Mr. Kenneth Obi

FREELANCE JOURNALIST 

FOOTLESS FOOTIE

By Kenneth Obi-First in a Series

PICTURE THIS - two soccer teams on a playing field. Nothing unusual about that, except that these players are no ordinary players: they are all leg-less. By that I mean they each have one leg missing. The anti-government rebels in Sierra Leone [West Africa] ruthlessly chopped off their legs. The rebels - also known as the Revolutionary United Front [RUF] went on a spree of raping, killing, amputating and maiming of innocent people's bodies simply so they could gain as much international attention as possible - to further their 'cause'. One thing they could never maim or amputate though was the hearts and souls of their victims. The soccer match I witnessed on this day was a true testimony to that.

At seven AM, on a Saturday morning, I arrived at the Murray Town War Amputated People's Camp in Freetown [the capital of Sierra Leone] - where most of the amputee soccer players live. The team's coach, a certain Charles Mansaray was busy, hurrying members of his team into the waiting vehicle. All you could see were one-legged young men, crutches between their arms, skillfully boarding the bus waiting to carry them off to the soccer playing field. I soon noticed that even the driver of the vehicle was an amputee - his right arm was missing, and he wore a prosthetic one!

''These youth are traumatized,'' Charles started telling me, as we took our seats and the vehicle pulled out. ''but, by playing football they can forget their problems for a while, and more importantly, even though they are amputees this proves to them that that is not the end of their lives. It also makes them feel important, makes them feel like any other men!''

The young men were all chanting some local tunes. I deduced it was all a bravado thing - with each team boasting of how they were gonna beat the other. At this point I felt quite comfortable with the entire team and smiled back at them. I was not so relaxed just a week ago, when I had initially popped into the offices of World Hope International [WHI]. WHI is one of the very few Non-Governmental Organizations in Sierra Leone dedicated to caring for the amputated victims of the ten-year civil. There I had been told that they have a team of war amputated men who play football every Saturday. My immediate response had been, ''oh, you mean the war victims whose hands or ears were cut off are playing soccer?'' ''No,'' came the reply coupled with a gentle yet firm smile from Reverend Kano - the National Coordinator for World Hope International, ''these young men have all lost their legs in the war.'' I really did not believe it. How, my mind asked, is that possible? My eyes widened and my lips parted ''that's impossible!' I heard myself utter. Yet now, here I was, off with the very same fellas, off to watch them play some footie [soccer] - ''Footless Footie''.

En-route to the playing field, we saw a young two-legged man waving for us to stop, which we did. This man turned out to be the matches' referee - a certain Pastor Samai Mambud. Within thirty minutes we got to the field - a smoothened large earth-brown dirt patch of land, with trees and shrubs at the sides doubling as the field's perimeters - with the proverbial goal posts at either end of the pitch. The pitch itself was unmarked and unlined. Apparently, this was no ordinary playing field. The field had been specifically mainly because of its smooth surface - no stones. Stones that may obstruct the movement of the men on crutches…

Charles introduced me to the players and Maxwell the Team Captain. He told me that both sides are provisionally called the Sierra Leone Single Leg Amputee Soccer [SLSLAS]Team. The reason for this being that they are in fact one soccer team - just playing friendly matches against themselves. Maxwell the Team Captain, a fellow amputee interjected, ''We have sent out an open challenge to other amputee soccer teams across the nation. We want to stage friendly matches across the parts of the country that are still safe to visit, wherever there are amputee football players. From these matches we will then select the best of the best, to strengthen the national team that will tour other countries that have similar amputees for some serious international footless footie!'' He went on to say that the players are working on the idea themselves. At this point Charles interjected, ''We, the staff of World Hope International prefer not to interfere in their plans and activities. We believe it is better to allow them to make their own decisions - as men. Our role is to offer advice, as and when it is needed. And of course, we supervise the matches every Saturday.''

From Monday to Friday, Charles Mansaray works as one of the Limb-Fitting Technicians at World Hope International - one of the very few Non-Governmental Organizations in Sierra Leone dedicated to caring for the amputated victims of the ten-year rebel war. On Saturdays, Charles dons his soccer gear - a tracksuit and a pair of tough playing boots and doubles up as the SLSLAS coach. He gets up as early as six AM and goes to collect his team of soccer players. And, just like Charles, the matches' referee, Pastor Samai Mambud works during the week, within the church circles. He told me that if they were to bring in an ordinary referee, he would not understand their unique rules and regulations - like the one on players not touching or moving the ball with their crutches. ''That,'' he said, ''is equivalent to a handball! They must only use their one leg. The crutches are to be used only for moving around the pitch. Besides, an external match referee wouldn't do all this for free either. We do all this for free, you know: out of the kindness of our hearts, as Saturdays are our days off. This is a labor of love for us. Every Saturday we attend and supervise the matches... We sacrifice our time, money for transport and so forth for this meaningful and very important project.''

By now the two teams seemed very much eager to get the games started. Charles sat on the wooden bench with me whilst the pastor-referee went off to get things moving. Soon, he blew his whistle and the match had begun. Grown young men, running around the pitch with crutches under their arms - amazing. Then I suddenly remembered something. On my visit to the offices of World Hope International, I had been informed that every amputee victim on their books has a prosthetic arm or leg. And, I had also been told that all these players were on their books. ''Why,'' I asked Charles, ''are the players not wearing their prosthetic legs?'' His reply was that with the crutches, the players have more movement support [from their arms] and control than they would have if they wore their prosthetic legs.

I turned my head towards the goalkeepers, and immediately assumed that one was an amputee - because I could see that one of his arms was missing. I also assumed that the other goalkeeper was a non-amputee, as he was not using crutches and had two arms. Sure enough, they were BOTH amputees. ''The goalkeepers don't need to run or move around as much as the players, so we allow them to wear their prosthetic legs,'' Charles told me, ''and that is because they need to use their HANDS to catch the ball, rather than using them to hold onto crutches.'' Well, that made perfect sense. So, even goalkeepers were one-legged players, moving around so fluidly on prosthetic legs! As for the other goalkeeper, the one with one arm missing, Charles had this to say, ''we sometimes sallow one-armed amputees to be goalkeepers too.'' It was truly incredible, seeing the goalkeeper with the one arm missing stop and catch the ball in mid air - with one arm!

Within the first few minutes of play, one could very quickly tell that these guys were not new to this type of soccer. They kicked and played the ball with such ease, crutches under their arms and all. ''Handball!'' the referee yelled out as he blew his whistle. One of the players, a number seven in a Green jersey had [intentionally?] touched the football with his crutch. This provided the other side - wearing the Blue jerseys - with a chance for a penalty kick. They took it with glee! The use of crutches, I was soon to discover, can be quite a seriously dangerous item in a game of soccer. This is mainly because it could seriously harm another player.

One of the players, a number five in the Green jersey was tripped over and fell down [foul play, if you ask me!]. He lay there - immediately attended to by Charles and Pastor Samai Mambud - the referee - for almost one full minute. ''It is our duty as Technical staff to step in if anything goes wrong on a physical level,'' the Pastor-referee told me later. Luckily all was well with player number five. The guy got up and rejoined the rest of the team. Apparently, World Hope International is currently in the process of designing protective devices for the players, with padded foam, to protect players from such falls and other potentially hazardous accidents to their stumps and / or good legs. Charles told me that the materials for producing these are available in the country: ''Wherever we can, we try to use locally available materials to create long lasting devices for our amputees. These are cheaper, and also means that we don't have to rely on the international community all the time for spare parts and so forth.''

How time flies when you're having fun! Soon, the referee blew his whistle - end of the first half. The score: zero for both teams…

During the half-time break, I took the opportunity to ask Charles and Maxwell, the Captain about one of the players. By now I could tell the difference between a person moving around on a prosthetic leg and one without this, and this player was definitely standing and playing with two feet, albeit that the two feet looked buckled around and below the ankle. Charles informed me that this was a case of 'Syme Amputation' - amputation on the ankle joints. Meaning that such an individual had had the misfortune of meeting rebels who had attempted to chop off both feet, just around the ankles. Charles tried to verify the matter and asked Maxwell. It turns out that that was actually not the case. The player in question had actually been born so. It was simply a birth defect. ''He's one of our best players,'' Maxwell informed me. He also took this as an opportunity to boast of how he, the team captain, was the fastest player in the SLSLAS, and of how he had scored four brilliant goals within the first five minutes of the game last Saturday. Well, of course I was not there, so… The Pastor-referee soon came over and joined our conversation. He had this to say, ''The SLSLAS was started in February this year and consists of thirty amputee players. And already, we have been invited to go play with other amputees in Rio, Brazil, but we could not afford to go. We need some financial backing. We need football boots, more crutches, footballs, and of course a vehicle!''

The main item they all kept telling me they needed right now is a vehicle of their own. ''Because of the lack of this,'' Maxwell the coach began, 'we have not been able to go and sensitize other amputee teams across the country about our activities. Nor have we been able to go visit the rebels…'' The rebels? I wondered why do they want to go and visit the rebels, those who had performed all these atrocious deeds upon them in the first place? ''We want to sensitize them too, we want them to know that we have forgiven them. Of course, we can forgive, but we can never forget… We want to use this as an opportunity to go and get the message across to them that they should disarm, and that no harm shall befall them if they do so. We will welcome them, as brothers who took the wrong route.'' For someone who had just spent forty-five minutes running around on the soccer pitch, Maxwell had tons of energy to get his views across. He continued, ''we are trying to show the public that we are not useless - we are capable of many things. All we need is to be assisted in many ways, to achieve our dreams of playing international footless footie…''

Charles also told me that next Saturday they are expecting the arrival of a professional coach, to work alongside him. ''With professional coaching, we expect our team to be fully ready to play international games at the end of three months of coaching,'' he enthused. Maxwell joyfully joined in, ''This has all been a blessing in disguise because now we have something to look forward to. We don't spend our Saturdays and Wednesdays idle anymore! The soccer is also very good exercise for us!''

The whistle was blown: beginning of the second half of the match! As the minutes flew by, so the pace picked up - men with crutches clattering fast around the pitch. These guys were picking up speed and wholeheartedly focusing on the endeavor at hand. The ball was flying in the air - as it would in any other soccer match. Suddenly a number eleven in the Blue jersey scored a goal. ''It's a goal!!!'' He was jubilant, tumbling on the ground with sheer joy! It was all so sudden that the players in the Green jersey almost stopped in mid-motion, wondering just how that had happened… Surprisingly, the ball itself always remained within the field, hardly ever being inexpertly kicked off field. The player wearing Blue jersey number eleven, who had scored the first goal of the match, was now passing the ball to number three. Number three tried to whack the ball in from the corner into the goal post… and missed. A cry of mild disapproval thundered from the spectators. By now both teams were getting highly excited: the Greens desperately wanted to equalize, while the Blues wanted to further their lead with yet another goal. A lot of vicious macho pushing and shoving, and some serious tackling tactics were being employed by both sides, just like in any other game I have ever witnessed. The players were even head-butting the ball to each other.