Rwanda Football — An Expedition From the Unknown to the Known and Back
What better way to start this post than in first acknowledging the biggest high-ranking fan of the North London Premier League Team.
Looking back at my previous article on between club and country, it is only fair to start with a brief background of “Amavubi” in Kinyarwanda.
Amavubi primarily plays its home games at the Stade Amahoro in Kigali. They have never qualified for a World Cup finals, and reached their first Africa Cup of Nations in 2004 where they lost their opening match to Tunisia before winning their first ever point in the competition after a draw against Guinea. Rwanda went on to beat DR Congo in their final group match before exiting the tournament.
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Team News — Local and International
A recent Eurosport article (14 August 2021), following Arsenal’s performance in their shock defeat to Brentford, captured the disappointment of Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame who said “we just must NOT excuse or accept mediocrity.” The President wrote on Twitter. “A team has to be built with a purpose to win win-win. So that when we lose...it was not to be expected!”
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The Domestic League — where “National Teams” are Made
A recent article “Rwanda: Premier League - Marines Targets Top-Five Finish,” drew my attention to the domestic league with its 16-team composition at the highest tier.
Writing in the national daily, The New Times in December 2020 by Peter Kamasa, “Marines Football Club coach Yves Rwasamanzi says the club has set an ambitious target of finishing in the top five this season and also reach the final of the Peace Cup.”
On closer inspection of the league table, however, I observed that the reigning champions are actually Armée Patriotique Rwandaise FC or APR. Interestingly, there is also the derby at play in that country as Association Sportive de Kigali or AS Kigali (in sixth place have been described as rivals) perhaps due to both clubs being Kigali-based.
The Presidential competitive spirit is not lost on coaches and/ or managers as Rwasamanzi points out, “We have to move from being a bottom half club to the mid-table this season. For the last few seasons, we have mostly finished in 10th place but the club management, players and myself have challenged ourselves to finish in the top 5 and we think this is achievable…”
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Closing Thoughts — Soft Power and the Road to CHOGM
From all indications the soft power seems to be reaping rewards as Rwanda takes its hard-earned seat (Chair-in-Office) at the table once the postponements of the initially scheduled 2021 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) are resolved.
“The UK has been Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth since the Heads of Government Meeting in London in April 2018 and will hand over the role to Rwanda at the next Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali.”
Last but not least, Zimbabwe wants back in “Zimbabwe seeks Rwanda’s support to rejoin Commonwealth,” according to The Zimbabwe Mail (28 September 2021), and who did they turn to? You guessed right.
