Queen of Katwe — My Reflection
“Living in the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga) and her family. Her world changes one day when she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) at a missionary program. Katende coaches soccer and teaches children to play chess. Curious, Phiona approaches and learns the game. She becomes fascinated with it and soon becomes a top player under Katende’s guidance.” — Wikipedia
There isn’t much suspense in this movie and that is expected because it is a true life grass to grace story but even with that expectation, the cast and crew did a fantastic job at holding my attention throughout the movie. The only problem i had with this movie is that the music was scored very poorly. My decision to watch this movie was partly based on my love for stories like this — my passion for young people in rural areas and the other part was the anticipation to learn and interact with Uganda, the country where the movie is set, through music and culture that i expected will be captured throughout the movie. Imagine my first disappointment when i heard 3 Nigerian songs in less than 30 minutes into the movie. As a Nigerian, that should make me proud but it doesn’t because i wanted to hear Ugandan music just like i mentioned earlier and it was only a few times during the entire movie that i thought the music was in sync.
Asides the music issue, the movie was a big hit for me in different ways. The first is that it reaffirms my thought that young people in rural communities can succeed within their space if they had the right help. In the movie, Fiona learned how to play chess as an uneducated child who didn’t even know how to read and she became a master within a short time of learning to read which helped her study on chess. We don’t all need to migrate to big cities (especially without the tools to survive) before we can succeed.
This movie helped me to reflect on mission work and the role of missionaries in the society especially in rural African communities. Robert Katende is a model missionary who is sold out to empowering young children starting in Katwe, Uganda. I am reminded that I have a role to play, especially as a Christian to either go on a mission trip sometime or be an active financial and moral supporter of missionaries on the field.
There was a short #couplegoals moment in this movie that was very powerful for me. The coach who is a trained engineer had gotten a job that will pay more than the one at the outreach ministry but he turned it down because of his commitment to the kids. He had tried to apologize to his wife about it and her response blew my mind — “why do you do this? why are you sorry for doing what you know is right” and she went on about her belief in him and how she always knew he was the kind of guy to commit to such a cause over a high paying job. I needed to watch that and be reminded of the important things to think about before i commit to marrying someone.
Lastly and the most important thought that i had to confront and reflect on throughout the movie was the concept of beauty. What is beauty? Who is beautiful? I remember that i faced this same thought when i watched Lupita in 12 years a slave. Apparently, my mind has been conditioned to expect beauty in a certain form when watching movies and so i waited for the tides to turn in this movie, i was looking forward to that transformation that will resemble the ideals i had in my head and i was glad to be disappointed. I had to remind myself that there is no universal form of beauty and an attempt to describe it has to be far from what a person’s face looks like. We should all reflect on this more the next time we are tempted to call someone ugly.
This was my favorite song in the entire movie and i loved how it was apt in capturing a common trade of salt in the Katwe area and just how much fun the song is.
I expected to cry more in this movie, i thought there were moments that could have been more dramatic like the brother’s accident, the flood at their home and the surprise for her mum at the end. I guess they wanted to tell the story as it really was which wasn’t bad because that helped me to engage throughout the movie.
Queen of Katwe is a very inspiring movie with a distinct grass to grace story and i enjoyed every minute i spent watching it. I especially loved the Luganda expressions like “eish” and the “finger snap slap”(I saw a video tutorial of this on youtube) that often accompanied a victorious moment and all these cultural elements embedded in the movie were learning moments for me.
