Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review Phiona Mutesi is from one of the worst slums in the world in a country left behind. Overcoming every impossibility, she is one of the most promising young women in chess.
Phiona Mutesi should not be a name I know; it should not be a name anyone knows. She is from Katwe a slum of Kampala in Uganda. It has some of the worst living conditions in the world. She was born poorer than poor. Through what can only be explained as divine intervention, she found chess and success and a place in a world she didn’t even know existed.
Tim Crothers published The Queen of Katwe in 2012. A Disney movie of the same name was released in 2016 starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo. I saw the movie before I knew about the book. Obviously, the book is better, but the movie was pretty damn good. Tim Crothers happened upon Phiona’s story as a sports journalist. His attention was captured, and this book became the product.
Crothers spends more time describing Katwe, conditions, Uganda, and people than he does Phiona. At the time of publication, Phiona was maybe 14. Her life just beginning. He does this because it is necessary to set the scene in which Phiona was born into. It would be impossible to understand the magnitude of the miracle without understanding the devastation of her reality.
Katwe has a sad history. People from rural areas left for a better life in Kampala, but with no skills suited to city-life they found refuge in a place they could go without notice. Katwe grew from a swamp to a sprawling slum. As Uganda went through regime changes and rebellions Katwe saw the worst of it. The citizens are often flooded out of their homes or ravaged by disease. Tragedy and death is their reality. So much death that Uganda is the youngest country in the world with an average age of 14. No one is certain of their birth year simply guessing how old they are. Surviving is the driving force. A need to eat and lack of funds and opportunity requires children to work. Without education a cycle has formed of dependency, poverty, ignorance, and children having babies.
Robert Katende grew up in slums, but was lucky enough to have an education. Without contacts, he had little prospect. Through his faith, he made a contact that would change so many lives. He brought sports to Katwe. Giving the children who had no hope a bright spot in their day. Katende spread his faith through soccer and eventually chess as well as one meal a day. Sometimes the only meal the children would have. Phiona Mutesi followed her brother to chess club one day. Maybe it was the promise of a meal or a diversion from reality, she kept returning. She took to the game quickly.
Phiona had no understanding of the world outside her slum when she bordered a plane for the first time. Chess opened up her world in a way nothing else could have. Through her natural talent, her hard work, her drive, the tireless support of Katende and all the others, Phiona has traveled the world competing at the highest tiers of chess competitions, and she has won.
As I read, I was constantly on the verge of tears. It is an impressive account of overcoming every impossibility. Crother’s includes so many accounts of Ugandans overcoming and succeeding and Ugandans who are just surviving in Katwe. It is impossible to read this without being moved on an intensely deep level. There is one passage towards the end of the book, which summed up every emotion I had:
“Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog. To be African is to be an underdog in the world. To be Ugandan is to be an underdog in Africa. To be from Katwe is to be an underdog in Uganda. To be a girl is to be an underdog in Katwe.”
It is an intensely moving passage. Crother’s spends the whole book demonstrating the truth of this statement. Phiona is an underdog. She’s an underdog who has continued to overcome.
The Queen of Katwe isn’t just Phiona’s story. It is the story of every person who helped her. By helping her succeed, they were paving a path for Uganda to gain respect in a world that has largely forgotten it. She’s a young woman with the weight of a country on her shoulders.
*The Queen of Katwe was published in 2012. There is a new postscript for the paperback edition, which updates the reader about Phiona’s circumstances. I, of course, had to research more because I want this underdog to succeed. She is a Woman Candidate Master in chess with a FIDE score of 1628. She received a scholarship and is a part of the chess team at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, which she started attending in 2017. She is still succeeding and creating her story!!!
Memorable Quotes
“What name Phiona come back day after day were the beautiful pieces that attracted her in the first place.”
“…positive reinforcement being an unfamiliar but powerful incentive to a slum child.”
“Phiona was like a boy, but because she was not a boy, her opportunity to advance quickly in the game was mind-boggling.”
“The shriek of a dismissed girl from a dismissed world finally making herself be heard.”
