Zainab Saleh found karate as a young girl. Now she uses her annual women-only championship to advocate for the sport in a country where domestic violence and mass kidnapping are endangering the lives of women and girls.
Every October for the last eight years, young women have gathered in Lagos for the Zainab Saleh International Female Open Karate Championship. It’s the only time that karatekas, practitioners of the sport, get to compete at a women-only tournament.
They are mostly drawn from teams across Nigeria’s 36 states, while neighbouring Benin also sent a big delegation. There were 207 athletes who registered to participate this year, eager to show their progress after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the tournament in 2020.
“I noticed that there was always a lot of interest in the male category at tournaments because the technical ability of the men was much better,” said Saleh. “I felt that it was important to build the technical abilities of the women. A man may be stronger, but a woman can be more technically sound.”
And she is happy that the level of competition is rising every year, with categories ranging from under-12s to seniors.
Martial arts amid social upheaval
Saleh hails from the town of Monguno, in northeast Borno State, which has seen a lot of fighting between Nigerian troops and the jihadi Boko Haram group. Eighteen soldiers and many other civilians were killed in September, after an attack on the town that hosts a United Nations base. The ongoing insurgency has left families displaced.
Bandits operate in the country’s northwest where mass kidnapping and ransom payments are now quite common, since the 2014 kidnapping of girls at a school in Chibok. According to Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, 2,371 people were kidnapped in the first half of 2021 across Nigeria.
“I worry for our girls, I worry for our women, I worry for everybody because it is just so sad what the country has become today,” said Saleh, who supports back-to-school programs for displaced children in the region through her foundation.
Portraits of some of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram jihadisPortraits of some of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram jihadis
Portraits of some of the school girls kidnapped in ChibokImage: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP
“I believe that the development of grassroots sports is one way to keep children engaged. And karate can help children learn important values early in life.”
Inspired by Bruce Lee
Hajiya, as everyone calls her, holds a fourth-degree Dan black belt. She started practicing karate after watching Bruce Lee films when her father was a diplomat in Mexico in the 1970s.
“I told my father, I want to practice karate like Bruce Lee. So, he enrolled my brother and I in a school. He would always take us to our training. When he couldn’t, my mom would take us,” Saleh told DW.
She learned the core karate values of respect, focus and non-violence. Through her foundation and the support of family and friends, she runs the championship that has become a major highlight of the karate calendar in Nigeria.
“Every single year Hajiya makes it happen and she doesn’t disappoint us. I am grateful that she is a tough woman and has not allowed anything to stop her vision for women’s karate,” said Sampson.
Giving girls an opportunity to compete
The championship offers women an opportunity to be competitive in a country where conservative values mean girls who play sport are often frowned upon. But Saleh has seen many change their minds after attending her tournaments.
“When people come and see what women are capable of doing, they say I want to learn that sport,” she said.