Disability sport part I: case of struggles, neglect and slim hope

Nsubuga Kizito (L) aims for the-basketball during Kampala Wheelchair Basketball Club's training at Makerere University Court. Photo by ISMAIL KEZAALA.

KAMPALA.

Below the waistline, Anthony Opio’s limbs are crippled. He has born that disability since birth. Yet the 32-year old’s brave heart harbours ambitions many non-disabled beings cannot imagine.

Born in a small village in Oyam district, Opio never had the luxury of a wheelchair, not even knee pads. This infused in him a spirit of self-support; he is not the kind who wants favours.

Despite his physical limitations, he learnt swimming when he went playing with his mates on the banks of the Nile. Today, having beaten Kenyan swimmers and fared well against non-disabled swimmers in Uganda, Opio’s faith isn’t hollow.

“I’m a future Paralympic gold medallist,” he told me in an interview at Christ the King Church in Kampala, where he attends the afternoon mass daily. “I watched those swimmers in Rio Games and I think I can compete favourably against them.”

Like Opio, Elizabeth Babirye dreams of being a badminton star despite her crippled legs and arms. She values that racket she got from Edwin Ekiring as a hunter does his spear. And since Ekiring a two-time Olympian told her she can make it, Babirye’s belief grew stronger.

Babirye also plays wheelchair basketball. At training sessions at Makerere University Grounds, she struggles with shooting because of a limited arms’ reach but team captain Ali Mukasa says she is good at passing and can calm the pace of play, when required.

But between Opio’s and Babirye’s big dreams and reality is a very long journey of obstacles that worries every disability athlete in Uganda. Notably, among others, inadequate funding and society’s negative attitude both of which have a devastating multiplier effect as discussed below.

Amir Kapere during a Para rowing session at Kisubi Seminary Beach. Para rowers of his arms and shoulders category lack suitable training boats. Photo by Ismail Kezaala

Little government interest

For a country that first entered the Paralympic Games in 1972, it is obvious something went wrong that in 44 years, Uganda has only sent 11 athletes to the quadrennial Games and won just one medal. There has been a consistent stagnation regarding: promoting an integrative culture; talent identification and development; provision of equipment, developing of facilities and accessibility. No wonder, the deputy speaker of Parliament did not know of Paralympic sports in Uganda, until 2014.

It is that negligence on government’s part that has greatly crippled the progress of disability sports.

To appreciate the need for government funding read the Pararoos story. The Australian football team of athletes with cerebral palsy is suffering from a discriminative government policy. Since 2012, the Australian Sports Council (ASC) no longer funds the Pararoos, arguing they were underperforming. Consequently, the team missed the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Despite qualifying for the 2017World Championships and the 2019 World Cup, the strict Winning Edge Policy, which demands Australian teams to advance from “world class” to “world best”, cannot be revised until 2022.

Hence, the Pararoos count on donations from well-wishers, Australian Sports Foundation and Football Federation of Australia, which itself prioritises non-disabled national teams. Yet, Australia sent 177 Paralympians (Uganda sent only one) to Rio who amassed 81 medals.

In Uganda, where gavumenti etuyambe (government help us) is a common jocular, yet reflective hashtag, disability sports cannot be an exception especially when the corporate society is itself uninterested.

Overdependence on foreign aid

Modern disability sport was introduced to Africa by the West. Likewise, almost all Uganda’s (little) advancements in the sector have come from Agitos International, Motivation UK and Lion Club of China. But with the widening scope of disability sport across the continent, donors get overwhelmed. So, where their efforts are not backed by local sponsorship or government aid, progress is impaired.

In 2009, for example, FISA, the International Rowing Federation gave the Ugandan para-rowing federation a consignment of training boats which were shared by centres in Kisubi and Busia. FISA and Agitos have also sponsored the (only) two coaching courses and a 2015 training workshop inGavirate, Italy. Besides that, the 10-year-old federation has registered little success.

After a training session Saturday afternoon, I pushed Vaster Kyalimpa’s wheelchair for about 400 metres from Miami Beach on the showers of Lake Victoria, to Luzira stage where we boarded the taxi back to Kampala. She would miss the Sunday workout because of the difficulty she faces on the way and generally the lack of transport.

Ms Kyalimpa, whose hopes rose after featuring in powerlifting at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, sometimes plunges into frustration that despite sacrificing her tailoring job, and her hard-earned money for training, there are no competitions to gauge her rowing progress.

She is not alone. Noreen Nabbosa uses a crutch since she lost her left leg while young. Every weekend she commutes 15km from Kanyanya, to train in Luzira. Despite participating in that camp in Italy, Nabbosa is worried about the slow progress. The same issues discouraged her from sitting volleyball, where after qualifying for the 2015 World Championships in Oklahoma, USA, the team failed to travel due to lack of funds.

Noah Ssewankambo is both a rower and the president of the para-rowing federation. He is somehow hopeful “There’s growing awareness of para-rowing across the country, and we have an elected executive,” he says.

But his frustration is evident. “People stood for electoral posts out of excitement, but when they are needed to serve, no one shows up.”

Worse still: “We have just three training boats here and no single racing boat, which hinders our progress.” Rowers like Ssewankambo whose legs and trunks are weak have no boats for their AS (arms and shoulders) category yet even pontoons—the support gear—are only three in Uganda.

Those in Packwach, Nebbi and Aleptong districts improvise with the heavy wooden boats. Para-rowers have no gym and the only ergometer (a must-have training machine) at Luzira is all they have.

For lack of transport for their boats to Busia in September, they missed the only (annual) disability sports gala. If the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics dream is to be realised, they need a 10-man team to train consistently for the LTAMix4+ category. But at the moment, that remains just a dream.

At Makerere University Grounds, Kampala Wheelchair Basketball team trains twice a week. Under the instructions of Coach Kidega Ola, they have improved tremendously and beaten the more experienced Gulu team to the inaugural trophy in 2014, just a year into existence.

Coach Ola believes players like Ali Mukasa, James Ongaria Bashir Mutyaba, Nsubuga Kizito, Abdul Walukagga, Sulaiman Mayanja and others, can contribute to the formation of a national team to try continental and world tournaments.

But Ola, a Makerere University sports science lecturer, admits that forging a strong national team without a league is impractical. Currently, there are only four clubs: Gulu, the 2016 champions; Mubende MRC and Lira. Even then, merging them into a league is hard considering distance and transport costs, the lack of basketball courts, et cetera.

This lack of interclub competitions, as already noted in rowing and sitting volleyball, does not only slow players advancement but also bounces them off the court.

Media apartheid?

I hardly see stories about disability sports or athletes in our local media outlets. Cognizant of the duty of media to society, I asked stakeholders in the disability sports sector whether they feel this gap.

Aida Katushabe, 22, is a medical student at Makerere University. She tried sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball though table tennis is her dream sport. Having represented the disability fraternity in several conferences abroad, she strongly attaches the state of disability sports to an uninterested media.

“I was born and raised here in Kampala, we have a TV and radio, but how come I didn’t know anything about disability sports?” Katushabe wonders. She was lucky her father, who also tried cricket for the disabled, finally introduced her to the world of disability sports. “Then how can a parent of a disabled child in a remote village know about such opportunities?”

But Mpindi Bumali, president of the Uganda Paralympic Committee (UPC) knows better. “We try our best to befriend the media because we know how much they can contribute to this cause, but most reporters are money-minded,” he said.

“If you invite them to an event you must, at least, ‘facilitate’ their transport, otherwise they will sit on the story or the next time they won’t respond.”

From my experience, that is plain truth, and non-disabled sports like boxing, netball, table tennis, handball, among others, which do not “budget” for reporters, attest to this media apartheid.

Consequently, the media has failed to highlight efforts and opportunities; laud achievements; criticise mismanagement; sensitise society towards inclusion and fair treatment of persons with disabilities; attracting government intervention, corporate sponsorship and donations; among others.

In his article Disability Sport in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Economic Underdevelopment to Uneven Empowerment, American author Andrew Novak used South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius to explain how media and sponsorship has shaped disability sports in Africa.

“Pistorius, (a multiple Paralympic gold medallist, who also competed at the London 2012 Olympics) symbolises integration between disabled and non-disabled athletes at the highest levels, and yet he personifies the disability divide (between the rich and the poor) on the African continent. Despite facing exclusion as most disabled athletes across the developing world, Pistorius, a charismatic and highly educated white South African, enjoyed unique access to state-of-the-art technologies from the Global North, sympathetic media coverage, and highly trained coaching.”

Actually, until that self-destructive murder of his girlfriend in 2013, Pistorius promoted world brands like footwear maker Nike, sunglasses maker Oakley; British telecoms firm BT; French designer Thierry Mugler, M-Net among others, earning over $2m from endorsements per year. That’s over Shs7bn—nearly the annual budget for the education and sports ministry in Uganda.

Stephen Kiprotich attracted local and international sponsorship, cash prices and a car, for winning marathon gold in London 2012. Conversely, David Emong, Uganda’s first ever (silver) Paralympic medallist, was only “honoured” by Parliament, with no single shilling. Back to Kapchorwa, Emong has no manager, no sponsor, no club.

Generally, the state of disability sport in Uganda is a vicious circle. Discrimination, little government and corporate support; inadequate funding, little competition, average quality, biased media, recurring.