Shoot 2 Score, Not to Kill – Marsabit and HODI

We roll into Marsabit, the buckled knee of the truly horrific leg driving down through Northern Kenya, with only one thought, to get the hell out of Marsabit.  

The atmosphere was tense, distinctly unwelcoming, that of an outpost town in an old western. Ironically it represented relative sanctuary in the otherwise bandit rich, sympathy poor stretch of road we were hobbling through in our attempt to reach Isiola and tarmac.

To add to our headache Jane needed work (worn seals in the brake callipers meant she was losing roughly a litre of brake fluid a day). However, the need for braking on the road was almost redundant given our top speed of 15km/h. The type of progress a snail makes on a salt stack.

Nevertheless we opted for a central camping spot to ensure we could get everything sorted and turn around as soon as possible. At the Jey-Jey Centre (gratifyingly named in anticipation of Justin Johnson’s arrival, or so he claimed) we set up our tents. The fact that the modestly more expensive option of hotel rooms wasn’t even considered  reveals how used to camping we have become.  Football Africa’s Gypo army. 

Anyway after we had pitched up, the hassling or ‘motivated proactive friendshipping for commercial gain’ started in earnest, with people visiting our compound with an assortment of documents verifying their intentions, offering tours to local sites etc.

Kenyan sales pitches certainly don’t lack for enthusiasm. Any salesman though will tell you that building rapport is the key to a successful pitch. The main way to achieved this is by mirroring the mood, intonation and demeanour of your target (in this case us).  Fortunately the average Kenyan isn’t aware of sales theory, given the response of apathy and general irritation they faced with.  Our mood mirrored would have provoked nothing short of vinegar.

Despite this one fortuitous conversation led to us discuss what we were doing, travelling through Africa, looking to play football and speaking to football charities on the way.  A lad called Jamal suddenly became very animated and said we absolutely needed to meet a lady who was running a football related charity.  

He led us to meet a lady called Fatma (pronounced Fat-u-ma) and the discovery of an inspirational project called HODI or Horn of Development Initiative.  We set up an interview.

As a single female Muslim, a female Kenyan lawyer living in the small town of Marsabit and a part time ladies football coach Fatma is unique.  She is soft spoken but has a reassuring, calming quality that makes her a compelling subject. She gave us background on the situation in Marsabit, which in turn explicated the uncomfortable atmosphere we felt in the town.

Marsabit is in a region covering Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya dominated by tribalism.  People here see ‘Kenya’ as starting where the asphalt roads begin around 300 miles south of the Ethiopian border. The tribes of Northern Kenya constantly compete for resources and cattle and are frequently involved in violent exchanges.  Children are indoctrinated to hate other tribes as much as they love their own.  Violent sorties attacking other tribes, planned by elders, executed by young men, frequently result in death. For bringing death to other tribe’s young men are exalted and rewarded with women and respect.  Attacks result in revenge attacks and rather than any attempt at mediation the ‘tit for tat’ killing remains unreported by the Kenyan media until it results in a massacre, as in Turbi in 2005 where 85 villages were slaughtered in the culmination of an ongoing dispute.

This massacre elevated tribal mistrust to a new level.  But it was out of this atmosphere that HODI’s football work began 4 years ago.  HODI’s response to combating the hatred borne out of tribal segregation was simple; mix the youth (foot soldiers) of the tribes up into football teams that play other similarly mixed football teams. Use the irresistible pull of football to get people talking to each other, relying on each other etc. 

Their slogan, ‘shoot 2 score not to kill’ sounds almost infantile in it’s simplicity until you find out that this really matches their reality.  Fatma told us that teams comprised of former adversaries, kids who had actually killed members of their team mate’s villages. That took us aback. HODI’s aim was to celebrate a goalscorer in the same way the village elders would celebrate killing.

Currently 35 teams operate under the HODI project; the majority are under 12, integrating them when they are young. They play under the banner of Mars United FC, which is just cool. They keep the team colours devoid of tribal stigma, blues and reds are affiliated with tribes in the region so greens and yellows are preferred. There is also a successful girl’s team, which Fatma coaches herself. They play in jeans or trousers and scarves as per Islamic requirement. It is hard to fully comprehend the quantum leap forward this represents for Marsabit’s girls, a community which is totally dominated by male elders, where women have very little and very hard fought public representation. The fact that the girl’s team looked fairly useful too was less hard to comprehend. The keeper looked dodgy though.

The culmination of the HODI football calendar was the ‘Peace Tournament’, which by sheer coincidence was being played and watched by thousands whilst we were obliviously looking for somewhere to thrown down our tents. So our usual knack for timing everything perfectly, especially film-making we managed to miss this annual event completely.  This was really only a minor regret as Fatma managed to organise a team for us to play. Match report will be appended.

The motivational aspect for us was that by being there, by having a broken braking system, by needing to get to Tackle Africa in Nairobi thereby driving down through Northern Kenya and by talking to strangers about football we were actually able to do something that we had totally signed on for and learnt about a wholly different set of issues.   

We gave them kid’s football strips, kindly donated by Felton Fleet School in Cobham, and plenty of footballs which they were grateful for. We played football against a HODI team and we will hopefully be able to help them get funding for the next stage in their development, a non-partisan pitch.  The games are currently played in Marsabit which carries tribal connotations that keep suspicious tribes folk away. A pitch in a ‘no man’s land’ with good facilities should eliminate suspicions and allow the flow of players to HODI to increase. It’s going to cost them $3.5k which seems an eminently achievable target. They are also in need of website after the person they entrusted web development monies with did a runner.

Anyway, a genuinely fortuitous, rewarding encounter and it doesn’t end there. Now we are in Nairobi we aim to meet up with Fatma again as she is also here coincidentally.  All these coincidences...

Ed

 

From the beginning of this trip I have observed and wondered about the women of Africa.Whether it’s to do with religion, tribal/family values or societies beliefs, they do not stand equal to their male counterparts. Religion has women cover themselves from head to toe so that their husbands and family can only see their beauty. Tribal and family values make the women hard working both on the lands and in the home. Married off at a young age to a man who may already have a wife, is a trap that even an educated woman can fall into. But not Fatma, a single twenty-something, educated lawyer and founder of the Horn Of Africa Development Initiative (HODI), Marsabit. This inspiring young lady has already pushed for differences in her quiet town from the fact that she is young, single and female.

Striving to change the mind set of the tribal groups in and around her town she is using football as the foundation of this change. Growing from 4 to 35 teams, from all ages INCLUDING a girls team, she has already made a sound start to teaching that you should “Shoot to Score NOT to Kill”. The use of football means that words such as “attack” are transformed pitch side to collectively get boys (and girls) from differing tribes, to use teamwork to attack the opposing team and not one another.

I looked at Fatma and saw hope that Africa may actually be able to change. The young lady sitting in front of me was not only trying to make a change for tribes but also women by not only being a role model and putting herself in the firing line but also trying to get the Elder’s (whom are obviously male) to integrate women speakers into the community meetings. If this is the start of a new generation of Africa, then maybe a happy medium can be found, one that incorporates a mixture of the tribal traditions but allows a peaceful communication and an outer community that all can be a part of without fear. Fatma is yet another unsung, unselfish hero of Africa that I have met on this journey. This educated woman could have got out of her home town of and made a new and better life else where. However she educated herself so that she could educate others from her town and make a difference from the familiar surroundings of home.

 

For more information read and join the Facebook group: Friends of HODI

Charlotte

Comments

[Fatuma A. Adan]

Hope you are all doing great after such a tough trip talking, walking playing football! Marsabit is great though the killings have not stopped. Congrats to you all, so many have done it before as in the trip to africa? But with football africa you touched hearts and changed lives with each of you in Africa and football. Yes! if u ever doubted then it is possible to change the world with the footie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!