Coach Julia, Reporting for Duty

A Peace Fellow Appreciates Girls’ Soccer in Northern Uganda

Uganda’s finest with coaches Julia and Ivan

Julia Davatzes is working as a Peace Fellow at the Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) this summer. Faruk Musema, a GDPU colleague, is also the founder and director of Ability Sports Africa – the only non-profit in Uganda that helps young people with disabilities to play sports. Faruk invited Julia to join in and she now spends Sundays at the Pece Primary School helping to coach the only girls’ team in the league. Julia is a graduate student at George Washington University. Read her blogs here.

Girls face a lot of cultural, social, and safety barriers that limit their ability to play sports in Uganda.

They are expected to contribute to household responsibilities such as fetching water, cooking, and caring for siblings and all this leaves them with little spare time. They are prevented from playing sports by social taboos in some of the more traditional communities.

And while boys can easily change into their uniforms in front of everyone, the girls have to use the latrines at school. The problem is that there isn’t enough room for all of them, so many girls change in the open air between a wall and the toilet stances. (I’ve seen how the boys often lurk close to the girls as they change. I now stand outside the latrines like a watchdog, staring down and telling off any boy who comes near!)

For the girls on Faruk’s team to even attend a soccer training is a minor miracle in itself.

During my first Sunday with the team, “Director Faruk” introduced me and told the girls that he “brought them a woman coach from America.” The girls all looked curiously at this strange mzungu (foreigner) with a baseball hat in front of them. I was the only woman (and only white person) among all the coaches, volunteers, and parents present so it was hardly surprising that they were hesitant!

I helped lead the girls through warm-ups, encouraged them to cheer for their teammates, and gave everyone supportive high fives. They are still learning positioning and how to pass, so the games look a bit like bees swarming to the ball.

After the game, the girls asked me a whole list of questions that they had probably been keeping inside for the last few hours. I’ve had some practice fielding questions during my fellowship and have learned to respond in a way that is more aligned with the cadence of a Ugandan.

The conversation went something like this:

Where are you from? United States, on the other side. (1) What state? Originally I’m from outside of New York City – one hour drive by car. It’s a small town, smaller than Gulu. Now I live in Washington D.C. where I go to university. Who is in your family? I have a mother, father, and brother. My brother is called Nicholas. Are you the first born or the follower? I am the first born and my brother follows me. (2) How many years are you? I am 27. What do you study? I’m getting a master’s degree in development studies. But my university degree is in engineering. Why are you in Gulu? I am working for Gulu Disabled Persons Union for the summer with Director Faruk. How long are you in Uganda for? I’ve been here for a couple weeks. I will leave in August to go back to school. Why don’t you stay here forever? I have to go back to school! Can I touch your hair? Yes, that’s ok. Why is your hair like that? My hair is too slippery – it won’t braid like your mom’s hair. So, I put it in a ponytail like this. (3)

And of course, I returned the favor:

Do you go to school? Who is in your family? What do you want to be when you grow up? Lawyer, doctor for babies, doctor for animals, teacher, football coach. Who is your favorite football player? Messi. Ronaldo. Daka. Who is your favorite women’s football player? I don’t know. What do you mean? You don’t know one women’s football player? Women don’t play football……………….

I paused and stared at the ten very curious girls staring back at me.

It almost brought me to tears. I grew up admiring the soccer players of the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT); women who showed that being a girl means being strong. The USWNT uses their platform to fight for social justice. Their fight for equal pay has and will continue to positively impact other women athletes and women in any profession. They have inspired girls and boys alike.

And that is just one team. There is a growing movement worldwide – in the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Australia, Nigeria and Zambia – that support their women athletes.

I understood that having a national soccer team supported by your country’s federation is rare, but it came as a surprise to realize that in most of the world girls don’t even know that professional women soccer players exist. This explained why one girl wants to be a football coach when she grows up, not a player, because she doesn’t think a woman can be a professional football player.

This summer has reminded me how privileged I am. It is a privilege to have role models that are women athletes, and even more so to have these role models look like you. Most of all, it is a privilege to just know that these role models exist.

Back to my conversation with my team:

Yes, yes there are professional women’s football players! There are so many of them! There are leagues all across the world for professional teams. There’s a Women’s World Cup. And there are players not just from the other side – from Africa, too.

I quickly pulled up pictures on my phone of professional African players I knew of in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States. I showed them Barbra Banda, a forward from Zambia on the Orlando City Pride who is arguably the best striker in NWSL right now. I showed them Temwa Chawinga, a Malawian player on the Kansas City Current whose team is at the top of the NWSL table.

I showed them a picture of the Washington Spirit, the DC NWSL team, who have three superstar strikers in Trinity Rodman, Croix Bethune, and Ouleymata Sarr – three Black women with hair in braids that are probably similar to the mothers and aunties of the girls on our Gulu soccer team.

And in that moment, I was granted a whole new privilege – observing the moment when someone’s world becomes wider; when young, Black, African girls who love football find new role models who look like them.

Spending time with this team has and will continue to be one of the most impactful experiences of my time in Gulu.

—

(1) The “other side” is a phrase used to denote distance and does not have the same connotation as “the other side of the tracks,” that it does in the United States. It could refer to the other side of town, the other side of the district, or somewhere outside of Africa.

(2) The idea of “following” and “first born” are used to describe sibling order. If you are the oldest sibling, you say that you are the “first born” and other siblings “follow you.” If you are a younger sibling, you say that you “follow” your older sibling or are the “follower”.

(3) Many people, adults and children alike, are fascinated with my hair. It makes sense because my hair is light brown and straight as a pin. People often ask me why it’s not in tight braids or the twists adopted by adult women in Uganda. I have to explain that my hair won’t hold that shape.

Julia is helping Emma from the GDPU to install WASH for girl students at the Kulu Opal primary school