Do or do by Kinyanjui Kombani

Image Courtesy of Kinyanjui Kombani

Kinyanjui Kombani has penned Do or do a young readers novel bubbling with intend, inspiration and a lot of passion. In this story, Kombani fashions out the story of Juma aka Njugu-boy a young man whose educational pursuit seems to have come to a tragic end but soccer suddenly grants him a lifeline to escape the harsh life of Dandora. Do or do is the sad story of the numerous urban poor young people whose lives are doomed to end uncharacteristically either through a hail of bullets from feuding youth groups or from hit squads be they police or other gangs or simply succumb to hunger and other debilitating circumstances in the many sprawling slums.

In an unlikely turn of events, Juma finds himself being substituted to play as a striker for the D-Stars when Tony their key striker is grossly fouled and injured by an opponent. Although he has previously had a stint at soccer, he has never considered himself playing competitively leave alone professionally. His star begins to shine bright as he finds rhythm and good will in the team. He discovers his leadership potential as he takes up the mantle of stewardship for the D-Stars and steers them to celebrate unexpected win-after-win over teams that have been long celebrated. Will Juma become a role model that fellow youth would yearn to emulate or will someone cheat him off from his ladyluck?

However, the stars begin to dim at home when his elder brother is sent home for uncleared school fees, his mother loses her job at the city council and an almost absentee father receives summarily dismissal for misusing hid employer’s funds in betting. When their father comes home, the family harmony is destroyed, their father has become a drunkard, unreliable and quarrelsome man. Their parents’ relationship deteriorates and Juma and his brother, Mambo, look for excuses to stay away. Indeed, Mambo’s schooling dips even as Juma sacrifices to hawk groundnuts and sweets to support Mambo’s school fees.

Do or do demonstrates a typical from rags to riches story on the part of Juma. The D-Stars have nothing to lose in their games and when it dawns on them that they can actually beat renown teams, their passion is rekindled and they play for everything. The story unravels the dark side of games when a rival team tries to buy them out so that they can lose the next game in favour of their opponent. When this fails and they win their next match, the stakes become higher and the reader suspects it is a case of when not if that the D-Stars will be compromised to lose in favour of an opposing team since their socio-economic background betrays them. They know intimately that every coin they can get is a life saver.

Lady luck smiles on the D-Stars and they find themselves in the finals of the Under17-tournament. But, their assistant coach and all other players except Juma and their goal keeper Abbas have been compromised. Juma will learn about it after discovering that their Coach Freddie had been poisoned to miss the game. He is benched until almost the dying minutes of the game after they are down by three goals to none. However, his efforts and that of their goal keeper salvage two goals for them. It is during the match that he receives news that his brother and other youth have been shot by police at the infamous Dandora dumpsite.

Mambo, Juma’s brother survives the shootout but not his friends. Do or do is a romantic novel that ends with Juma receiving a prestigious offer from one of the big clubs in Europe for a mentorship programme and hope of resuming his studies. Things back at home also look up with his parents’ relationship greatly improving and the father ditching drinking. Although the story provides respite for youth living in the slums, it is not lost to the reader that the chances of this happening to any one of them are indeed very rare. But does it really matter? I don’t think so, if it can happen to one of them and change their life for the better, that is all that matters. Hopefully, the reader has faith that soccer and other forms of creative activities will become part of government infrastructure that could be used to improve the livelihoods of youth and deter them from engaging in immoral activities.