SYDI: Youth Use Sport to Curb the Drug Menace
The league brought together 38 wrestlers from four teams within Nairobi to engage in a freestyle Africa wrestling aiming at getting the best from the teams.
When the contestants hit the ground to flex their muscles and prove their invincibility, a winner is declared by a flap down of an opponent on his back.
Kivuli Bull Fighters, an affiliate to SYDI, was the host of the tournament. They are based in Dagoreti on the western party of Nairobi. The team leader Ken Ambale explains the deplorable state the youth in Dagoretti were finding themselves in by use of drug brought about by the high rate of unemployment. He says these activities will bring the youth of Dagoretti area in Nairobi together so as to engage in constrictive matters rather that indulge in drug use that has destroyed many of his friends.
"This sport is aimed at bring the youth of Dagoreti together because some of them are already engaging in drug use and criminal activities. We also aim to enrich our culture", says Ambale.
Early in June, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared war on drug trafficking, ordering police to arrest perpetrators and deport foreigners involved in the trade.
Traditional wrestling was a very important feature of life in ancient Africa. The sport was immensely popular in Egypt, Nubian, and West Africa and in many other parts of the continent before the colonial era threatened it with extinction. Despite this long period of lag, the sport’s unwritten memory somehow faltered its way into independent Africa. In some parts it simply never faded, for instance, among the Nuba people of Central Sudan, where African wrestling remained a widely practiced activity despite colonialism and Sudan’s long civil war. Several efforts are today being pursued to restore the sport’s popularity across Africa.