"I don't care how you remember me as a football player," says Mushaga Bakenga. "I really don't care. What I care about is when I'm lying there -- as a hopefully 95-year-old man with not even my own teeth [laughs] -- I could look back and think that I changed many lives, that I did my part in being a human."
Bakenga -- or Mushagalusa Bakenga Joar Bahati Namugunga, to give him his full name -- probably won't be remembered the world over for his football. Not even for his globetrotting career -- Norway to Belgium, Germany, and Japan, and now in India with Punjab FC in the ISL. But he will be remembered, way beyond the world of football and probably long after he's a 95-year-old, for something very special: for winning the FIFPro Marcus Rashford Award. It's given by FIFPro, the global collective of professional footballers, to those 'who have championed programs and actions that have a positive impact on their communities', and their choice becomes clear when you speak to him.
Born to Congolese-origin parents in Trondheim, Norway, Bakenga started an organisation called Jabez's World (named after a Biblical figure who helps find the right path) through which he started, and runs, a school in the town of Nyangezi in the mineral-rich but devastatingly poor Eastern Congo region. Called College Namugunga, it currently has about 1300 students and has already established a stellar track-record, with nearly 90 students having won university scholarships.
For Bakenga, College Namugunga was both the logical culmination of his life's philosophy, and the start of his life's mission.
"I cannot see [injustice] happening without reacting," he tells ESPN. "As a football player, especially in Europe, mostly you just have to shut up. Even if it's happened, you have to shut up and just take it, and I cannot." This stubborn refusal to 'shut up and dribble' saw him take vocal stands against racism in European football, but it also slowly manifested in a realisation that standing up for something good is as important as standing up against something bad.
Av og til er fotball uviktig��
Vi fikk gleden av å besøke Bakengas familie og skolen de driver i Kongo. Fantastisk inspirerende prosjekt��
Tre klasserom er på vei opp med pengene vi samlet inn på Spleis. Tusen hjertelig takk for alle bidrag. pic.twitter.com/91m7deJWZm
- Stabæk Fotball (@Stabaek) December 13, 2023
"I was also in the war in Congo, I was also with my family there, I could be one of the kids who I see every time I go to Congo on the streets with nothing," he says. "What's the difference between me and them? I'm just a lucky one."
He was, in fact, one of the lucky ones. His grandparents were both preachers, who openly talked about the corruption and crime of those in power, and so did most of his family. One of his uncles, Dr Dennis Mukwege recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in treating victims of war rape. All this meant the Namugunga family were in the crosshairs when the First Congo War broke out.
Vacationing in Congo as a five-year old, Bakenga had to spend two years on the run with his family. His sister was born in this chaos, the hospital she was born in was targeted a few hours after they had left it (after getting a tip-off), and his father was kidnapped, held for nine months, and almost killed. It was his mother's employers, UNICEF, who finally managed to airlift members of the (extended) family out to different cities across Europe.
From that early feeling of unfairness and luck was born Jabez's World. "I was like, okay, now it's time. I don't care if I don't have that much money, but let's just start something," he says.
The FIFPro award is just the start, because for Bakenga what's important is that the award brings more attention to his project.
College Namugunga, he says, is an endeavour that's brought hope to an area where that feeling is a scant resource. The school provides education free-of-cost, and after a rude awakening of the harshness of life, food twice a day to his students. "I felt so stupid", Bakenga says as he talks of how a student answered his question of what more they want -- classrooms, playgrounds, books -- with "food". The school attracts students from across the area, like one girl Bakenga talks about who walked two hours to get there by 7.30 am, having woken up an hour earlier to take care of her siblings.
She's just one of many who must double up as guardians. "A 10-year-old should think after school, 'go and play'. You shouldn't have any worries in your life," says Bakenga. "But these kids, they are really the strongest people I've ever met. Like, when I say strong, I mean... it's unbelievable. I would give up, if it was me. I would just give up like, ah.... but every time they do whatever they can."
The school's helping. Bakenga speaks of another student who once told him to not feel guilty about enjoying life himself. "The kid was 16 [then]," says Bakenga. "And now... he got a scholarship to one of the colleges in Congo and will soon be finished with his master's degree and he's already decided to come back to Nyangezi and help build the community. More are doing that, going to the big cities, then come back."
It's a cycle of hope that he hopes will replace the one of violence that is ever prevalent. "My uncle [Dr Mukwege] ... the youngest he ever treated was a six-month baby," he says as he describes in graphic detail how militias use violent gang rape as a scare tactic. "They give you two hours to move [so they can occupy and mine the land]. If you're not gone by two hours, they come and they do all this. And they don't just shoot you. They want to torture you... what is wrong [with humanity]? I don't understand how people in the Western countries know that they are responsible for this and still let it happen. After [Dr Mukwege] won the peace prize, I was talking to him, saying now we will see change. And he was like, 'I will believe it when I see, because my reports of which companies are responsible for this are still [collecting dust] in the UN's office.'"
But he's doing his part to help, and that gives him deep satisfaction. He makes sure the teachers at his school are paid more than elsewhere in the region, and he works with the Congolese government to commit financial support and the Norwegian government for logistical support to make sure the massive operation runs smoothly.
Mushaga Bakenga is this year's @MarcusRashford Award winner at #WFSEurope ✨
The former Norway international built a school for an orphanage in DR Congo, giving hundreds of children a better start in life.@WFSummit | @NISO_sport pic.twitter.com/32a0i4EEl9
- FIFPRO (@FIFPRO) September 18, 2024
Along the way, he's had his fill of criticism and abuse from the 'separate sport from life and politics' crowd. "After receiving this [award], people were congratulating me, but also, I had hundreds of messages: 'Yeah, it's cool, but let's now focus on this football'. Or 'if only you would focus [on football]'. Even last year when I was really working hard in Norway, this job against racism and trying to help kids, people were saying to me, 'it's okay, if you can put this much effort here, why did you only score one and not two goals in this game? Because you have the effort in you'."
"It happened here also in India; I got some messages... Yes, I know I haven't played my best in India so far, but there are personal reasons for that. And then I win this award, I put it out, and some people message me like, 'f*** this award, focus more on the pitch,' It's just... for me... it's become normal. Like, I understand some people don't have the capacity or ability to realise that people can have bad days, or people can do different things, and that life is more than football..."
"Yeah, but it's been [tough] but I just accept it, like the world is a f***ed up place, 100%. The biggest problem in this world is us humans, we are our worst enemies. But at the same time, there's so many good people in this world. So, I try to focus on that and have that hope that the good people will eventually make the world a better place instead of the bad people taking over."
And so, he will continue to keep at it, whatever happens around it. "We've already located other villages that we're going to help, because now I want to step it up. Hopefully also this award helps me meet other people that want to join and make a change. And then we can build. I have a goal 10 schools and next 10 years. So yes, if I can do that, then trust me, I will be satisfied the rest of my life for sure."