Game of Her Life

[Profile Writing] She’s 14, lives in the slums of Uganda and is just now learning to read. But Phiona Mutesi’s instincts have made her a player to watch in international chess. “News eventually spread around Katwe that Katende was part of an organization run by white people, known in Uganda as mzungu, and Harriet began hearing disturbing rumors. ‘My neighbors told me that chess was a white man’s game and that if I let Phiona keep going there to play, that mzungu would take her away,’ she says. ‘But I could not afford to feed her. What choice did I have?’”