Why sporting culture is a tool for social order

What you need to know:

  • A very important intervention in keeping young people busy is sport.

  • It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that there is a large pool of sporting activities open to our youth.

  • Stadia, recreational halls, and multitudes of tournaments must be organised to fill up every free moment that young people have.

The past month has been very exciting for football lovers. The greatest show on earth, as it has been dubbed, served up a menu of delectable dribbles, scintillating saves, and a series of humbling and unexpected results with the successive exit of the so-called big teams. Viewers all over the world have suspended whatever they are supposed to be doing, and spent over two hours at a time watching their favourite team battle it out in faraway Russia.

For those two hours, it is probable that a lot of mischief was avoided, many friendships were made and cemented, plenty of vulnerabilities were expressed. Above all, we got a glimpse into the personality of our friends with whom we shared these sacred moments. Perhaps we also got the opportunity to understand our own personalities better by introspecting on how we handled our teams’ victory and defeat, how we handled distractions at ‘crucial’ moments of the game, and how we treated those that supported opposing teams in victory or defeat.

REDUCE VIOLENCE

The World Cup was good for social order wherever the interest was sustained. It is true that sports will often grip the imagination of young people either as participants or as spectators, and the impact on physical, mental and social health is usually positive. Of great interest to any government is the consistent research finding that young males who are poor and have little by way of social support are more likely to be both perpetrators and victims of violence, and some of these factors can be altered to reduce violence and other threats to mental and physical health.

While it is not possible to change maleness, we can focus on positive value education of our boys instead of totally alienating them even in the context of female empowerment. We can create a society that respects everyone regardless of their gender if we educate our boys and girls that all human life is important, regardless of their gender or other factors such as ethnicity, religion, or political persuasion.

MENTAL HEALTH

As far as poverty is concerned, the government should make sure that initiatives such as the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and other youth-friendly economic projects actually benefit young people (under the age of 35, not the Kenyan ‘political’ youth whose own children are no longer youth!). Improving overall economic status will also positively impact the status of our young people.

Improving social support mostly entails having people live and work in an environment close to their immediate and perhaps extended families. This ensures that there is a network of people we respect who can intervene when we are in trouble or are causing trouble. This is why, for instance, mental health experts will do everything necessary to trace a patient’s relatives during care and follow-up.

SOCIAL DISORDER

The last factor that must be confronted in helping reduce the risk of social disorder and violence is age. In order to reduce the risk of young people getting entangled in violence and social disorder, successful societies have taken extraordinary measures to keep young people busy until the ‘risk’ period passes. Keeping young people in school or training, and in employment, is an important strategy in reducing violence risk.

A very important intervention in keeping young people busy is sport. It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that there is a large pool of sporting activities open to our youth. Stadia, recreational halls, and multitudes of tournaments must be organised to fill up every free moment that young people have.

The writer is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine. Email [email protected]