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Juju alive and well in Ugandan club football, but at what cost?
Author: Robert Madoi is a sports journalist and analyst. PHOTO/FILE/NMG.
What you need to know:
- The determination of László’s team to get on to the front foot whenever in action was there for all to see. So when the record button was hit, the final interview was radical in its honesty and startling in its candour.
Your columnist was in Scotland when Csaba László, then head coach of Hearts of Midlothian, graciously granted a tell-all interview to The Scotsman. The Romanian-Hungarian – always different shades of the kaleidoscope of emotions in the dugout during his time as Cranes coach – merited the centre spread from Scotland’s leading newspaper.
Reports that Hearts threatened the Old Firm (Celtic and Rangers) duopoly did not appear to be greatly exaggerated at the time. The determination of László’s team to get on to the front foot whenever in action was there for all to see. So when the record button was hit, the final interview was radical in its honesty and startling in its candour.
László said he discharged his duties as Cranes coach whilst living with the turmoil of knowing he was dealing with firm believers in witchcraft. He endlessly recalled various episodes, including when witchcraft charms were planted in both goals at Namboole before the Cranes hosted Angola.
Needless to say, this was not Uganda’s finest hour. Consequently, your columnist did his best to bury anything that would identify him as Ugandan. I had to! After all, László warned that he “could write a book on what I saw.” I simply was not ready to drop hints about what details would be tucked away in the book. There was reason to believe – or, at least, to hope – that silence would be a great act of self-preservation.
I would like to offer that putting a sock in it served not just my interest but also those of Ugandan football. Many had little sense of Ugandan football’s vulnerabilities to juju, which it turns out are considerable. A subject matter, which has silently plagued Ugandan football for decades, dominated the news cycle after Express opted to cut Wasswa Bbosa loose.
Admittedly, your columnist was quick to dismiss the tales of Bbosa’s proclivity to juju on account that the umbilical link between sport and superstitions has never been in dispute. Even the legendary Michael Jordan is said to have had his pre-match superstitions. The great man reportedly wore his North Carolina practice shorts under his NBA kit because he was convinced that the former were a good luck charm.
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Anecdotes about what happened at Wankulukuku on Bbosa’s watch have succeeded in prompting a careful reconsideration of facts. The accusation that a witchdoctor’s counsel was taken over that of a qualified medic insofar as handling injuries is concerned was particularly disturbing.
Against the better judgment of the medic, a concussed player was kept on the field – at the behest of the witchdoctor. The player’s girlfriend, revealed an insider at the club, “found him unconscious when she went home in the evening.”
Fortunately, the said player appears to be out of harm’s way. For now. That this hardly reflected the limits to which Bbosa was prepared to push his views on juju tells you something about Ugandan football. Key stakeholders are not comfortable investing their trust in science and hard numbers. Critical reactions to such a state of affairs have toggled between a sneer and a jeer. More action is needed if anything because of what is drilled in the psyche of our players – a laughable belief in the supernatural.
This is not the kind of mindset one ought to take to, say, the paid ranks. As noted last Saturday, you can count off the fingers of one hand Ugandans doing well in the paid ranks. Reacting to that column, one Ugandan club official beseeched me to look at the other side of the coin. He reasoned, and convincingly, that some of the pro clubs make it hard for Uganda’s footballing exports to succeed.
He added thus: “They do a number of things to frustrate players. For example, unpaid wages… they even cut off your water or power.”
Fair enough, that’s a real bummer! But just try visualising the response of a player who is a firm believer in all things juju! Success is the culmination of years of work and frustration. Can we drill this line of thinking in the psyche of our players, please?
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @robertmadoi
