Disability is not Inability
Three African countries took part in the first All African Amputee Football Tournament hosted by the Amputee Sport Club of Sierra Leone in February, which was won by Ghana.
The tournament was sponsored by the world football's governing body, FIFA, and witnessed by huge crowds (sometimes over 10,000) who thronged the National Stadium in Freetown. The aim of the tournament was to sensitize the public that "disability is not inability" and that amputees also had a role in the promotion of sports in any country.
The Sierra Leone squad was made up of predominantly talented youths whose limbs were chopped off by rebels during the country's civil war. Some though had suffered their disability naturally or by accident.
The Sierra Leone government, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and some other patriotic citizens also contributed to make the tournament a success. One of the reasons for organizing the competition was "because the amputees want to use football to promote peace in Africa and to help the reintegration and acceptance of war victims into society", according to the programme coordinator of the Amputee Sport Club of Sierra Leone. He said football was very important to the amputees, because having lost all hopes for the future after they lost their limbs, "playing football and running their own club has given the players back their confidence and their energy".
Jim Frere, an ex-British officer, who helped secure FIFA funding for the event, said: "The dream is now a reality. Look at what it means to people here; all they need is a pair of sticks and a bail. They have fitness, strength and skill-these are athletes. It stops them being second-class citizens".
New African, April 2007, p. 65
Vocabulary:
A limb: an arm or a leg.
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