Meet Zambia’s singing goalkeeper - Adda Namazuwo
|Adda represented Zambia at the Africa Women’s Cup in Tanzania.
You often hear the Zambian team before you see them. They sing everywhere they go – on the bus, on the pitch before the game starts, they even sang on their flight from Zambia to Tanzania.
Their confidence and joyful approach to life spills over into the rest of the tournament and speaking to Adda Namazuwo, their goalkeeper – you quickly find out what brings the women together – a love of football, but also a family-like support network – where they all take care of each other.
It helps that the team has grown up together, Adda first joined BUSA (Bauleni United Sports Academy) when she was 19-years-old – in her thirties she came back to the programme after her marriage broke down. At 38-years-old, she’s part of the women’s programme for 35-49 year olds. BUSA also have a group for women who are 50 and over.
Adda explains “There are a lot of women in Zambia playing football. Women come so they can escape the stress in their lives. We talk to them about gender-based violence and teach them how they can be safe.”
Adda is now a peer-educator and mentor for other women, sharing her experience from her marriage when her husband became violent.
“When I came back home, he started beating me, insulting me in front of my children. Now through BUSA I am fighting alone and looking forward and finding what I can do to change my children’s lives.
| “There are a lot of women in Zambia playing football”
“We like chatting together and we always play together in our 30-49 group. All of us used to play at BUSA, when I came back from my marriage, one of the coaches called me back and I called my friends and we started again. [Through football and the programme] I learned how to forget the depression I had. That’s when started to teach others.”
She’s also passed on her love of football to her three children who are 19, 15 and eight. One of the other consistent features of their life is BUSA. It has played a pivotal role for Adda – supporting her through some of her lowest points as well as offering her opportunities she never thought she’d get.
“It’s important because I was also playing at BUSA when I got married, there was violence in my home, so I got in contact with the BUSA programme and now I am divorced. Through the BUSA programmes, I am now a coach and participating in other programmes and encouraging the young ones, raising awareness of gender-based violence and doing good.”
With such strong women around her and the support network at BUSA, this is just the start of Adda’s new journey, and she’s bringing other women with her.
The Africa Women’s Cup took place in Arusha in Tanzania from 29-30th June 2024. Adda played for Zambia, which is represented by Bauleni United Sports Academy (BUSA).
The tournament is part of a two-year FIFA Foundation funded programme which is bringing together four African Homeless World Cup member countries – Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – to raise awareness of gender-based violence and develop and implement a new curriculum to help protect vulnerable women.