Sounds from African drums and wild cheers filled Smith-Buonanno 106 Wednesday night as the women's rugby team faced off against a women's team from Uganda in a documentary about the Brown team's landmark trip to the country last year. The Brown women were the first non-African women's rugby team to play in East Africa.
A few minutes further into the 45-minute documentary - which drew an audience of about 25, mostly women's rugby and hockey players - the Ugandan and Brown women were laughing, drinking and teaching each other dance moves as they shared rugby stories. The most common theme: No one takes a female rugby player seriously.
The inspiration for last year's spring break trip to Uganda came from co-captain Jennifer Hustwitt '07. Hustwitt spent the summer after her freshman year working in Uganda for the African Child Foundation, a small community organization. The following summer, Hustwitt was awarded a Royce Fellowship to return there and research children's access to secondary school education.
Driving through the capital city of Kampala one day that summer, Hustwitt spotted a rugby pitch. Later, she attended a match between Uganda and Rwanda. "I wanted the team from Brown to experience it," she said.
Team members interviewed in the documentary say the trip was first discussed during the first week of practice last year. The rugby team took - and paid for - all players who were interested in going. The total cost for the trip was between $85,000 and $120,000, the players said.
To make the trip a reality, the team had to get approval from University officials, who were initially reluctant to grant the team permission to make the trip. They also had to canvass door-to-door the weekend before the trip to meet their final fundraising goal. But ultimately, 32 players - along with five alums, two coaches, a photographer and a videographer - were able to make the trip to Africa.
"I realized exactly how much can be achieved when you effectively pull 40 people together and persevere as a group to make it happen," Hustwitt said.
Kira Manser '07 laughed when she remembered the obstacles the team faced last winter while fundraising for the trip. "It was challenging, it was really ... challenging," she said. "But I never gave up hope."
"Women (in Uganda) are fighting the same battles about the right to play as they are here," said Head Coach Kerrissa Heffernan, who is also director of the Royce Fellowship Program, in the movie. "There is a kinship around that."
The only rugby club in Kampala that would accept a women's team is Kyadondo, a men's club. One Ugandan woman described in the film how she and her teammates must wash cars to raise enough money for their matches.
The documentary and a discussion panel that followed the screening Wednesday night explored issues of women in sports, specifically rugby. Brown players interviewed in the documentary talked about the team being "very sexualized."
"Women's rugby challenges what it means to be a woman, according to standard social constructions of gender and femininity," Hustwitt said. "In addition to the athletic challenges of the sport, there's also a social tension automatically surrounding the fact that you're a female rugby player."
"People couldn't believe we were female rugby players. Either we weren't really female or not really rugby players," Manser added.
One of the documentary's goals is to spark discussion about these issues, Hustwitt said. In addition, several team members recently submitted a Group Independent Study Project proposal for a course about women in sports.
"The academic/athletic connection hasn't stopped after the trip," said Andria Payne '10. "When we were planning the GISP, we considered not just women's rugby in Uganda but any developing country athletics, or even women's sports in America. Comparing the two is something we're interested in."
Other follow-up initiatives include speakers, mini-seminars, discussion topics and films, Manser said. She and Huswitt "co-authored a paper about trying to begin thinking about gender implications of rugby in different contexts."
There has been extensive media coverage of the trip. The BBC covered all their games in Uganda, and team members had an hour-long radio interview with a station in Kampala.
The team also decided shortly before they left to document their trip on film. They asked Laura Green '06, a modern culture and media concentrator, to tag along with a camera. She and other students spent the summer editing it.
The players hope the documentary will reach a larger audience. "We're beginning by focusing on the Brown community and other athletic teams at Brown," Hustwitt said. "Then we're bringing it to the Ivy League tournament, so it will be within the greater rugby community, then to the general public. We have plans to produce and distribute it, but we're currently working on ownership and music rights."
They would also like to bring the Uganda team to play at Brown, but athletes from that part of the world typically have problems getting visas, the players said.
Even if the Ugandan team isn't able to travel to College Hill, Brown's visit made an impact. "We became a marker of success for them," Heffernan said.
"We're not happy they kicked our butts, but we are happy they were recognized," added one of the Brown players.
