A throne in place of gloves
They offered him a crown. He said no.
George Desmond Kamurasi guards the net for SE Dons, in English non-league football. He is 36, has a wife, a child and a settled life in England. And for the past few weeks he has had a call almost nobody ever gets: to become the Omukama, the king of the Tooro kingdom in Uganda.
The story comes from Portuguese newspaper O Jogo. The Babiito clan’s royal succession committee had made him their preferred candidate. Kamurasi could claim the throne through his father, the second son of former king George Rukidi III.
He turned it down.
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He has other duties
The throne had been empty since the death of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who died aged 34 in the United States.
He declined because he has other duties to carry out, and that is his right, said Reverend Charles Oyo Amooti, a member of the succession committee.
There is also the other reason, the one that rarely makes it into the formal statements. The goalkeeper wanted no part of a succession fight. And there is one.
The battle rolls on without him
His refusal has cleared the way for Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma I. The former Uganda Broadcasting Corporation presenter was declared king on Tuesday, with the coronation set for 29 September.
But nothing is settled yet. A grandson of King George David Rukidi Kamurasi III, the new ruler is facing another line of succession backed by the royal family. They believe the late king Oyo’s son should inherit the throne, in line with what they say was written in his will.
Meanwhile, nine tiers below the Premier League, a 36-year-old goalkeeper pulls on his gloves at weekends somewhere in England. That was the life he chose.
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