Running as a resource of hope? Voices from Eldoret

Abstract

There is a continuing debate about East African running success. Few studies have considered wealth as a key motivation behind wanting to run. This article focuses upon the motivations of Kenyan women who choose to participate in professional running and the impact on them, their families and wider communities. Much of the fieldwork for this study took place in and around the town of Eldoret. It encourages researchers interested in sport in Africa to develop a political economy approach to running and to critically evaluate the claims made for sport as a resource of hope.

[L'entreprenariat en tant que ressource d'espoir? Des voix s'élèvent depuis Eldoret.] Il y a un débat qui se poursuit au sujet du succès dans l'émergence de l'Afrique de l'Est. Peu d'études ont considéré la richesse comme étant une motivation clé derrière le désir d'entreprendre. Cet article se concentre sur les motivations des femmes kenyanes qui choisissent de participer à la gestion d'entreprise et son impact sur elles, sur leurs familles et sur les communautés plus étendues. Une grande partie du travail sur le terrain et pour cette étude, a eu lieu dans et autour de la ville d'Eldoret. Il encourage les chercheurs qui s'intéressent au sport en Afrique à développer une approche d'économie politique à l'exécution et à l'évaluation critique des demandes formulées pour le sport en tant que ressource d'espoir.

Mots-clés: courir au Kenya  ; les femmes  ; les chances de la vie  ; les motivations  ; les richesses  ; les ressources

Keywords:

• Kenyan running
• women
• life chances
• motivations
• wealth
• resources

Acknowledgements

The previously unpublished research that has contributed to this article resulted from a symposium on women's sport in Africa organised by one of the authors and held at the University of Oxford in March 2011. The authors are extremely grateful for the helpful and constructive comments provided by anonymous reviewers.

Notes

The term ‘resources of hope’ is used not as an exact term but at a general level it has been adapted from that used by Raymond Williams in his 1989 discussion by the same name, and influenced more recently by the work of Amartya Sen who has indirectly opened up the possibility of thinking about the capacity of sport to develop both economic and human capabilities.

The 2003 survey of Kenyan athletes was carried out by Jarvie and Macintosh with assistance from Vincent Onywera of Kenyatta University. The interviews and fieldwork that contribute to this article were carried out between 2007 (Jarvie) and the present, but most recently the fieldwork that took place between 2010 and 2011 was conducted by Sikes. More specifically this involved two periods of fieldwork, first from January to March 2010 and then between December 2010 and May 2011.

Catherine Ndereba was born July 1972, recruited into the Kenyan prison service in 1994 and represented Kenya for the first time in 1995. She has twice won the marathon at the World Athletics Championships and holds two silver medals from the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. She was awarded the Order of the Golden Warrior by President Mwai Kibaki in 2005.

Six years after Susan Sirma won the first World Championship medal for a female Kenyan runner, a bronze at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, Sally Barsosio in 1997 became the first woman from Kenya to win a World Championship title. The marathon success of Joyce Chepchumba, who placed third at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and particularly Tegla Loroupe have made them well-known figures in the region. Tegla was three-time world half-marathon champion in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and she broke two marathon world records in 1998 and 1999. Tegla's decision to promote peace in her local community by organising peace races has also contributed to making her success more visible.

This interview was recorded at the University of Stirling on 5 February 2007. The former athlete visited the university to develop a partnership between the university, the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland and the Kenyan Olympic Association.