Claudette Habimana Mugwaneza, commonly known as Bucumu, will never forget a time she broke her ankle badly in a basketball game. Her defense and rebounding prowess was relied on big time, and her team was losing.

She was playing for Etoile Basketball Club, facing Lycée de Kigali. The game was to qualify one of the teams to represent the country in international competitions, so it was wild.

As she was crying, sitting on the bench, the pain wasn’t the only thing on her mind, but watching her team lose such an important game was also breaking her.

The president of Etoile instructed the team doctor to inject her with pain-numbing sedatives. "He gave me a shot on my ankle and told me that after three minutes, I will walk for 30 seconds and if I don’t feel pain, I will go back in the game.”

She went back to the game with a swollen ankle, but they won anyway, and this is just one story of many others she says she can never forget in her career as a basketball and volleyball player.

Growing up, Bucumu never dreamt that she would have a career in sports. She would play just for fun when she was in her primary school and started featuring in inter-school competitions when she went to secondary school in 1990.

In 1994, her father was killed during the Genocide against the Tutsi. It was a lot to deal with for her, and she needed to get it off her mind. 

"Young people at that time were depressed; some were the only survivors in their families. We needed a place to hide from all that; a place we could have fun and feel loved again.”

In 1995, she learned of that a man called François Ngamije who had started a women’s basketball team called ‘Etoile Basketball Club’, and that he was scouting for people who were interested in the game. She joined the club and that would be the start to her grand career in basketball at the age of 18.

But, to keep herself active and busy, Bucumu also ventured into volleyball the following year – with Kigali Volleyball Club (KVC) – and she was equally good at it. She admits it was a challenging quest to play both games but she loved it.

"I trained every day of the week. Saturdays would be match days for basketball, and Sundays would be for volleyball. I could manage it.”

In 2000, she was given a scholarship at the University of Rwanda (formerly Université National du Rwanda – UNR), where every expense she was to make was covered.

"My mother never paid my school fees since I started playing. Every team I played for knew that my school fees was a priority they had to take care of.”

Unfortunately, her mother passed away not long after she enrolled to the Huye-based University, and she had to take care of their home, so she was forced to transfer from UNR to ULK, in Kigali, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. 

She had two daughters, and she would let the baby have at least eight months before she returns to the field, something she describes as normal for a sportswoman.

Challenges

It was regarded as a taboo for a girl to get out of the house to play, let alone engaging in competitive sport. Although Bucumu had convinced her mother that she had to play, their neighbours and relatives gave her a hard time.

"They would complain that I leave the house so many times, I leave the house wearing shorts and that I’m going to be useless, ill-mannered, and more like that.” 

Nevertheless, her mother would comfort her and promise to be there whenever she was going through something she would want to talk about.

Another challenge, she recalls, is to doubt her capability when she was given a role she considered to be big. "Sometimes I would ask myself if I would really make it.”

However, she believes she achieved what she aimed for; inspiring younger generations and playing a role in developing women in sports, among others.

Bucumu played for several other teams including APR and Ubumwe Basketball Club where she retired from playing at competitive level in 2017.

In volleyball, besides her first team KVC, she also played for La Colombe Volleyball Club, and APR Volleyball Club.

On international stage, she also represented the country with the national teams in both sports. 

To this day, years after her retirement, Bucumu is still remembered as one of the best blockers the country has ever had, while in the basketball circles, she is regarded as one the league’s all-time best rebounders. 

She is currently serving as a technical advisor in the Rwanda basketball federation (Ferwaba) and assistant coach for the national under-16 and under-18 women teams.

Bucumu is saddened by the fact that many women quit sports when they get married or when they graduate. She argues that it degrades the level of competition in the leagues and the performance of national teams in international tournaments.

She believes that discipline and hard work make people excel in their careers, especially in sports.