Politics is a continuation of Form Five-Form Six soccer by other means

A story I don’t tire of telling from teenage days is the annual traditional football match played at my high school between Form Six “elders” and Form Five “freshmen.”

Kick off is taken by the head boy, a sixth former, right in the Form Five goalmouth before he proceeds to officiate as referee and player who must be respected and not tackled at all when he has the ball.

All the rules of the match are in favour of the Form Six team. If a Form Six misses a goal, it is counted as half a goal and when a Form Five scores, it is also half a goal. The final score is not known when the final whistle is blown.

The points are given to the “Top Mathematician” from Form Six who applies a certain formula known only to himself and finally announces the score at dinner when everybody has taken a shower and dressed properly.

The referee’s side is obviously expected to win. It is only on rare occasions that he loses, like happened in Zambia years ago when the ref’s side lost.

The captain of the Zambia Form Fives took over the school’s soccer management and in his pettiness, harassed his elder predecessor to the point of declaring that he was not even a legitimate student of the great school.

In Kenya too, the Form Six team lost the great match in December 2002, because they were massively outnumbered, as many players had defected from the team.

There were so many Form Fives on the field that the ref cum player could not even score from the goalmouth. But when the Kenyan Form Fives graduated to become Sixth Formers, they could not afford the laxity of the Zambians or their elder compatriots whom they had defeated.

So when the big match of December 2007 was played, they did not wait for the “Top Mathematician” to calculate the scores.

They claimed their victory there and then. Violence ensued and outsiders had to step in to help normalise the situation in the school.

The Kenyans are having their next big match a few weeks from now. Because of the complaints that arose from the last one, the rules of the game have been completely overhauled. The teams have been reorganised and there shall be no more Form Six versus Form Five.

Now the teams are being constituted according to the subjects the students are offering. So the Chemistry team has players from both Form Five and Form Six, the Geography team likewise, same with the History, Maths, Biology and Economics teams.

Players have been switching from team to team, because each student offers at least three subjects, most four subjects, and so one has a wide choice of which team to play in.

It also means there are many slots for team captain, with the hope of finally emerging overall school captain. But still there is a deep-seated mistrust between Form Five and Form Six.

The underlying factor that determines which team the start players choose is how they can best represent and pursue the interests of their form – Five or Six.

The rest of school – the O-levels and the Primary section, who constitute the majority – are waiting anxiously for the big match, and hoping the big boys will not cause violence as they pursue their old Form Five and Form Six interests.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: [email protected]