Refugee judokas wait for a chance to compete

Popole Misenga and Yolande Bukasa have hectic interview schedules. The Congolese judokas, who have lived in Brazil as refugees since 2013, recount their stories to journalists all around the globe. “You're already in the Rio Olympics,” they seem never to stop hearing. But as the Games draw nearer, anxiety escalates, as no guarantee has been given by the International Olympic Committee that the two will at least be allowed to apply for the refugees' delegation announced on March 3.

“We're waiting,” says Misenga, 23, who ran away from his village under a bomb attack still as a child.

Sheltered by Rio-based Reação Institute, the two athletes have been practicing since April last year with the purpose of having a chance to take part in the Olympics. Sensei Geraldo Bernardes, 73, in charge of Misenga and Bukasa's preparation, says training can only be intensified after their participation is confirmed.

Misenga and Bukasa are given basic food baskets and bus fares to practice, but have to cope with dire financial difficulties. With no means to produce proof of education and still coming to grips with Portuguese, the two judo wrestlers cannot find a formal job and have struggled earning a livelihood in the Cidade Alta favela, north Rio, helping unload cargo trucks. Misenga is married and has a one-year-old daughter. Bukasa was allowed to live in the house of a family with three children.

“I sleep in the living room, on the floor. I don't pay anything, but I share my basic food baskets with them. Last month, my friend kept telling me I had to contribute with some money. I talked to the sensei and he helped me,” says Bukasa, who is 28 and an unemployed woman.

Pursuing the dream of fighting in the Olympics has entailed sacrifices which add to the everyday challenge of finding a job. With 2-hour training sessions in the Jacarepaguá district, west Rio, Misenga says working is difficult.

“Judo is my priority. If I leave at around 6 or 9pm, there's no time to come home to the institute. I have to choose between judo and making $10 a day unloading trucks,” he says regretfully. The judo fighter tries to get by juggling multiple overdue bills, exercising by himself and focusing on practice.

“I come here for the training, and leave things lacking at home, like food for my daughter. It's hard to practice under these conditions.”

An answer in June

Early this month, the International Olympic Committee confirmed the Games this year will be the first to have a delegation exclusively dedicated to refugees of several nationalities, making up the 207th country in the Olympics. The committee announced that 43 candidates were identified, and that the delegation will consist of five to ten members. The list of candidates chosen will be disclosed in June, in a meeting with the committee's executive directors.

In fact, early last year, the committee contacted Caritas Brazil, which named the two refugees, since the NGO had offered Misenga and Busaka assistance when they landed in Brazil, but no further contact was made. Sensei Bernardes has not lost his hopes, however. He was a member of the Brazilian technical committee four times, between 1988 (Seoul) and 2000 (Sidney), and has coached athletes aiming for the Brazilian national team, like world-champion Rafaela Silva.

“They've showed a lot of progress. With such high-level athletes as ours, training is tough and Olympics-oriented, so they can be in good shape for the fights,” he argues.

Running away from the war

Misenga and Busaka came to Brazil for an international judo competition in 2013, but they say they were abandoned in the hotel by the technical committee of their country, which left them with no means even to have meals. The Democratic Republic of Congo was struggling under a civil war, and they managed to find refuge in Brazil. The conflict remains, just as it had been when their lives changed during childhood.

Bukasa remembers when she was ten, and had just arrived home from school. She was playing on the street, still wearing her uniform, when she started to hear bombs exploding and shots being fired. The civil war had come to the city of Bukavu, where she lived.

“I tried to come back home, but they told me not to. I ran away with other people, and then a helicopter came and all the children hopped on,” she recounts. Bukasa was taken to the capital and never had a chance to see her parents or any other relative ever again.

In addition to the killing and the shooting, Bukasa brings back to mind other acts of violence she will never be able to forget: “I saw some 15, 20 men going after a woman.”

A six-year-old Misenga escaped from the same city as Bukasa did, and was also severed from his family permanently. “On the day the war broke out, I was at home, my sister was at school, my father was working. The bombs started falling down, burning houses, and there were shots. When I got out of the house, I saw a lot of people running, and I ran along, and they would tumble down to the ground, shot dead.

He ran to the woods and walked for days, he says, until he was rescued by a UNICEF boat.

In Kinshasa, the capital, Misenga and Bukasa started practicing judo after taking part in social initiatives designed to help refugees. They later became international-level athletes, and were given a chance to come to Brazil in 2013.

Bernardes says the training style brought over by Misenga and Bukasa's reflects how tyrannically they had been treated in their lives as high-performance athletes.

“Whenever they had fought, they had to win, or they would be punished or in prison. This turned their spirits into spirits that were forced to win all the time, which led to social issues with my athletes,” the sensei argues. He helped the two Congolese refugees address the problem. “They learned to understand judo's fair play after a while.”

Olympic dream

Misenga believes that taking part in the Olympics may be the way to find a livelihood and raise his family through his career as a judo fighter.

“When an athlete is given exposure in the Olympic Games, he's given a chance to forge ties with new acquaintances, sponsors, and to schedule interviews. I've been going through quite a lot to be able to pay the rent, and there's also my wife and daughter.”

Misenga further mentions that the Games could change her career not just because of the financial gains. “I've led a harsh life, and fought really hard, so I want a place in the Olympics to ease my mind. I want to have good memories.”

Agência Brasil reached the International Olympic Committee regarding the two athletes, but had no response.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira