement to work harder for ourselves and for our communities, and in so doing making us better individuals.
Whether it is a village or a slum with one television powered by a car battery or a family watching sports on cable in the comfort of their home, we are watching the same game, cheering the same team and celebrating the same win, sharing the same experience together albeit apart. What simpler way could there possibly be to effortlessly unite?
We must capitalise on the potential of sports in Kenya. It is the heartbeat of our society so it must be our priority to keep society alive.
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