As an African, I believe that juju exists but as a football follower I believe dedication, hard work, preparation and talent are more powerful than juju.

 If you talk about luck, every team needs it but juju winning a football match? I don’t think so.

Whoever is reading this article may be aware, or have heard of the word juju and that juju is a house-hold name in Africa. Putting aside the moral grounds, is it an offense to use juju, especially for good intentions?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Juju or Ju-Ju is a word of either West African or French origin[1] used previously by Europeans to describe the traditional West African religion.[2].

The term Juju refers to the use of such objects and other things to perform a form of "witchcraft” [3]

"An object of any kind superstitiously venerated by West African native tribes, and used as a charm, amulet, or means of protection; a fetish.

Also the supernatural or magical power attributed to such objects, or the system of observances connected therewith; also a ban or interdiction effected by means of such an object (corresponding to the Polynesian taboo).”

This is a very intriguing debate that will never die out, and being the Africans that we are, we must leave with the fact that using juju for whatever purpose is quite a common occurrence in our societies, even the Very Important Person(s) are victims of such beliefs.

And when it comes to sports, football in particular [in this case, our local footballers], the use of juju is part of their DNA, and no one can pretend to think that they can actually fight it, it’s so rampant that it’s disgusting  to even think of it.

I’m not condoning the use of juju to win football matches, but if an individual believes in it and firmly thinks that he can’t win without it, what’s wrong with that?

That’s why I think that to suspend a coach, like APR did with Eric Nshimiyimana from work for supposedly using Juju is ludicrous. It doesn’t make much sense. But significantly, it paints a bad image of the country’s football.

Word has it that Nshimiyimana, a former APR, Kiyovu and Amavubi midfielder landed in hot water while on national team duty in Bujumbura last weekend, where he’s allegedly to have been involved in a juju plot to help Amavubi [where he’s assistant coach] beat Burundi’s Swallows in a 2012 Nations Cup qualifier.

Yet despite being on a different mission, his club bosses, citing club rules, deemed it right to impose an indefinite suspension on him while ‘investigations’ into what happened continue.

We will be waiting with keen interest to hear what comes out of those ‘investigations’.

Was Eric acting alone?

Using juju to win football matches is, has been and will always remain part of African football, and Rwanda is no different.

And without mentioning names, several Rwandan internationals, past and present are well known for using juju to win matches, be it as individuals or as a group [read team], and nothing has been done about it, yet a coach loses his job for a similar ‘offense’, which we’re even not sure he did!

How can it be proved that indeed Nshimiyimana was involved in the practice? And if indeed he was, was he acting alone? Can it be possible for an individual to carry out such a sensitive mission on behalf of team without the knowledge of someone else within the team?

Juju does work for those who believe. Individual football players and or coaches, who believe in the practice, will never step on a football field without first consulting their gods—and these include the biggest percentage of our local players, including those playing for APR.

All local clubs and the national team(s) either at individual or group level do use juju in one or another to win football matches and I believe, just like many others that Nshimiyimana, if indeed he practices juju for his teams to win matches, did not start yesterday, and he isn’t alone in this.

Which beings me to the concluding question, why for all this time that he has worked for both APR and Amavubi that no one has complained about this practice and it only comes out now?

If you asked me, I’d gladly tell you that Juju has nothing to do with football. It’s a psychological ploy that works on the mentality of the opponent. And the truth is a good team needs no such things to win.

Using common sense, Nshimiyimana wasn’t alone in this plot, so who else was he working with? Can we can have those investigations done as quickly as possible and all the culprits put in the open as the former was.

Anything short of that, and we shall know that there more to Nshimiyimana’s demise at APR than meets the eyes.
nku78@yahoo.com