Nairobi, Kenya – 30 November 2009
One of our favorite expressions from Kenya was “Karibu”, the Swahili word which means “You’re welcome.” It is not only the response to thank you, but it is also a greeting meaning – “ You are welcome here”. And that is how we felt about our experience in east Africa discovering sport culture in Kenya these past two weeks.
Kenya is the cultural center of the group of east African countries, and its beating heart is the capital of Nairobi. Once again, we were hit by the differences from our previous stops on the Why Sport Matters journey. While still in Africa, there is a different pace for the people of east Africa — as well as the distinct association with the safari. To honor the safari, we met up with fellow FIFA Master alumi Doreen Odhiambo at the famous Carnivore restaurant, a restaurant which serves up barbeque of a variety of species including crocodile and ostrich (see photo).
Sport in Kenya has been significantly influenced by the colonial legacy of the English. While divided into over 40 different tribes, the country is united by the languages of Swahili and English…and sport! Though again the most popular sport is football, there is also the presence of rugby, cricket (supported by a large Indian population), and of course running. How do they produce such good athletes?
One of the top questions Why Sport Matters wanted to cover was why Kenya is able to consistently produce the world’s elite distance runners. Following some insightful discussions with Kenya Olympic Committee Secretary General FK Paul and legendary runner Paul Tergat, we made the trek out to western Kenya’s Rift Valley and the home of runners – Eldoret. This part of Kenya sits up on a plateau over 2,000 meters in elevation. At the Kip Keino High Performance Training Center, we actually ran the same cross country track the big boys train on (see video).
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Nairobi, Kenya – 20 November 20099
Jambo from Kenya!
Our last blog left off from our somewhat harrowing experience in attending the semi-finals of the U-17 FIFA World Cup in Lagos, Nigeria. Both semi-finals were amazing games, and set the stage for a great match-up between an impressive Switzerland, and the host country Nigeria. The final match was held in Abuja, so the Why Sport Matters journey took the 1-hour flight to reach the capital city.
What, no traffic? Was this still Nigeria? Less chaos, green hills and open spaces made a totally different feel than overcrowded Lagos. The beautiful national stadium is a great setting to play a football match. Though the crowds outside were big, they were more organized than Lagos. With 60,000 enthusiastic Nigerians rooting on these teenagers, it was quite a feat for the Swiss to defend incredibly and pull off the upset, breaking the hearts of the thirsty crowd.
It was a twist of fate pulled off by the football gods that didn’t let the Nigerians realise the perfect weekend. The previous day, we were amongst a crowd of Nigerians in a sports bar for the final day of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. In a miraculous turn of events, Nigeria fought back against Kenya to take a thrilling last-minute win in Nairobi (our current location). Simultaneously, Tunisia incredibly fell to Mozambique 0-1, which gave Nigeria their golden ticket to South Africa. How quickly the mood changed as the Nigerians felt so much joy after having already written off their team.
Further north, we also kept our eye on the Egypt-Algeria clash in Cairo. The tensions were high as the Algerian team bus was actually attacked by Egyptian fans in the days prior to the match and as a result players were injured. Security was at its highest. As fate would have it, Egypt got their needed two-goal victory, but only enough to secure a play-off game…scheduled for a few days later in a neutral Sudan. (Algeria went through in a raucous 1-0 win in Khartoum to take the final spot for African teams in the big show.) FULL STORY »
