Mama Sarah fighting misery through football

The last time Mama Sarah Obama was in the headlines, the Seventh Day Adventist church was denying trying to convert the Muslim paternal grandmother of US President Barack Obama to the Christian faith.

Muslim groups complained when church leaders invited Mama Sarah to a three-week crusade in April and tried to baptise her. The Muslims insisted they would not “sit and watch as one of their own was being coerced” to convert to Christianity.

The SDA church leaders later said there was no attempt to convert Mama Sarah and added that a church located near her home, which had changed its name to Obama Seventh-day Adventist Church, was to revert back to its original name, Nyangoma.

Mama Sarah knows where her religious faith lies. And probably if anyone had bothered to ask, she would tell them. But a lot of people have faith in that the good old lady can move mountains. They are from across the religious divide. They have been seeking her intercession since she assumed celebrity status courtesy of her grandson to highest administrative job on earth. Some of the latest moves have grabbed more international attention.

Fledgling programme

Take football; Mama Sarah is in the thick of it. You would not have guessed if all you have heard of so far is a fledgling programme in a school near her home in Kogelo, to equip youngsters and give them an opportunity to play organised and supervised soccer.

Diego Maradona, the-you-know-who, has a lot to do with the football goings-on around Mama Sarah’s home.

And who recently bought Manchester City? Answer: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sheikh Mansour is the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the biggest of the United Arab Emirates. This is the trillion-dollar man behind the mega-rich Arabs who have embarked on building a global super-team at Manchester City.

Sheikh Mansour had dreamed of snatching Ronaldo from Manchester United. With an estimated family fortune of $1 trillion (£555 billion – and it’s mind-boggling translating this into shillings) the Sheikh said he was set to make the £11.7 billion spending power of Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich look like chicken feed.

What is the point of this in Mama Sarah’s life? When Sheikh Mansour acquired Manchester City, his front man was for Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, an all-round sports enthusiast and member of the Abu Dhabi United Group that achieved the Manchester City ownership.

Later and more recently, on his own, Dr Al-Faim used his financial ability to buy Portsmouth, the English Premiership team of Nwankwo Kanu.
Now, listen to this; Dr Al-Faim has already been to Kogelo, and according to him, not to tour, but for serious work among the community of Mama Sarah Obama.

Dr Al-Faim was accompanied by Remigio Maradona, a first cousin of Diego Maradona and his younger brothers, including Hugo Maradona [a former Argentina junior international and head coach of the national junior team].

Dr Al-Faim and Remigio launched a programme in Kogelo to eradicate malnutrition, achieve food security, bridge the health gap and strive to make sports a means to promote education, health, development and peace in the area.

It was indeed surprising to meet the two men a few days ago. One, with the hugely popular name, and the other with a background of financial muscle. These spectacular men were mingling with football crowds in the heat of Khartoum during the ongoing Cecafa (Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations) Club Championship.

They were around to spread their community development and football business gospel to a receptive audience in the exciting football tournament in Khartoum and Port Sudan.

Their mutual friend in Khartoum is a relatively young Gamal Aluwaly, the business magnate President of the El Mereikh Football Club, a successful Khartoum team with spectacular wealth and visible assets including a 41,000 seat stadium, a training complex and residential condominiums for their professional players from all over Africa.

Remigio Maradona and Dr Al-Faim are members of an orgnisation which is a permanent observer to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The International Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM) is dedicated to help children and realise a world free of malnutrition and hunger.

They want to promote the growing of Spirulina, algae which makes highly nutritious porridge and can be grown in Nyanza and other parts of East and Central Africa. Starting in Mombasa later this year, IIMSAM will launch Spirulina nutritional initiatives in East and Central Africa, South Asia and South America.

The organization is using patronage of supporting foundations and household names in sport and its business. Therefore Remegio Maradona, his cousin Diego, Dr Al-Faim, Mama Sarah and Saidi Obama, a Kenyan uncle of the US President are among the small family of IIMSAM Goodwill Ambassadors.

Remigio, Dr Al-Faim, Mama Sarah and Saidi Obama’s tool of the IIMSAM projects, first in Kogelo, is the “Camp Maradona”, offering a holistic education to children through sports. “Camp Maradona” aspires to build a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal, Dr Al-Faim said in Khartoum.

With Dr Al-Faim’s own financial ability and that of his Manchester City owner friends in Abu Dhabi one my suspect that all that is happening in Mama Sarah’s backyard is through money from the Muslim world and the SDA’s alleged plans to convert the old lady in their camp was doomed right from the start.

When the Kenya Government recently announced a national emergency due to famine IIMSAM launched a feeding outlet in Kisumu called “Dar Al Muamineen Centre”, a name unmistakable from its religious connotation.

In sport, too, Mama Sarah cannot escape from the pull-and-push of two famous spheres of influence. When you mention Maradona, what else comes to mind? Yes, of course Pele. The two footballers divide the world right through the middle. Mama Sarah appears to be in the white-and-sky-blue of Argentina half of the world as opposed to the gold-and-green of Brazil half.

Diego Maradona will be in Kenya any time soon, announced Remigio in Khartoum last Thursday while flanked by Dr Al-Faim and their friend Aluwaly the El Mereikh supremo.

“My cousin Diego brings hope to people. He plays for the people – have always been a friend of the masses and he will be in Kenya and throughout Africa to motivate people.

“He, we – all us -- are struggling [from the South American zone] to qualifying for the World Cup. Pray for us that we make it. Straight from South Africa [venue of the World Cup] Diego will embark on his great love to assist people and most of that will be in Africa.”

Remigio is outstandingly eloquent in English and clearly a confident spokesman for his famous sporting siblings. “I have the support of Diego and his brothers Hugo and Elalo.” And crucially he gives an indication of where their financial backing could all be coming from when he adds:

“Nevertheless I would not achieve much without the support by one terrifically visionary man from the UAE [United Arab Emirates] -- my friend, Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim. And not forgetting the person I call my Sudanese brother, Gamal Aluwaly here.”

As a Muslim, Mama Sarah Obama, may seem comfortable in her parochial corner but Remigio discounts the existence of such insular thinking in what IIMSAM ambassadors are trying to do together.

“I am a committed Christian and I promise you that Diego and I will show the world the diplomacy of the 21st century. We shall promote Kenya, Sudan, and the Middle East, in South America; with Mama Obama we shall represent the interests of the people of these great nations to inside the walls of White House [USA]”

As a little child Remigio was afflicted by polio and was not able to play sport like other members of his famous family. “I can empathise with joy experienced and shared by the young and the disabled when they realise their dreams to play football and come out as real champions not only in the game but also in life.”

In Kogelo’s “Camp Maradona” incorporating Senator Obama Kogelo and Dibuoro secondary schools, boys and girls are already having a brand new experience of playing football through the vision of the Portsmouth FC owner Dr Al-Fahim.

In Khartoum he said: “I do not know of any Kenyan professional players but to be one of the leading countries in a 10-nation membership [Cecafa – actually 11], I think it is a country with a lot of potential. From what we have started there, we shall periodically pick the best five players and students to be promoted to our international academy of excellence to be launched soon. With the assistance of the Maradonas, we are planning on where to locate the academy.”

Dr Al-Fahim met with Cecafa region’s most inspirational football manager, the secretary general Nicholas Musonye of Kenya, who he praised for work that has made the region the only one with organised competition after the collapse of all other regional organizations in Africa.

“I am overwhelmed by the support we are receiving from corporates and individuals,” said Musonye. “It used to be very hard to survive, but now everyone understands the value of football in social and business development. El Mereikh President Gamal, Dr Al-Fahim and the Maradona family cannot be wrong in putting their faith in football.”

Mama Sarah and Saidi Obama ave received and distributed football equipment to the community. Mama Sarah is passionately involved with the Spirulina national programme seeking to make cultivation of algae self-sustainable.

“This good lady is over 85-years-old,” said Remigio, “yet she wakes up early every day to work with incredible energy. This just pumps us younger people up. What can’t we achieve if we worked as hard as her?”