Multi-Ethnic Teams Bring Hope to their Countries

Alexandra, South Africa --

At the Football for Hope Festival the young people on display all associate football with providing them hope, but some of them may not realize that they are a model for providing hope for their ethnically divided countries. For post-conflict states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, as well as current conflict zones such as Israel/Palestine, hope of a united future is being provided by multi-ethnic youth soccer teams.

Programs such as Football Friends in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Esperance in Rwanda and The Peace Team in Israel/Palestine are showing their respective nations that unity can be achieved. While these programs alone cannot stop ethnic conflicts, they can play an important role in educating today's youth not to condone ethnic violence and to accept differences. Growing up in societies that allow ethnic hatred to be passed along through generations just exacerbates the problem in conflict zones, which is what these programs seek to halt.

For children that grow up in Israel and Palestine, they will most likely never interact with their peers from the other side of the barbed wire and will be brought up with many false stereotypes and unjustified hatred. Thus, projects such as the Twinned Peace Football Schools can have a huge impact on these youngsters just simply by having them interact with each other in ways that encourage mutual understanding and peace.

When the players are on the pitch, it simply does not matter who is from what ethnicity, but that they act as a team. Participating in programs such as these allow young people to realize that these other ethnicities are not the enemy and that they are human beings too.

Post-conflict zones such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda have had difficulty with the re-integration of different ethnicities in the years since their wars ended. For them, programs such as these allow the children to not think of themselves as Serbian, Muslim, Hutu or Tutsi, rather as Bosnians and Rwandans.

For these three teams, their participation in the Football for Hope Festival is visual proof that their multi-ethnic states can succeed in the future. Bringing up the next generation of young people in an environment that is without hate is crucial to the futures of each of these states, for without changes history will only repeat itself.

After speaking to players and coaches on these teams, it is clear that both echo that sentiment. For Football Friends, the team is mixed between Bosnian Croats, Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Montenegrins. In a country that many international observers call a “paper state”, it is symbolic that when Football Friends player Martina Mandir took the field on the first day, she did so wearing a Bosnia-Herzegovina flag, rather than a Croatian flag.

When asked about it, Mandir spoke about how she is proud of her Croatian heritage, but is proud to consider herself Bosnian and that back home in Bosnia her team is hailed as a strong example of unity. However, this sentiment is not shared by all, as there have been many times where members of the community have laughed off the whole concept of the team.

In a state where Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs traditionally do not consider themselves to be 'Bosnian' even though they were born in that country, it is a big statement for Mandir to consider herself Bosnian. This sentiment is even more obvious within the sport of football, as the Bosnia-Herzegovina national team consists almost solely of Bosnian Muslims, with Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs electing to play for their ethnic national team.

While not a post- conflict zone, Germany is increasingly becoming a multi-ethnic county and another region that suffers from extremism and violence against immigrants. German Street Football Network, one of the thirty-two organizations at the festival, uses football as a tool to integrate young people from different social, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

For someone like 17 year old Mustafa Imda, this program provides relief from the everyday societal difficulties that can come about from being an immigrant to the country. When Imda was asked about the best part of the program, he said “when we play football we are a family, no matter where the others are from or what religion they follow”.

Young leaders like Imda and Mandir provide a welcome relief from the sometimes hateful political discourse from leaders in their respective countries, showing that these programs really are allowing for participants to grow up accepting and embracing their multi-cultural socities.