What the Uganda Cranes story tells us about our country and ourselves

What you need to know:

  • Young Ugandans today must reimagine themselves in a world their parents don’t even know exists – then shun the mediocrity of mere participation. Enough with these certificates of attendance; you must go forth into the world and win some trophies!
  • Are we surprised that a country that was once a sporting powerhouse now struggles to put together an Olympics boxing team or celebrates qualifying for a tournament it previously played in the finals for?

Now that the dust has settled on the African Cup of Nations what does the performance of our national team tell us about ourselves? How many of you, dear readers, think that qualifying for the competition after 38 years away was a massive achievement regardless of the results?
And how many of you feel that being knocked out in the group stages with only one goal and one point was just not good enough and should trigger deep introspection?
These are rhetorical questions and, having only a handful of loyal readers, this column can’t expect to generate a statistically significant sample, but my suspicion is that many people are happy to have seen our boys kick about on television and are pretty content – and that is a problem.
Over the years, we have become accustomed to mediocrity, to settling for what we can get, rather than we want or deserve. Take, for example, the opening up of borders in the East African Community, few would argue against the obvious advantages of the free flow of goods, capital and labour – but where are the Ugandan brands opening up shop across the region? What do we have to offer to our neighbours beyond cheap food? Where is the plan to convert our military sacrifices into sustainable economic gains in South Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere?
The story of the Cranes is instructive.
A few months earlier the team was the toast of the town after qualification but did we realistically go to Gabon to participate or to contest in the tournament?
Some will argue that after four decades away just getting to the tournament is an achievement. The more important question to ask is what have we been doing in those 38 years to ensure that when we eventually qualify we have a team that is good enough to contest for the trophy, and a conveyor belt of talent to ensure that we do not return to the wilderness?
The answer is very little, I’m afraid. Success in sports comes from strategic investments in talent, training, tactics and facilities. The hardest ingredient here is talent which you either have or don’t, and which some countries outsource by offering citizenship to foreigners.
It is also the least of our worries. At Afcon 1978 we reached the finals and many footballers we have produced over the years – think Philip Omondi, Godfrey Katerega, Jackson Mayanja, Majid Musisi among others – were simply world-class. I have seen young footballers from Naguru with feet so gifted they can use them to open padlocks, let alone defences.
It is in the other areas that we come woefully short. Our youth and up country leagues have virtually collapsed. Sports fields have been sold off – in Lugogo one is a used car sales lot, another a mall parking lot with another, just up the road, turned over to a Chinese hotel.
Are we surprised that a country that was once a sporting powerhouse now struggles to put together an Olympics boxing team or celebrates qualifying for a tournament it previously played in the finals for?
There was a time when countries could get away with this mediocrity but not any more. The world has quickly been divided into participants and contestants in almost everything, from which countries send the most players to the top leagues, to those whose companies are able to spread out and dominate regional and global economic value chains.
The biggest ideological challenge facing young Ugandans today is whether they want to be participants like their mediocre parents, or contestants who will then have to confront and overturn the social, economic and political order of the day.
We could have beaten Ghana, as we have done before, and held Egypt to a draw, qualified for the group stages and maybe even more. But this would have been by sheer luck and grit on the field (‘football is football; anything can happen’, some say) rather than as the outcome of a well-thought out plan.
We went to Gabon hoping for success rather than expecting it. Now, while one can succeed by doing the wrong thing, and even fail while doing the right thing, one can only be successful consistently if that success is the outcome of the right plan executed well.
Young Ugandans today must reimagine themselves in a world their parents don’t even know exists – then shun the mediocrity of mere participation. Enough with these certificates of attendance; you must go forth into the world and win some trophies!
Mr Kalinaki is a Ugandan journalist based in Nairobi. [email protected] &Twitter: @Kalinaki