[ad_1]
Angelo Legge was introduced to club chess during his civil engineering studies in Khartoum during the South's War of Independence from the south.
JUBA – The scorching sun is finally beginning to dive on a late Saturday afternoon in Juba, where a small group is meeting to witness a tense battle between two of their best men.
Deng Costa, 28, with a soft and nervous voice, looks at the chessboard with anguish. Angelo Legge, 36, speaks softly, with a fake gold watch and a mischievous gleam in his eyes, counteracting his Sicilian defense at every stroke. .
Beside the small courtyard where they face each other, a deafening roar of young men crammed into a wooden structure and watching a Premier League football game briefly break their concentration.
But that's not enough to help Costa.
Legge – who says some call him "Angelo the Great" – imprisons him in his failure. Costa is snarling.
Nevertheless, after more than five years of war, opposing different ethnic groups of the emerging country to each other, the Munuki Chess Club is a haven of peace and coexistence.
& # 39; IN CHESS, I FIND SOLUTIONS & # 39;
It's a typical week-end at the chess club, one of South Sudan's many war-torn clubs, where the growing enthusiasm for the game has seen the country win its first gold medal in a international competition since its independence in 2011.
Legge was initiated to club chess during his civil engineering studies in Khartoum, during the South's war of independence from the south.
In the first tournament of chess ever held in South Sudan in 2014, he ranked third.
For the young man struggling to forge a life in a country where war left millions like him in limbo, chess is a panacea.
"When I feel traumatized by my engineering projects … I go to chess, I find solutions," he said.
"It's a matter of time pbading, but also to refresh my spirit and give me a vision of what will be my next move in life."
& # 39; FRATERNITY & # 39;
"As you can see, most of the different ethnicities and tribes here play chess, we become a fellowship and we establish respect among ourselves," Legge said.
His opponent, Costa, who learned to play in adolescence, studied applied sciences at the University of Juba and dreams of one day going to the Chess Olympiad.
"Chess brings people together and that's why I love it, hopefully the failures will be … the second most popular game in South Sudan after football."
The Failure Association of Southern Sudan was co-founded by Jada Albert Modi in 2009, two years before independence.
She became a full member of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which hosted the first Olympiad attended by players from the country.
"It was a shock to some of our players, it was the first time that some of them were leaving the country," Modi told AFP.
The South Sudanese came second in their group, but two years later, they came in first, beating another 45 countries.
"It was South Sudan's first gold medal in all sports," said Modi.
FIDE ranks South Sudan 126th out of 185 countries. Egypt ranks first among African nations with number 47.
CHALLENGES BETWEEN BATTLES
Modi says the popularity of the game is hard to pin down.
"During the liberation struggle, when officers and soldiers did not fight, they played chess, and many of our senior government officials play chess."
Modi is proud of the cohesiveness of the Munuki Club's chess players, named after a district in Juba, where doctors or ambbadadors also play against students.
"There is really a lot of diversity … This unit was demonstrated during the 2013 conflict, we talked here, and in 2016, the same thing – it did not create a fracture," he said. said about the two major battles in Juba.
"I think that sport really brings people together (…) and that Southern Sudan really needs people to know each other – not through the tribal or ethnic lens, but through abilities, abilities, leisure and mutual interests, "added Modi.
The president of the chess badociation dreams of one day when South Sudan has a space – free of any noisy football fan – to play chess with complete peace of mind and programs featuring the play in schools, especially girls.
And, who knows, he adds, there may also be a "number of grand masters", the highest title that a chess player can get.
"The challenge we face is getting in. You have to allow your players to play competitively … and financially, most of our players can not afford it," Modi said.
LOOKING FOR STABILITY
Juba was shaken by a violent bloodshed when war broke out between supporters of President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar in December 2013 and again in July 2016, when a peace agreement was reached. 39 is collapsed.
The last agreement to end the war was signed in September 2018 and fighting has largely stopped in much of the country, with residents of Juba noting the absence of gunfire in the evening.
For young people like Legge, peace gives the possibility to a stable future.
"We need our leaders to stick to the peace agreement because we, as a generation – me, as an engineer – want to participate.
"I want to have the role of putting something on the ground."
[ad_2]
Source link
