Rhythm 17 - Craig Bellamy

As footballer’s reputations go, there are few worse than that of Craig Bellamy. Numerous teams and signing bonuses, fights in night clubs, fallings out with teammates including golf club weaponry...you name it, Craig has allegedly done it.

You would think of potentially hundreds of current players who are overtly ‘nicer’ than Bellamy on the pitch, and would consider a similar amount more likely to give away hundreds of thousands of pounds to start a football academy in a developing country like Sierra Leone – the seventh poorest in the entire world.

You know where I’m going with this by now. And as it goes, we happened to visit the Craig Bellamy Football Academy at the tail end of last year. It was quite the experience.

The basic premise of the academy is to recruit the best young players in Sierra Leone, put them through a rigorous training scheme and high quality schooling, with the end goal being that some of them are able to gain scholarships to overseas universities in which the next generation of ‘leaders’ – read into that what you will – that will drive the development of the country on their return.

On the day we visited, the academy team were playing another local team on the best pitch in the entire country. That isn’t hard, of course – the national stadium pitch is effectively weeds – but the surface was good enough for the football to be a high standard.

One player stood out, in more ways than one. Taller than the rest by about a foot, the young striker bagged a hat trick like it was routine. It turns he was one of three players to train with Cardiff City over the summer, in which he more than impressed. Watch this space.

What is truly great about the initiative is the national youth league that Bellamy has set up with the hard work of the organisation that supports the academy. There was simply no such thing in existence when the academy started, but now it is really taking shape.

The wonderfully quirky and forward thinking aspect of the league is that academic achievement and endeavour are taken into account. As such, if a player hasn’t been to school, or has misbehaved in some way, he simply can’t play in the game at the weekend.

As ludicrous coincidence would have it, a documentary entitled ‘Craig Bellamy’s African Dream’ is on ITV4 this week. I would heartily encourage you to watch it. See below for a preview clip:

 

So there you have it, Craig Bellamy is a nice guy after all. And given the way he’s playing right now, his win bonuses will keep the academy and foundation going for a good while yet. Long may it continue.

Rhythm 16 - Lubebay Disco

On my visit to Kenema a few weeks back (see Rhythm 14), after a few near misses I was finally able to indulge in one of the more intriguing social hotspots in the town, known only as ‘Total’.

To clarify, that isn’t a name of a jazzy club or bar – it’s merely a set of tables and chairs surrounding the forecourt of the Total petrol station, where you can drink to your heart’s content from the fridges inside the adjoining shop.

In addition, music is predictably blared through creaking speakers. It’s the usual combination of Salone classics and the latest favourites – including the omnipotent hit of the day, P-Square’s ‘Chop My Money’...which everyone is singing and dancing to right now. We’ve heard it up to ten times in one day, which is actually no bad thing.

Drinking and dancing in a petrol station took an interesting twist when we looked up at the signage on show at the Total. On one side, there is the predictable word ‘Shop’. On the other, however, we noticed that the word ‘Lubebay’ was directly about what is ordinarily known as ‘the pit’ in modern parlance. To those not quite with me, it’s the hole that mechanics work on the underside of the car from.

My only real memory of a pit is from Eastenders, when Grant pushed Phil down the one in The Arches after he found out that his brother had ‘screwed’ his wife Sharon. Poor Grant.

We made our own memories on this occasion, when we decided that the only option was to dance in the Lubebay. As you would, when nobody gives two hoots if you get in there or not. You can do allsorts in a Lubebay – six people can dance snugly, three less snugly, and you can even do a modified but equally titillating lap dance above someone in the Lubebay below.

Like anywhere in the world, Sierra Leone throws up random opportunities for fun. However, if you’d told me before we arrived that I’d dance in a Lubebay with a beer in my hand, just metres away from a petrol pump, I’d have laughed at you.

Rhythm 15 - Hypocatical

Most readers of this will know that I confidently present myself as ‘anti-pet’. It makes me quite unpopular at parties, as I generally decide not to shirk the discussion should someone ever ask me whether I have them or not. Some might say I even happily provoke the debate that often ensues.

Around six weeks ago, we had something of a fraught week of mouse sightings. Nobody sane actually likes mice that invade their house, despite what they might say. At best they are a nuisance; at worst, they have been described by yours truly as “furry little b*****d things” that are dirty and cause havoc.

This set us thinking, and we ascertained that the most effective way of alleviating our rodent friends was...to acquire a cat. Or ‘puss’, as they are affectionately known in Krio. This was quite the detachment for me, as you might expect.

With pride swallowed, we asked the caretakers of our flat to keep their ears open to any nearby male kittens that needed a home. Less than a week later, we had received the merchandise. We had already decided on the name of ‘Ishmood’ – a clever combination of the two caretakers who helped us find him, Ishmael and Mahmood.

It turns out that our new housemate is actually...(yelp)...quite fun to have around. This is, of course, quite challenging for someone who thinks that pet ownership is the final and patronising victory of man over beast. Discuss.

An interesting footnote to Ishmood’s arrival is the fact that despite assurances that he was a ‘man puss’, he is in fact a girl. That hasn’t stopped me calling him ‘mate’ or referring to him as ‘him’. To me, he’s a boy trapped in a girl’s body and that's that. 

Thankfully, Ishmood has served and is still serving his main purpose, which is to be a merciless killer and eschewer of pests. His first kill was a cockroach, which was stridently placed on my flip flop. And we haven’t seen a single mouse since his arrival.

Rhythm 14 - The Smooth and the Rough

Anyone worth their salt knows that the words Sierra and Leone are synonymous with diamonds – blood diamonds, no less, as immortalised by Leone-ardo himself.

The irony of the phenomenonal volume of natural resources the country has is just how much (or little, as the case may be) people benefit from their discovery, sale and re-sale across the world. But that’s for another time.

On a recent field visit to Kenema and Kono districts, I was able to see the two sides of the diamond business in technicolour. This involved (a) visiting a diamond dealer shop in Kenema Township, and (b) observing the effect of mining on communities in both districts.

The dealer shop we were lucky enough to visit was named ‘Ameriken’ – which was either a clever play on words, a worrying typo (well, painto) by the sign maker or simply a rubbish name. I’m almost certain it was the latter, but you never know.

The Lebanese chap who owned the shop was more than happy to show us a variety of diamonds on his expensive-looking desk (which had Liverpool and Brazil football logo stickers affixed to it, tastefully). These ranged from one particularly attractive one worth $80,000 to a pile of around 100 small ones that would total $200. 

His knowledge was extensive, and mightily impressive, but he did squirm at a few questions that were asked in relation to the origin of his diamonds and expressed his micro-displeasure of the Kimberly process, that entails that all should be certificated in-country and declared on arrival at the country of disembarkation.

On the flipside, any journey to the east of the country isn’t complete without seeing the effects that are wrought by diamond (and any old, for that matter) mining. Along the main roads, you can actually see some of the small mines being mined by men, women and children. As well as that, you can’t escape without seeing at least 100 people carrying a mineral sieve – about dartboard size – slung over their shoulder. 

The absurdity of this situation can’t be lost on many people. If even half of the people mining tended to farms instead, this country could most likely feed itself and then some. Yet it simply doesn’t happen, as people chase their fortune by forlornly searching for something that could make their fortune for a while but not sustain them long-term. 

Seeing all of this firsthand takes some accepting, especially when the resultant (though clearly not the only reason for) poverty slaps you in the face as you traverse between villages and towns. It’s pretty stark, when you think about the end product of many of the diamonds – a sparkling engagement ring on a fiancés finger.

Rhythm 13 - Leone Stargazing

A few months ago now, we were lucky enough to secure tickets for the African Nations Cup Qualifier between Sierra Leone and the three-time defending champions Egypt, at the national stadium here in Freetown.

Getting into the stadium was an experience – a friend of ours had her ticket stolen just before entering but after some brinkmanship she got past the first line of security. It turned out the head ticket person at the gate wasn’t pleased with this, and promptly roughed her up and removed her from the stadium (we were able to get her back in, with some extra brinkmanship).

Prior to the game, the Leone Stars (as the national team is known here) were handily placed in their qualifying group but were underdogs before the kick off. Rather than give a self-indulgent match report, watch the video below for what happened:



That’s right, Sierra Leone beat Egypt with a last minute penalty. And the game featured a number of African football clichés – woeful pitch, searing heat and terrible goalkeeping mistakes. It was amazing.

As you can just about see in the video, policeman were actually dancing around the pitch – and thus leaving their post – when the penalty was given and subsequently scored by Mohamed ‘Poborsky’ Bangura (who recently transferred to Celtic). The video doesn’t feature the very brave streaker, in nothing but white briefs, who eluded policeman for about 30 seconds before being escorted from the fray.

The sheer elation of the moment when Poborsky scored the winner sent electricity across the whole stadium, yet also gave a glimpse of how things could get out of control so quickly here. When the final whistle blew, the crowd stormed the pitch and the stands erupted with fervent emotion. It was at that point where it seemed only right to exit, and enjoy a victorious walk home amidst car horns, whistles and flag waving.

I have been to a lot of sporting events, many of which had a lot more riding on them, and none of them compared to this.