Duncan Fisken - Raleigh House - 1960-1963

Komeza!! (Kinyarwanda for “Play On!”)

I was attending the final meeting of the 2015/16 season for my rugby referee society when one of the members gave a short presentation on the work of Friends of Rwanda Rugby (FORR), a charity that has spent several years developing rugby in Rwanda. Activities are aimed mainly at young children and it is part of a broader initiative, supported by the Rwandan government, aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation through sport. Only twenty-three years have passed since the terrible events of 1994 when nearly one million people were slaughtered in a campaign of violence lasting only 100 days!

There was a tour planned for August and FORR was looking for volunteer coaches and referees. The primary objective of the tour was teaching primary school children to play tag (non-contact) rugby. For the first time, a tour would include referee development workshops and so a qualified ref was required. Being partially retired and largely able to determine my work schedule, I jumped at the chance.

Having coached youth rugby for several years at Bradford on Avon and Bath Youth rugby clubs, and now in my seventh season as a referee for Somerset Rugby Referee Society (the world’s oldest rugby referee society) I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to put something back into the game that has given me so much enjoyment.

There was much to prepare over the next few months including assembling kit that would be left in Rwanda and developing the referee workshop content. By August, all was ready and the party of twelve (from all over the UK), including eight coaches, three assistants and myself as the sole Society referee, headed for Kigali via different routes; some via Nairobi and some via Istanbul. We had assembled some 500kg of donated kit (shorts, shirts, socks, training cones, over 100 size 4 rugby balls and several sets of tag rugby belts. I was carrying part of the kit, which included 50 new Thunder referee whistles and lanyards. Interestingly, the only comment from customs or security was at Nairobi when I was asked why did I need so many whistles!

Arriving in Kigali after a long and torturous journey via Nairobi, I met up with the rest of the group at our accommodation. I expected to take the rest of the day getting over the jet lag but no such luck; by mid-afternoon I was expected at a local playing field to run the first referee development workshop. I had been told to expect around twenty aspiring refs, some of whom would have spent seven or eight hours on buses travelling from the far south of the country. In fact, forty or so turned up! Fortunately I had plenty of volunteers from the other coaches and we spent the next few hours running the workshop. I had been briefed that the workshop should be very light on words and heavy on action. Although English is widely used, the local language (Kinyarwanda) is predominant so everything I said had to be translated.

The next day we travelled to Huey (about six hours by minibus from Kigali) where a youth 7s tournament was arranged in our honour and I was invited to referee several of the games. Just as in Kigali, the ‘pitch’ was rock hard and almost totally devoid of grass, thanks to several months without rain. Even so, most of the players were bare footed!

We spent the next several days in Rusizi, another several hours south and on the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, working with a group of about 200 primary school children who had, for the most part, never touched a rugby ball. The children came from four schools in the district and during the course of the four days, we gradually selected the best and teams then completed in parallel boys and girls 10-a-side tag tournaments. All players received medals and t-shirts in team colours.

Since I was the oldest member of the tour I was named Umusaza (Kinyarwanda for Old Man) by Kamanda. This caused much mirth among the children and the RDOs alike, not to mention my fellow coaches. I still get emails and Facebook messages addressed to Umusaza.

Our other mission in Rusizi was teaching the students of the Mururu Teacher’s Training College to coach tag rugby, thereby building a critical mass of tag coaching resources in a number of primary schools, where the student teachers will be deployed after graduating.

Accommodation was in local Christian pastoral centres, all of which was very basic with no fans or aircon and only mosquito nets for protection. Showers and toilets were communal and only in Kigali did we have hot water.

Back in Kigali, we visited the Kinamba Community Project, a charity run by an English lady that provides schooling for primary age children whose parents cannot afford the cost of the uniform &/or books (education is free). We played games of tag rugby with these kids. We also visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial where the remains of over 200,000 victims of the atrocities are buried; this was a very sobering experience but one not to be missed. I was also guest referee at Thousand Hills RFC in Kigali where I referred games in their first ever senior 7s tournament.

Rwandans are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. We were very well taken care of and nothing was too much trouble for our local FORR RDO team.  Unlike other parts of Africa, and despite the grinding poverty and subsistence economy in rural areas, Rwanda is very safe and we never felt threatened walking the streets at night. Incomes are very low and a newly graduated primary school teacher would earn around one thousand pounds a year yet were rarely the targets of beggars. One of the party lost their mobile phone and passport (it fell out of their pocket whilst on the back of a moto (motorcycle taxi) and within 24 hours both had been handed in to the British Embassy! I think, of all the kit we took to the training grounds each day, the only thing we lost was a single rugby ball, last seen disappearing down a dirt track in the hands of three village kids!

The group (comprising twelve in all, plus the local RDOs) surpassed their objectives. There were a lot of winners but the biggest winner of all was, and will continue to be, Rwandan Rugby. I am looking forward to going back later this year and seeing the progress. The raw talent was evident and so, with the right application of resources, there is really no reason why Rwanda could not have a presence on the world stage!

Komeza!

Duncan “Umusaza” Fisken

Further Information:
http://friendsofrwandanrugby.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kinambaproject/
http://www.rwanda-genocide.org/
http://www.srrs.org.uk/