This non-fiction narrative follows the story of Kamau “Kelly” Ng’ang’a, a 23 year-old Kenyan who dreams of becoming a professional boxer. As a young bantamweight fighter, Kelly left his family’s comfortable home in the rural countryside to live and train in a city slum. He’s part of a hodgepodge group of adolescents, each from different tribes, that calls themselves the Kibera Olympic Boxing Club. The group’s ethnic diversity is remarkable given the 2008 post-election violence, in which people from different tribes were forced violently out of slums. Together, Kelly and his peers represent a nascent trend of cross-tribe brotherhood in a healing nation. After winning the 2011 Nairobi Open, Kelly sets his sights higher, on the Kenya Open – a qualifying bout for the 2012 Olympic Games. But Kelly’s dreams of representing his country are complicated by a history of ethnic rivalries.
Credits
Bob Miller