The Real Queen of Katwe

QUEEN OF KATWE is a film about Phiona Mutesi, an unlikely chess prodigy from Katwe (pronounced kah-tway), one of Kampala's (Uganda's) largest slums.

When Phiona was three years old, her father died of HIV/AIDS.

When she was nine Phiona had to drop out of school because her mother could no longer afford to send her, and she was needed to help bring food to the table by selling maize in Katwe's street market.

Around this time, Phiona followed her brother, Brian out of Katwe one day. He was headed to the Sports Outreach Institute, run by Robert Katende, where kids were playing chess.

Tim Cruthers, writing a feature story on Phiona in 2011 for ESPN magazine, reported that in Uganda, chess was "a game so foreign there's no word for it in Luganda, their native language."

"Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog," Cruthers wrote. "To be African is to be an underdog in the world. To be Ugandan is to be an underdog in Africa. To be from Katwe is to be an underdog in Uganda. To be female is to be an underdog in Katwe."

Cruthers described Katwe as being a place with no sewers, human waste flowing freely, helped by torrential rains so powerful that during storm season, people sleep on roofs or in hammocks tied to the ceiling to keep from drowning.

"Chess is a lot like my life," Phiona told Cruthers. "If you make smart moves you can stay away from danger, but you know any bad decision could be your last."

When asked, Phiona couldn't tell Cruthers her birthday because  of the sheer reality of life's harshness there. "Nobody bothers to record such things in Katwe."

"When I first saw chess," Phiona said. "I thought, what could make all these kids so silent? Then I watched them play the game and get happy and excited, and I wanted a chance to be that happy."

QUEEN OF KATWE details Phiona's rise from the day she followed her brother to Sports Outreach Ministry and began playing chess, to her eventual success. She represented Uganda in chess championships in Sudan and then in Russia.

Although QUEEN OF KATWE is a powerful film, there is another story within its story. That being the life of Robert Katende, a born-again Christian who runs the Sports Outreach Ministry. Katende was Phiona's initial chess instructor. (That's Katende with Phiona in the photo to the left.)

Katende knew well the harshness that Phiona was trying to escape because he had experienced it.

According to an article that Tim Cruthers wrote for The Guardian, earlier this year, Katende lived with his grandmother until he was four. Then he was reunited with his mother. That's when he learned his first name was Robert.

Katende's mother died when he was eight and he spent the next 10 years being shuffled among aunts. He also became very good at soccer.

He eventually got a job with Sports Outreach Ministry teaching soccer. But he noticed the kids who couldn't play, watching from the sideline. Katende began teaching these kids chess, playing after soccer matches. These six children formed the original group called The Pioneers.

After two years, Katende had grown the group to 25. That's around the time Phiona followed her brother.

Cruthers notes that Katwe is a place where about 40 percent of teen-aged women have kids. Katende offers an insider's view of it. "I call it a poverty chain. The single mother cannot sustain the house. Her children go to the street and have more kids and they don't have the capacity to care for them. It is a cycle of misery that is almost impossible to break."

Phiona is now 20 years old and she is considering applying to Harvard University.

Meanwhile, Phiona has earned financial security from the book Cruthers has written about her and the recent movie contract (for QUEEN OF KATWE). She has bought her family a home located away from Katwe.

When Cruthers asked Phiona if she'd seen QUEEN OF KATWE, Phiona pointedly replied, "No. I haven't seen it yet. I already know the story,"

Here's the trailer to QUEEN OF KATWE.

QUEEN OF KATWE benefits from a triad of excellent performances that include Madina Nalwanga as Phiona Mutesi, Lupita Nyong'o as Phiona's mother (Nakku Harriet), and David Oyelowo as Robert Katende. Director Mira Nair skillfully weaves in equally good performances of the children playing The Pioneers, as well as Katwe itself - offering remarkable scenes of everyday life there. The film is a Disney Pictures and ESPN Pictures production.



Photo Credits:
top photo: www.theconsciouscommunity.blogspot.com
middle photo taken by Stephanie Sinclair for ESPN
lower photo taken by Muyingo Siraj for The Guardian