On April 12, 2017 the world beheld an annual migration of word warriors inching every second to an important rendezvous; the East and Central Scrabble Association championship.
The journeys are long and exciting as a travelling scrabble player enjoy a touristy journey. The players are bussing in from Kampala, Nairobi and Zambia. From beholding the Masaai coexist with wildlife in Kenya and Northern Tanzania; to breathing fresh air underneath the canopying Mabira rainforest in Uganda; to espying the glacier on Mt. Kilimanjaro in the evening; to mixing with Swahili culture in Dar es Salaam, it is a journeyers galore.
This year, Tanzania is hosting. That is an exciting prospect for someone who wishes to enjoy the game along with hospitality per excellence. In 2008, Dar es Salaam was hosting, TASPA arranged the meals replete with exotic cuisine. I dispensed with the octopus at the time, but looked forward to tea break so I could dig deep into the curiously sweet rice cake. Yes, a cake baked from rice. Shahnaz Hirji, a veritable TASPA player made sure of it.
Expansive cultural expressions is the norm in Dar. It affords the player a new horizon in diversity of human expression. For example the inaugural event hosted at Delice restaurant has etched a lasting memory on yours truly. Lunch on day one. It is a buffet and the food is exotic and diverse. A certain dish caught my attention. The sight of soft, creamy and golden brown mash is inviting. I obliged my curiosity, dug a ladle into the bowl and scooped a generous helping. As I reclined into the comfy chair, my first act is to savour this temptatious offering. To my horror, it is a very, very hot and very spicy sauce. I quickly swallowed this burning morsel and promptly lost my voice. I descended into phantasmagoria(s) (PHANTASM extendable with AAGIOR) because it was lost to me that a dozen other human beings went about their meals without any ado.
After years of journeying through the member countries, ECASA returns to its birthplace this year, the 13th edition starting today April 13th,2017 to Sunday April 16th 2017 it will perch atop the roof of Urban Rose Hotel.
Fortunately for players of this hallowed game, a larger than life man now commonly known by the nome de guerre of the HAWK (aka Joash Manyasa) had two years earlier scoured the bushlands and metropolises of East and Central Africa; Kampala – Dar – Lusaka including Victoria in the Indian ocean. By the time the African Championship was hosted in Nairobi in 2002, Uganda, Seychelles and Zambia had joined the community of this game of strategy, thanks to the Hawk. At the sidelines of PANASA 2002, it occurred to the late Silvano Adele, Isaac Lango, Dr. Mushtaq from Tanzania; Dr. Allan Mpairwe from Uganda and the Kenyan team lead Matayo Bwire, Dickson Assessa, Joash Manyasa and others that in the spirit of the East African Community, an august body to manage the growth of Scrabble in the region was imminent; the East Central and Southern Africa Scrabble Association (ECASA) was born. Tanzania offered to host the inaugural tournament which was then hosted on United Nation Road at Delice Hotel in the middle of Dar es Salaam. The indomitable Walter Nyandiko of Kenya was tournament director. He quickly read the riot act to the players and managed resources excellently.
This tournament was graced by five countries notably South Africa represented by Diana Mason and Zambia by Patrick Mpundu. Kenya swarmed the tournament with heavy weights; Uganda sent a team of six with the honours going to Chris Ntege who took out Morara of Kenya and stole into No.8. It was a coup Kenya would rather forget. Our generous host Tanzania preferred to extend the Swahili hospitality to the visitors. Dr. Litunya cruised to the top to win this event carrying for champion’s trophy a glassware so precious and much coveted.
Kenya hosted two years later, then Uganda and Zambia and now Tanzania. The tournament rotates from one East African city and town another. It is hoped that Kigali and Juba would widen the scope of the game in the future. Consequently Kenyans are probably the most travelled scrabble players in East Africa. They prefer to hunt in parks. This year they have assembled 44 word warriors whose brief I am told is to sweep the Top 20 positions. This has raised morale in team Kenya: days prior to the tournament, Kenyan social media is full of braggadocio.
A large bubble has been erected awaiting players from Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania to burst it.
The long tradition of this tournament is that a Kenyan player has won it regardless of the host. It remains to be seen, that in the year that scrabble comes to Africa whence an extravaganza awaits humanity, will Kenya live up to its billing as the behemoth of East Africa?
