LONG READ 'I want the world to see what these African communities can teach us' - How rugby is being redefined in Malawi

They emerge from the trees like spirits in the wind. Masked figures, draped in layered fabric, stamping and spinning in front of a crowd of bewildered schoolchildren. The rhythm builds, dust lifts from the earth, and for a few moments the edges between ceremony, celebration and chaos blur completely.

This is Gule Wamkulu, one of Malawi’s most recognisable traditional dances and, on the face of it, it has nothing to do with rugby.

And yet, here it is: unfolding at the edge of a rugby field in rural Lilongwe, at the end of a youth tournament organised by Bhubesi Pride Foundation (BPF).

“It creates this momentary chaos,” says founder Richard Bennett, describing a dance that still, after all these years witnessing it, takes his breath away. “It captures everything that is beautiful about Malawi. I think it captures where we are with rugby in the country, and where we’re trying to get to.”

Because rugby didn’t arrive in Malawi as a finished product. Nor can we honestly state that the Malawian national team will soon challenge more established nations. On the 114-strong list on World Rugby’s rankings for men’s teams, Malawi does not feature. They’re absent too among the 69 sides on the women’s chart.

But this is not a story about pathways, talent identification or the next emerging superstar. This is a story about what happens when a game is stripped back to its simplest form and placed within a community with little prior connection to it. And what that community, in turn, does with the opportunity.

Schools were learning teamwork, passion, professionalism, respect and discipline. That made me think rugby is something else

For Bennett, this notion first took root thousands of miles away. He grew up in South Africa where rugby, as he puts it, “was fed into my DNA”. He was a child when the 1995 World Cup was won on home soil and, like so many impressionable rugby fans in the nascent democracy under Nelson Mandela’s rule, a clear link between nation-building and the sport itself was forged.

“I was never on the pathway to becoming a professional, but there was always this enduring belief that rugby mattered, and had the capacity to change peoples’ lives,” Bennett says. “I saw first-hand how it could bring people together.”

Years later, teaching at a well-resourced school in Cheltenham, UK, that love resurfaced. So too did the understanding Bennett wasn’t doing all he could. “I realised there was only so much I could do in that environment,” he says. “I felt like there was more I could do with the game.”

What followed was, in his own words, “a wild idea” to take rugby across Africa, using it as a tool to connect communities and create opportunity. In 2011, Bennett travelled across 10 countries in seven weeks, testing whether that idea had any traction.

The response was enough to launch a 30,000km overland expedition from London to Cape Town the following year, coaching thousands of children along the way. Alongside a group of like-minded rugby travellers, he visited nations with established clubs, histories and legends of their own.

But it was Malawi – a country with little rugby footprint – that left the deepest impression.

“Malawi does not have a rich rugby heritage at all,” Bennett says. “There was a small pocket of the expat community, but beyond that there wasn’t much rugby. But that meant we could do things the way we wanted, without worrying about what had come before. We were building from the ground up.

“We’ve never been rugby development,” he continues. “We’ve always been about using rugby as a tool for development.”

The values of rugby help me in my everyday life. It’s a team sport – you can’t play without helping each other

The first step was to strip the game back.

“We kept it simple. It was typically touch rugby or tag rugby,” Bennett explains. “Youngsters got the idea of passing backwards, running forwards, linking up together and scoring a try. It was really inclusive and fun.”

Sessions were often held on uneven ground. Occasionally they had the luxury of patches of green grass. Mostly they ran on dusty fields. Boys and girls played together and the laws of the game were adapted to encourage teamwork. A try might count for more if it involved multiple passes, or if it was scored by a girl. But every action on the field was intrinsically connected with what occurred beyond it.

“One of the most important things was our PRIDE values,” Bennett points out. “Professionalism, respect, integrity, discipline and enjoyment,” Bennett says. “Kids and teachers lived by that. They loved it.”

That emphasis struck a chord with local coaches like Wordsworth Rashid, who now serves as BPF’s sport for development officer.

“When I first saw rugby, what made me happy was the values,” Rashid says. “Schools were learning teamwork, passion, professionalism, respect and discipline. That made me think rugby is something else. It’s really what we need as Malawians.”

In a country where, according to BPF data, 71% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day and early school dropout is widespread, the idea of sport as a structured, value-driven environment carries weight.

“They are not only learning sport,” Rashid says. “They are also developing holistically.”

The transformation is perhaps most clearly seen in people like Neosenga Vallence. “I joined when I was nine,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about rugby.”

Rugby helps teach you discipline. A person with discipline has a lot of chances in life

What began as something to do with a friend quickly became something more. Encouraged to continue, she stayed with the programme, developed her skills, and eventually became a coach herself, part of a growing network of local leaders.

Vallence’s journey is not unusual within BPF, but it is emblematic of its long-term impact. From those early sessions, she grew into a leader, eventually becoming a coach and helping to guide the next generation of girls entering the programme. For many of the girls she now coaches, the sport offers something rare: a space to build confidence, find a voice and begin to imagine a different future.

It is a pathway that did not exist in Malawi a decade ago, and one that extends beyond rugby itself. Today, BPF works with more than 3,000 young people in Malawi, supported by 12 full-time staff and around 50 trained coaches.

For Osman Saidi, another coach in the programme, rugby’s impact is felt far beyond the touchline. “The values of rugby help me in my everyday life,” he says. “It’s a team sport – you can’t play without helping each other.”

Saidi’s own journey into the game began long before he became a coach. Growing up in Lilongwe, he played for Hippos Rugby Academy, one of the country’s more established clubs, learning the game in a traditional setting before later connecting with BPF’s work in schools and communities.

That dual perspective, of club rugby and grassroots development, now shapes how he coaches. In his village, the lessons are practical as much as philosophical.

“Sometimes we have to make roads or build bridges so cars can pass,” he explains. “That teamwork from rugby can be used there too. Rugby helps teach you discipline. A person with discipline has a lot of chances in life. To be here as a coach, I think they saw that internal discipline in me.”

In 2018, BPF purchased a seven-acre site in rural Lilongwe and began building a community centre. Today, it includes a full-size rugby pitch, netball courts, classrooms and accommodation; a facility Bennett describes as potentially the best rugby infrastructure in the country.

You become so used to sharing the story as a white charity leader to white donors. But it’s important to bring Malawian voices into that

“The whole process of professionalising an organisation is always going to be challenging,” Bennett says. “When we started building the centre, it was like, ‘this is getting real’. The level of responsibility started to elevate.”

Staffing, funding, extreme weather and the Covid pandemic all added pressure. At one point, a section of boundary wall collapsed during heavy rains. At another, leadership structures had to be rebuilt mid-project.

The theory, however, is simple: sport creates an entry point, but the outcome is broader: improved health, education, confidence and employability. Crucially, the exchange does not run in only one direction.

Groups from the UK – including schools and professional academy players – regularly visit Malawi, taking part in coaching sessions and community activities. But the experience often proves as transformative for them as it is for the young people they meet.

In one case, a visiting student from the UK reflected on how little time he had spent on his phone compared to life back home. Others spoke about reconnecting with people and the environment in ways they hadn’t expected. That sense of mutual learning is central to how Bennett now frames the project.

“You become so used to sharing the story as a white charity leader to white donors,” he says. “But it’s important to bring Malawian voices into that, to speak first-hand about the challenges and the solutions.”

There is also a wider question hovering in the background: where countries like Malawi fit within global rugby.

Despite steady grassroots growth, structural barriers remain. Malawi is not yet fully embedded within the international rugby system, and resources are limited.

I want the world to see what these African communities can teach us. About life, about connection, about how we live together

“There’s a case to be made that bigger unions could do more,” Bennett says. “There’s huge potential here.”

Partnerships, such as the growing relationship with the Harlequins Foundation, point toward one possible pathway, linking established rugby institutions with emerging programmes across Africa. But for now, much of the progress continues to be driven locally.

Change is already visible. Children who had never seen a rugby ball a few years ago now take part in structured training sessions. Coaches who once joined out of curiosity now teach values to the next generation. Teachers carry those lessons into classrooms. Communities adapt them into daily life. A culture that once sat outside rugby’s traditional ecosystem is beginning to carve out its own place within it.

Which brings us back to the dancing. At the end of a tournament, as players drift toward the sidelines and the noise of the day begins to settle, the Gule Wamkulu dancers emerge once more. The masks, the rhythm, the sudden burst of movement. It is not part of any coach’s playbook, but it belongs here all the same.

“I want the world to see what these African communities can teach us,” Bennett says, his commitment palpable. “About life, about connection, about how we live together.”

In Malawi, rugby is growing. But more quietly, and perhaps more significantly, it is also being redefined.