As someone who grew up in George Compound (and exceedingly proudly so) after losing my parents at nine and later became a journalist writing an academic paper on sexual allegations in women’s football and the challenges women football administrators face in running clubs without sponsors, I have been trying to convince myself NOT to write something about this Lydia Shamalima issue.
From both sides, I have an idea of Shamalima’s struggles, and thus, I wholeheartedly sympathize and empathize with her. It’s not easy at all, at all especially when you are female.
Surviving such episodes requires a certain level of grit and resilience, especially when you are female.
Have we forgotten that Rachel Kundananji – the world’s most expensive player – was once a daka boy or is it daka girl (assistant bricklayer, if you like) before she struck gold?
While growing up in George Compound, for instance, for some of us, contracting dysentery was routine and squaring up to cholera was a seasonal issue each year the heavens started crying.
There were even some of my friends, who, contracting an STI was a badge of honour (yes, you read that right!)
I won’t talk about my elder sisters and cousins who tactfully befriended tailors in our neighborhood to supply them with leftover pieces of cloth to use when it was that time of the month.
Yet to this day, I can go back to my roots and live there happily. Infact, I visit my old hood whenever chance allows because I am that proud of my roots and forever thankful to God.
I am further privileged to know about much, much worse cases than Shamalime’s and also to remind myself that next month, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) will be going to the polls.
For me, Shamalima’s situation is just a microcosm of deep lying issues in our football, especially women’s.
For instance, do people know that some of these girls camp in garages because their clubs genuinely cannot afford to accommodate them before a league match due to a lack of funds?
Do people know that some of these girls cannot afford sanitary pads, making them vulnerable to sexual predators?
How many of us can afford to invest in a football club that spends over K300,000 monthly to operate when transfer fees for players are as little as K10,000 or the cost of a few balls (I mean footballs)?
Don’t forget that a club’s biggest assets are its players, and when transfers are as rare as a blue moon shining in a starless sky — coupled with no sponsors — how do you operate? Do you close shop?
How much pressure do these girls’ families and relatives apply on them for support, all because one of them may have been selected to play for the national team and get a chance to jump on a plane— when FAZ itself sometimes neglects or delays payment to them? Do we need to remind ourselves that under FIFA statutes, it’s forbidden to pay minors?
We’re effectively in a campaign period where smearing one another is part of the game, while a lot of crocodile tears will be shed— at the same time overlooking much worse cases like Mary Mwakapila’s.
Formulas such as Stockholm syndrome will also appear normal before the FAZ elections.
Be warned.
Almsgiving is not a long-term solution to problems such as Shamalima’s— the solution is finding sponsors for the women’s league and sharing the FIFA cake equally whenever money meant for the development of women’s football comes in.
With FAZ elections coming, councillors should elect a true voice for women’s football.
There are so many cases of Shamalima in Zambia today – and worse – so let’s help these girls.
By Kennedy Gondwe (via Facebook)
