{UAH} Marathoner or monster, who will define Uganda? - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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Marathoner or monster, who will define Uganda? - Comment
Ugandans rarely win big in world sport, but when they do it is with some style.
Last week, Stephen Kiprotich blew the field away to win gold in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
It was Uganda's first ever gold at these Championships. During the London Olympics last year, Kiprotich was in fine form again, winning gold in the marathon. Uganda went hysterical, as it was the first gold for the country since the Munich Olympics of 1972.
Another Ugandan, Juma Kalikwani, also won gold in London but it was ignored because it was in the inaugural Olympics freestyle kayaking event and the half a dozen entrants all got gold.
Kiprotich has become a national hero, and his image graces billboards wherever you look.
Athletes like Kiprotich, and other world middle and long distance runners in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi, however don't just run their way into the bank and history books. They run against history.
African countries tend to get stuck with images, reputations, or stereotypes that time just seems unable to change. Or they can be identified with an individual, either for good or bad, whose mark becomes virtually indelible.
In Uganda's case, it is the military dictator Idi Amin. Amin ruled for a short and brutal eight years between 1971 and 1979. The image of him as a murderous, sex-crazed cannibal is still very much alive 34 years after he left power, and 10 since his death.
Kiprotich is one of the few Ugandans who have done something spectacular live on the world stage that seriously offered a counter-narrative about Uganda as the country of Amin.
Interestingly, many Ugandans in between, including President Yoweri Museveni, could very easily be forgotten in the years to come. There will Amin, and then Kiprotich — and even then Amin may still trump him.
In Kenya, all the glory its athletes have brought it, have not yet eclipsed its popular image in the world as the land of prancing Maasais and wildlife safaris. All the big people and other characters that swagger around in Nairobi, are largely irrelevant to that script.
Likewise, the great Ethiopian athletes are also running against history — the stereotype of the country as a land of famine.
In Rwanda, no matter how good the story it tries to tell today, and how much it tries to portray itself as the sanctuary of the rare mountain gorilla, for another 40 years it will be remembered as the scene of one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.
Tanzania is a little different. Its founding father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, still eclipses everything in the republic. Nyerere was venerated at home and abroad, and it is widely expected that some day soon a Pope will make him a saint.
Tanzania is no longer the nice and gentle land that Nyerere, who died in 1999, left when he retired in 1985 and died in 1999. The good thing for it is that the world seems to think it is.
Not too many countries find themselves in the fortunate position of not needing to rewrite their history. But for the likes of Uganda and Kenya, we need the boys and girls not just to run, but also to win.
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