THE BIRTH OF UNEXPECTED CHAMPIONS: How chess is changing lives in Africa.

Before now, we used to see the game ‘’chess” as a game meant only for the rich folks, the privileged smart ones. This is because they are the ones that can afford a chess board. But recently in Africa, that seems to be changing. But before diving deep into this, let us take a look at a brief history of chess in Africa. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF CHESS IN AFRICA. 

According to Wikipedia, The board game senet preceded chess and was favored by Ancient Egyptian royalty. Chess is thought to have first made its way to Africa through shatranj. As the Muslim conquest of Persia occurred, the Muslims took and modified chatrang, adopting it as shatranj. Shatranj is recognized as the immediate predecessor to chess. While chess in Europe has received considerable more attention by chess historians, it is thought that the game made its way to Europe from the Moors of North Africa.

THE BIRTH OF GREATNESS ATTRACTS GREAT MINDS.

Recently in Africa, some beautiful souls are changing the narrative that the game chess is meant for the elites only, they are not just teaching the less privileged how to play the game, they are also crowning children in the slum kings and queens of chess, rewriting their stories, giving them new hope and direction, restoring those long faded smiles to the faces of their parents, and saving them from being a danger to the society and themselves as well.

Katwe chess academy  

In  Uganda, we saw the first of its kind in Katwe Chess Academy. The life changing impact of this Academy and the story of Queen Pheona got the attention of Disney World, which gave birth to the award winning movie QUEEN OF KATWE.

In this movie, a teacher Robert Katende changes the stories of his students, giving them a better reason to live, crowning them chess champions, and putting Katwe on the world map. That will be a story for another day, but if you are yet to see this beautiful movie, then I suggest you go check it out. Less I forget, it is a nonfiction story, in case you are a die-hard fan of nonfiction stories. 

Chess in slum Africa 

This is another organization doing great things with the game of chess in Nigeria. CHESS IN SLUM AFRICA is a nonprofit organization initiated by a chess master Tunde Onakoya in 2018 to change the stories of the less privileged children, to give them new hope and direction, to get them to see way beyond their current situations, to let them know that they also can be kings and queens, to change their mindset and save them from being a danger to the society.

These organizations have attracted many great mind, men, women and organizations with the intention of contributing to the growth and betterment of the organizations, which in turn contributes positively to the society- as at the time of writing this article, Tunde Onakoya has recently broken the Guinness World Records as the longest chess marathon. 

THE IMPACT OF CHESS IN AFRICA. 

Building our society. 

The game chess as we all know is a game that requires lots of patience, strategies and critical thinking. This game helps build our society by changing the mindset of our children, teaching them about other aspects of life other than the physical, getting them to know about their abilities other than their physical strength, this helps them develop their mental capacity and as we all know, an engaged mind is a resourceful and powerful one, this makes them less prospects of violence. 

Family.

Family is not just a place where values and beliefs are instilled, it is also a place where they are checked and corrected. Intentional parents don’t just stop at instilling values and beliefs in their children, they go an extra mile of watching them to know when they miss it so as to correct them and get them back to (purpose) track.

But unfortunately, some children raised in the slums, rural areas, motherless babies homes, dysfunctional homes have no value and beliefs instilled in them not to talk about them being checked and corrected. 

What then is the fate of these children, those with no parents, those ones with unintentional parents, those ones from a poor background? 

• Who tells them that they are beautifully and perfectly made?
• Who tells them that they can be great? 
• Who tells them that they can go beyond their limitations? 
• Who challenges them to take up benefiting tasks? 
• Who gets them to challenge and engage their minds? 
• Who teaches them the right thing and discourages them from doing the wrong thing. 

Prior to the emerging of these beautiful chess organizations, there was little or no hope for children in this category, it was obvious that most of them will end up being one of those big thugs they despise or that promiscuous aunty that gave birth to numerous kids out of wedlock and don’t know how to take care of them, but now, these organizations have stepped up, not only teaching them how to play chess but also how to stand out in the society. 

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

There is hope for a tree that is cut down… 

This was not the reality of these less privileged children before these organizations stepped up, the fate of these innocent children were left in the hands of society, they literally learnt everything they know about life from the society and we all know that society is not the best place for one to build his/her beliefs because 90% of what they want is to satisfy themselves and take advantage of the weak. 

Take the story of Pheona from Uganda and Fawaz from Nigeria – and the rest – for example, these were kids that never knew that their story will one day change for good, but the game of chess gave them hope and opportunities to compete with their peers around the world, most of these kids have never seen the four walls of a school before they came in contact with chess, but here they are traveling round the world and motivating other kids with their story. 

CONCLUSION 

We at the battle of the mind are big on family, meaning that we believe that to make the world a better place, we must start from the root which is the family. But we are also not neglecting those in the street, those that have nowhere to call home, those that have circumstances bigger than them forced to end up in the street, those with no parent(s), guidance or mentor. 

Which is why we appreciate, celebrate and encourage the acts and good works of these brave minds and organizations standing in to be the parents and providing a good family for these children. 

Our society needs more organizations with like minds, organizations that will ensure that our young minds don’t lose their innocence and that people don’t take advantage of them because of their circumstance.