Monday Motivation: Where You Live Should Never Determine How You Live
In the vein of International Women’s Month, we are celebrating phenomenal women who to challenge the status quo and dared to be BOLD FOR CHANGE.
Our subject of motivation is a young lady from Uganda, Phiona Mutesi. Phiona was born and raised in Katwe; the largest of the eight slums in Kampala, Uganda. At age three, she lost her dad to the deadly AIDS disease, shortly after her eldest sister also died of unknown causes. Things became extremely tough for her poor uneducated mother, who was charged with raising four children on her own. Phiona had to drop out of school at nine because they could no longer afford to pay fees.
Following her drop out, she took up selling maize in the Katwe street market along with her brother to help make ends meet. By fate, they happened upon a project managed by a sport outreach institute; a Christian and sports mission. The mission ran an after school programme for underprivileged children called the pioneers, who could not afford to be in school. Robert Katende, a football coach was in charge of the after school programme. It was in this programme Mutesi discovered and fell in love with Chess, a game she found fascinating and analytical. She came back every day after selling maize to practice and hone her skill, slowly winning the other kids and taking her place as the champion of the pioneers.
She went on to play and win in the national junior girl’s chess championship in Uganda. In 2010, she represented Uganda at the 39th chess Olympiad in Russia. At the 40th chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey she bagged the woman candidate master title alongside Ivy Amoko, making them the first titled female players in Uganda chess history. She also represented her country’s female team at the 41st chess Olympiad in Norway in 2014.
Not satisfied with being the little girl from the slum of Katwe with a love for chess, she decided to go back to school sitting for her primary school examination in 2010; she finished her secondary education in 2016, at ST. MBUGA vocational secondary school where she was the student president. She is currently waiting to be admitted to the university.
For her efforts in bringing glory to the forgotten Katwe community, she was nicknamed the Queen of Katwe. Several articles, documentaries and books have told her inspiring life story, one of them being the Tim Crothers book entitled: The Queen of Katwe: A story of life, chess and one extraordinary girl’s dream of becoming a grand master. Animation and movie giants Walt Disney pictures optioned the rights to the book in 2012 and made it into a movie titled Queen of Katwe.
The film which stars Lupita Nyongo and David Oyelowo premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th 2016 and has since received positive reviews.
Phiona, is a shining example to young girls and adults worldwide and proof that where you live, doesn’t have to define how you live. In the words of Coach Robert Katende: “Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place where you belong. You belong where you believe you belong.” Never forget that.