Kenyan women united in freedom and football
In a society where girls are punished for refusing sex and HIV is endemic, football has become an educational tool
The Ukunda Queens collected their trophy in the dark. It had been a great afternoon of football, with 22 young women from the rural province of Kwale in Kenya slugging it out on a rain-drenched pitch to become district champions of the women’s league, undeterred by a herd of goats that occasionally wandered into the action, displaced from their usual home on the terraces by the crowd which had gathered to cheer, buy cashew nuts and argue the merits of each team.
“The Ukunda Queens are good but look — the other side don’t even have shoes,” said an elderly man. It was true. Ukunda’s barefoot opponents, the Dar Queens, slid helplessly in the mud. But Dar’s supporters had travelled for hours on minibuses to reach the ground and were unwilling to concede defeat. “God willing, th… [more]
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