“Queen of Katwe”: You Belong to the World
“Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place you belong. You belong where you believe you belong” © Coach Robert.
This time, I have been thinking a lot of an interesting topic to write about, and while I was searching for exciting topics, I encountered an article on Global Citizen that got me hooked. It was full of movies that every global citizen must watch. I watched a movie called “Queen of Katwe”.
This move is about Phiona, an inspiring girl from Uganda. Having been born and risen in a very remote and rural area of Uganda, she faces enough challenges on her way. However, her stubbornness and strong personality did not allow her to quit pursuing her dream life — be a World Chess Champion. Her victory goes beyond the borders of her home, street, village, city, country. It goes even beyond the whole Africa — to the World.
This movie proves that our lives does not end beyond the borders of our country. This movie proves that our passports does not determine our paths. This movie simply shows that there is another life across our state that can be beautiful, too…
In examining this movie, I would look at it through the prism of thought of Hans Schattle. The main idea if his article “Global Citizenship in Theory and Practice” is to make the readers widely aware of cosmopolitanism — a western notion that epitomizes the need social agents have to conceive of a political and cultural entity, larger than their own homeland, that would encompass all human beings on a global scale- and global citizenship. He profoundly describes these two notions as vital in current globalized world. He determines a new phase of global citizenship that prevails nowadays, investigating concepts that contemporary global citizenship encompasses such as “awareness, responsibility, participation, cross-cultural empathy, international mobility, and personal achievement”. Even though he does not directly address and advocate global issues, he encourages his students to go outside of their country’s borders. Simply representing the whole region — Africa — in the world arena is practicing global citizenship. As there is no ideal definition of it, global citizenship is not only tackling borderless problems, but also representing your country or region in the world scene is also a responsibility of a global citizens, because not every state-citizen can do that.
I think Robert, Phiona’s coach, has above mentioned characteristics of global citizen. He was the one, who inspired Phiona pursue her dream life, life that lasts across the world…
I encourage readers of my blog to watch this movie :)
Meerim Nurlanbekova
