Shadia is flying high in Tanzania
|Shadia represented Uganda at the Africa Women’s Cup in Tanzania.
“I’m going to get a photo of me on a plane and pin it on the wall, my first journey on a plane.
I felt like I was above the sky.”
Shadia Nambasa has dreamed of going on a plane for as long as she can remember and she’s been telling her friends for years that one day, she will travel. They’d started to roll their eyes, but she never gave up. In June 2024, her dream became a reality when she stepped onto a plane, travelling from Uganda to Tanzania to represent her country at the Africa Women’s Cup.
The dream didn’t end there, the Ugandan team were dominant over the two-day tournament and beat the hosts in the final to become champions.
Inspired by their victory, Shadia wants to use their new title to change perceptions back home: “That is going to motivate us to stand on our feet and fight for our rights. It’s a source of motivation that we can do better despite the gender disparity in our country.”
“Personally, I’m inspired – Tanzania has a female president. If we can take back that perspective to Uganda and inspire each girl that we get to the peak of everything, so that we are motivated to change our lives, rather than having men taking the lead in everything. I think that way the world will become a better place.”
Shadia is highly motivated to be part of that change. As the only girl in a family with eight brothers, she knows what it’s like to be the only girl in a situation – whether that be on the football pitch or at home.
But instead of feeling like the odd one out, Shadia says “My brothers believe in me. Whatever I’m doing I have eight people behind me.”
|“My brothers believe in me. Whatever I’m doing I have eight people behind me.”
Growing up in a household as the only girl among many boys has defined her approach to life.
“I don’t know how to describe it - I have a female appearance but with a masculine outlook, whatever they did, I had to do that. They were the only people around me. Unfortunately, there was no mother, so at times I had to become the mother for them.
It was a challenging experience especially as a teenager and through adolescence, because I had to act more feminine, especially during that menstrual hygiene period. I had to exclude myself from them. Then obviously society judges, why do you behave like a boy? It was just an influence that I had growing up in a family made up of boys.”
While Shadia was playing football with her brothers, she was approached by a local academy and asked to join their team.
“Youth Sport Uganda (YSU) to me is a testament that life can change in the blink of an eye. We were at the pitch one day and they came and asked if they could enrol me in their programme about menstrual hygiene and mental health. I was picked to represent my academy and that’s how I started with YSU.”
|Uganda were champions in Arusha beating hosts Tanzania
Through YSU she was able to develop personally as well as in her football, which gave her the confidence to progress in her education.
“In most cases for us Ugandan girls, after finishing senior four – the next question is ‘when are you getting married?’ The boy children are the ones to take the lead in everything – they should study from the top schools. The disparity is really affecting girls’ mental health.”
This, Shadia explains, is demotivating for girls because there is no expectation for them to continue their education as marriage is the ‘end route’. Another issue with Ugandan society, Shadia says is its outlook on women and girls.
“We are growing up with the perspective that men are superior to us – so whatever the man decides has to be true. In terms of gender-based violence, the perspective in Uganda is that women are inferior, and women are always in the wrong. There is no way that gender-based violence is being spoken about unless victims are being empowered to speak about it and to stand up and fight for their rights. Without that, it will still exist but there will be no solution for it.
“I don’t think that women are aware of their rights. We grow up thinking that we are behind the feet of the men – it’s like we grow up knowing that men are taking the lead and we are just following. We have our rights but there is no way we can get them without asking the men first. Our rights are there but we can’t express them unless men allow us.
“It is a bit frustrating because you can think as a girl, I need this, but I can’t access it unless I’m permitted by my father, my brother, my uncle. I have to get permission from the men around me.”
Despite this, Shadia secured funding to study social work at Makerere University - one of the top universities in Uganda - and is more motivated than ever. Her dream is to work for the United Nations and support children from deprived areas in Uganda – especially the Karamojong children in Kampala who she sees on her journeys to and from university.
“I’m viewing the world in a different perspective – studying from one of the top universities in Uganda has changed my perspective in that despite of our poor background and past there is still light as long as you have that personal capability. I just feel like my dreams are going to come true.”
The Africa Women’s Cup took place in Arusha in Tanzania from 29-30th June 2024. Shadia played for Uganda, which is represented by Youth Sport Uganda.
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.
Words & Images: Rebecca Corbett