Kenya has its marvellous distance runners. Ethiopia too has more than its share of world-beaters. Uganda these days isn’t much far behind its two more illustrious neighbours, occasionally clinching gold in the Olympic and Commonwealth games.

In the East African community, the laggards seem to be Rwanda or Tanzania, for even Burundi has had its solitary claim to glory – the gold that Venuste Niyongabo won in the men’s 5000m finals at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

It is hard to overemphasize the good to a national psyche that a win at any major international sporting event induces. Also, knowledgeable people assert, you can’t put any monetary value to the promotion of a national brand that success in the sporting arena builds.

Someone said if Jamaica were to spend a hundred million US dollars for a single year selling itself on CNN, that wouldn’t equal the boost the country enjoys after a single Olympics where Usain Bolt turns in his awe inspiring displays in the sprints.

Beyond the brand building value of a country’s successful sportsmen and women, it is often pointed out how a winning team, or individual unite even the most fractious nation - regardless how fleeting that might be in some cases.

The examples are legion. When the late Sammy Wanjiru lit up the Beijing Olympics with his electrifying performance in the marathon, very few fellow Kenyans cared that he was of the Kikuyu ethnicity.

People celebrated the young man in living rooms, bars, offices, streets and everywhere else, whether they were Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and others.

Talking of the Kalenjin, well, if one talked of the number of times Kenyans have stood with tears in their eyes as their shield rose again and again to the tune of their national anthem to honor another Kalenjin runner, there would be little time for other things.

And just across the border, in Uganda, when John Akii-Bua won the 400m hurdles gold at the 72 Olympics in Munich, beating the likes of Britain’s Dave Hemery the pre-race favorite, no one remembered John was an Acholi.

He was Ugandan and he had done every one of the people in that territory proud, and they celebrated him for years afterwards.

Which is astonishing how little attention Rwanda – usually the most astute country when it comes to promoting itself – has paid to sports development.

A tour through the country’s sports federations for instance will display small, dusty, badly maintained offices. The impression created is that people aren’t that serious or interested about sporting success.

Years ago as a sports reporter I got to see that bosses of the sports federations were more interested in the per diems and mission fees than anything else when Rwandan teams went to represent the country overseas. 

Up to now little has changed, though some disciplines, most notably cycling, are stirring and showing signs of life.

Accusations

Then all of a sudden, here was Rwanda Tourism’s recent deal to sponsor Premier League outfit Arsenal’s shirtsleeve. Rwanda batted off accusations that it, a poor country, was wasting money.

Yet among other things Kigali may inadvertently be on the verge of achieving something resembling what a successful national program does.

When the authorities set out to invest some 30 million Pound Sterling for one of the Premier League’s most popular teams to display the “Visit Rwanda” logo on its shirtsleeve over the next three years their message was aimed solidly at foreigners. To make them come to Rwanda, tour, and spend money.

They may actually have overlooked the fact any Rwandan, even in the remotest villages watching an Arsenal clash will see the name of their country displayed prominently on the arms of some of the most recognized sportsmen on the globe.

And begin to feel proud.
In other words, for 30 million pounds, Kigali may have killed two birds with one stone: gotten the country noticed by many in foreign countries, most for whom the name “Rwanda” only registers as the small place where terrible things happened, and it may procure a little of the national unity successful sports programs bring about.   Not bad for that bagatelle.