The official theme of this year ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress’ too is not bad. It must be one of the best the bureaucrats of the United Nations came up with in the recent past, well always a theme it is, if we consider that a few months ago the same United Nations found that the world is failing to achieve gender equality, making it an increasingly distant goal. If current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.

A forecast that the women of Mukwamba Village can only live bucking the trend is the one that the next generation of women will spend on average 2.3 more hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work than men … here for our participants the situation can only get better because as at now the men do nothing at home, and often even outside the home.

The races started late almost at midday because the athletes of all categories kept coming for the registration, but the long wait too was lived with joy and happiness, a chance to stay together laugh and have fun; like the two seventy-year-old who sprinted more than once along the last uphill for a placement at the back of the rankings, with the audience in raptures. Our friends from our long-term supporter of the Women’s Race, Associazione Progetto Jacaranda would have fitted in! Well yes! It could seem odd that we have an audience, even some ultras; there is an audience because by now the Women’s Race is a show, where the arrival uphill represents the natural final catwalk, the slope slows the athletes down who enjoy the arrival and the audience. At the arrival for all there is the race pack with the highly sought after pads, exercise books for the Juniors, jiggies and drinks. And then the super lunch with nsima and chicken!

The prize giving ceremony is second to only the Olympics, in the hall of the preschool filled to the brims it is impossible to find a place to sit or stand, 25 women rewarded for each category. Here for posterity the first three:

Junior (under 12 years)

1) Jannifer Mukombwe

2) Gracious Mwaliteta

3) Rachel Mukomba

Senior (13 – 30 years)

1) Esnart Choongo

2) Joyce Chola

3) Sarah Chaba

Master (above 30 years)

1) Yuste Chikambwe

2) Eunice Sekeleti

3) Lavender Shampangu

See you next year, also thanks to our sponsors who we thank, other than Associazione Progetto Jacaranda there are the Patel family, Forlì Duathlon, Dairago Run and Parmalat Zambia.

Boss Lady … this is the shirt that Clare decided to wear during the Women’s Race. Boss Lady … 28 years old, but she is not really sure … She is from Southern Province and stopped going to school in third grade, when you ask her why she replies “Khaya” – I don’t know – shrugging with a resigned smile … at some point her parents stopped sending her to school … “Khaya” … She speaks only Tonga, but always laughs and smiles, she is interested in many things … I think she would have been a brilliant student.

#choosetochallenge!

(it is the official hashtag of International Women’s Day 2021)

Even this year in Mukwamba Village the race is female! It is for mothers, daughters and grandmothers. And at times even great-grandmothers, like the three over 80 who closed the arrivals at the top of the very steep final up-hill that ends at the gate of the school. Many generations of women, like provincial sport clubs, have been meeting one another for the past seven years at the Chakwela Makumbi School, taking a day of well-deserved rest from the many daily difficulties.

#choosetochallenge! It is to participate!

‘I have really enjoyed!’ told me Ruth, a slim athlete of 46 years, already a grandmother, already a mother but never an athlete before than today.

More than 300 women at a sport event in Zambia, moreover in the bush, were never before seen. Three categories: Under 12, Under 30 and Over 30. Many known faces like Dorothy Shawa and Ruth Kapempe, champions in many Never Give Up and now too young mothers, maybe spurred on by the exceptional Esther Mweswa a fantastic second in the under 30 after giving birth in the last few months. She has won a mattress where she will rest and cuddle her baby boy. Many new faces especially among the Over 30 like Winnie Lukomba from Kabwesa, first, Lainess Lishosho, second, and Jean Zingani excellent third. Continue reading →

I am sure I must have said it already a thousands times, but the Mungu-Kabweza is my
favourite race! Once you have passed the second gate it is like stepping into a new world.

What  I like the most is the people. A Coach from Kafue Town once told to never trust people from Kabweza: ‘they are all witches’, it is enough about 10 km to transform someone you do not know into something scary and to stay away from. Superstition, ignorance, fear are a dangerous mix and not only in Africa! Continue reading →