As a towering, grey-haired, ex-cricketer gets out of his sedan at Ottawa Primary School, the tiny girls in brown tunics and boys in white shirts and grey pants, race towards him chanting: “coach! coach! coach!” High fives all round. Joy fills the swarm of youngsters and the old man smiles.
This is the reception for cricketing legend Mike Procter at this school in Phoenix, an Indian suburb north-west of Durban. The Ottawa children are from a poverty-stricken township called Zwelitsha (the new world in Zulu), on the bushy hillside of the settlement. Procter drives 20 kilometers, from the swimming pools and sprinklers of Durban north, to coach at the school. He has done this for the past four years, four days a week and three hours a day.
It is 10AM and break-time. The school serves around 1,100 children their first meal of the day, probably the last of the day for many. They gobbled down their rice and mashed potatoes with one eye on the cricket pitch; the Grade Fives rush to the rough field outside the school for the first practice session. There are so many that hour-long sessions are held for each grade. Procter works with two coaches: Rodney Malamba and Rocky Mgobhozi; taking charge of children aged between five and 16.
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“We had one girl who picked up a bat for the first time and hit the ball on the off side. Mostly, kids just swipe at it, but she played almost a proper cricket shot. Rodney and I looked at each other. The hairs on our necks stood up,” says Procter.
When Procter came to the school, he built bowling nets but the sessions grew so popular. There were too many children for nets. They are disused with long grass growing around. On the football field, oblivious of the frustrations of the coaches, the boys and girls raced up and down the field and Mgobhozi knocks catches. He seemed happy with the improvement and eagerness.
Three weeks into the beginning of the first school term in January, Procter laments how the school had to go on teaching despite the failure of the government to deliver the quarterly food supply. The Mike Procter Foundation fed the children for two weeks. There was also help from England cricket fans touring South Africa for the test series. They gave £2,000 ($2,800) from their own pockets but this will last no more than six months.
“The foundation is here to help with everything; it is not really about cricket but the development of a child. Once you have been with them you do realize that they are in need… We took 16 of these children to the South Africa and Australia test match at Kingsmead – something they have never experienced before,” says Procter, the South Africa’s former coach and selector.
The life Procter lived is a world away from the children he is trying to help. He went to the best schools and matriculated at Hilton College, a private boys’ boarding school in Durban.
“I had all the opportunities, I had everything I could ask for when I was their age. But they have absolutely nothing. Some of them have only one meal a day,” says Procter.
Malamba, a former Natal Cricket Union (now KZN Dolphins) fast bowler and Procter’s friend, brought him to the school in 2012. They coached together at Natal, where Malamba retired as a first-class cricketer in the 1980s. The Cape Town-born Malamba played club cricket in England. Since his return in 1987, Malamba, whose father, Ben, played professional cricket in the fifties, has been running his academy in Durban.
In his playing days, Procter was the sought after star all-rounder and devastating wicket taker who started his career with Natal in the early 1960s. Through apartheid, his international career was cut off in its prime as South Africa was isolated from world sport. He played seven tests for his country, against Australia, between 1967 and 1970. Aged 23, Procter went to play in England for Gloucestershire in county cricket for 13 years – supporters used to call the county Proctershire.
When South Africa was readmitted to international cricket, in 1991, Procter was appointed the national team coach, and then an International Cricket Council match referee. In 2009, Procter lost his job as the chairman of selectors of the Proteas, but started the foundation to introduce the sport to poor communities in Durban.
A business friend approached Procter with idea to adopt a school, to train cricketers, and promised to fund the project. He agreed and reached out to Malamba to recommend a school. Ottawa was identified and a first group of children started. But the businessman disappeared, leaving Procter disappointed and bereft.
“I broke the news to Rodney. He told me if we back off with the project, we will be breaking hearts of many children. Rodney said exactly what I was thinking. I was not prepared to abandon the children. The seed was already planted,” says Procter.
We caught up with the 50-year-old Malamba on the makeshift football field outside the school premises. A decade ago, Malamba saw the children walking to school and a few were run down by cars on to their way.
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“Life is like a house. You don’t build it from top to bottom, you begin with a formidable foundation. These kids here are not what they used to be when they first came to school, cricket has changed their attitude to life; they may not end up being cricketers but something in life. That’s how sport changes people’s lives,” says Malamba.
At the end of the last session, Malamba kneels down to pack the bats and wickets in his bag; young cricketers circle him, with some playing imaginary cricket shots in the air. Malamba is well aware; it takes time and patience to polish these diamonds. He sees his young, eager self in them and wants them to have the chance to change their lives.

Chief Destroyer Turns Gentle Coach

When Majida Nantanda – the coach of the Ugandan national women’s football team – was growing up, her four brothers treated her as an equal in their matches. She thought that was the way it was supposed to be.
When she went to school, she realized girls were not expected to run around kicking a ball. Nantanda’s opportunities to play the game were far fewer than those of her brothers. She knew that was not the way it was supposed to be.
Nantanda defied the odds, endured the jeers and forged a career in sport. Her determination and talent saw her play for the Ugandan national women’s football team for nine years. When she was done, she turned her attention to coaching and football development, with a twist.
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In 2009, Nantanda joined Tackle Africa, an organization that uses football for HIV/AIDS awareness among the youth. Her rationale was simple: “I committed to developing a grassroots football program to empower more girls and women in sports. But I also use football to address issues like health and education. Considering that football is by far the most popular sport in Uganda, if more coaches can be trained on how to provide HIV/AIDS education, it will have an important impact among the youth,” says Nantanda.
Nantanda offers something slightly different than her male counterparts, because she targets women’s education.
“For girls, it is about knowing their own rights, how to stand up for them and taking ownership of their bodies, something they learn through female coaches. Our female coaches teach girls to be strong, to speak up and make decisions. They work on empowering women to have free choice, particularly around their sex lives in an often male-dominated society,” says Tom Colborne, head of business development at Tackle Africa.
She is also a role model for young boys, who do not have the opportunity to meet many women in elevated positions within their societies. The female coaches are seen as figures of knowledge, confidence and authority, according to Colborne.
But it is not as simple as it sounds.
“I had many challenges in bringing a group of boys together to play organized football, and at the same time talk about an HIV topic related to the drill. Some parents discouraged their children when they heard I am speaking about condoms, but I did not lose hope. I explained to the parents, what, why and how football and life skills link together,” says Evelyn Achieng, a Tackle Africa coach in Kenya.
“I love the drills, we do them once a week. After we learn it, we practice and play it over and over until we remember it. Some drills show exactly what is happening in our bodies, so it is fun, but it is also important to learn. These games have really helped in my education. I am active, I listen and I concentrate. Here we all know each other and we help each other learn about discipline, HIV, life and making friends,” says Juma Christine, a beneficiary of Tackle Africa’s Kenyan project when he was younger.
Tackle Africa has 8,000 girls on their books, and 200 female coaches working in six countries across southern and East Africa. It is also working with the Tanzanian sports ministry to train 120 female coaches. Juliana Mokiwa is one of them and has already seen the dividends of her work pay off both in her personal life and in football.
“In Africa it is true that many women have no say with their husbands. Now, I have the knowledge about how I can make decisions. I have also learned different skills about football, which I will teach other coaches and players,” she says.
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Tackle Africa has seen the confidence and ability of female players grow, however footballing infrastructure remains a challenge, admits Colborne.
“There’s still a long way to go before there’s a women’s professional game in any of the countries we work in. Even the top division male players are rarely able to earn a decent living through the game. But, we see women’s national teams beginning to spring up and there are numerous organizations running women’s leagues,” he says.
Despite all that, Tackle Africa is not looking to unearth the next Nantanda, instead it is hoping to keep young people playing football, so they can reap the benefits associated with the program.
“We help female coaches to be better at coaching, so that they can develop players – not because we care about making better footballers, but because we know in order for our sessions to work, the coach must be credible [and only then will it have] young people coming back. With good female coaches, they can ensure girls attend their sessions as regularly as boys, and learn as much about football as they do about life.”

One Shot For GOAL Another At Life

While most boys his age were playing sports with friends, 13-year-old Ishmael Beah was a professional killing machine, who could fire an AK-47 as though it were an extension of his arm. He was one of around 300,000 children, who are involved in more than 30 global conflicts to this day.
His dream of being an economist was devastated after his immediate family was slain by the Revolutionary United Front rebel group in the early 1990s, during the civil war, which tore through Sierra Leone.
“After almost a year of running, I—along with some friends I met along the way—arrived at an army base in the southeastern region. We thought we were now safe; little did we know what lay ahead.”
Beah was forcefully drafted into the Sierra Leone army, where he fought for three years. The combination of marijuana and ‘brown-brown’—cocaine mixed with gunpowder—made him fearless. The child soldiers repeatedly watched Rambo, which was powered by a car battery, and were initiated by shooting lined-up prisoners. The girls were sex slaves of the commanders.
<div id="attachment_31137" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31137" class="size-medium wp-image-31137" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_4888-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_4888-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_4888-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_4888-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_4888.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War</div>
He was placed in a rehabilitation center by UNICEF, where he underwent psycho-social therapy for eight months before being introduced to his uncle from Freetown.
In 1996, Beah visited the United Nations, following Graça Machel’s study about the impact of armed conflict on children. That was when he met Laura Simms—a Brooklyn-born, Jewish-American—who would become his adopted mother. She was the emotional support behind his book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. He did not intend to publish it until his university professor encouraged it. But criticism comes with success.
“People started saying, ‘Why are you celebrating this? This is a bad thing that happened.’ And some people even called me a liar and said, ‘How can you remember any of this stuff?’… But I didn’t mind any of these things because since I came from this experience, I’ve always been chastised, whether it’s through stigma or in other ways, people sometimes split on the issue of young people, like me, who fought in a war as a child, whether you’re really a victim or a perpetrator. Some people are always trying to debate that fine line and use you as the pundit for that discussion, so I just ignore some of these things. Once I had really committed to publish the book, I knew that it was a story—even though it was my personal story—that was bigger than myself because this is a very small story about a much larger issue.”
Beah hasn’t stopped the fight for childhood. He is a UNICEF advocate for children affected by conflict, and works on policy level with the UN and governments to implement legislations. During his most-recent visit to the Central African Republic (CAR) where eight armed groups and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) remain at large, he helped release 10 children.
The planning of a rescue mission can take up to six months. Most groups allow UNICEF to interview children and negotiate for their release. The CAR government signed a protocol, which will remove children from armed groups including the government army. When the war ends their sentences will be reduced.
Beah criticized Kony2012—a short film about Joseph Kony that went viral on YouTube in 2012—for being too simplistic, inaccurate and for presenting the situation as “The white man savior mentality”.
<div id="attachment_31138" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31138" class="size-medium wp-image-31138" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_5653-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_5653-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_5653-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_5653-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20120822_SSu_5653.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War</div>
“… You left a very complex situation to the interpretation of a kid. So there’s a good guy and a bad guy, let’s get the bad guy. Really? This is how you solve the problem of a war?”
So what can we do?
“Look for an issue that you actually care about and find what it is that you can contribute to it, whether it’s financially or skills-wise […] But you can’t bury your head in the sand and expect to lift it up and for everything to be okay again.”
While Beah never became an economist, this year he will begin his PhD at Harvard in Law and Society, with a focus on how to repair collapsed societies. His foundation provides scholarships to children in Sierra Leone to dissuade them from a life of violence.
Today, you wouldn’t pick this 32-year-old—who has saved the world, for some—out of a New York crowd.   FL

Tag: Boys

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Chief Destroyer Turns Gentle Coach

One Shot For GOAL Another At Life

Easing the killing machines out of the dark