When Pascal “Pappi” Akou first got onto a rugby pitch, it was to prove a point to his schoolmates at Kijabe High School – that he wasn’t the sissy everyone derided him as. That was before he fell in love with the game and the rest, as they say, is history.
Born in the DRC, Pascal and his family moved to Kenya two decades ago as the father pursued a theology masters at a local institution. The move meant a change of culture that wasn’t easy for the barely eight-year old boy. Nevertheless, Pascal took the change in his stride, and by the time primary school was over (four schools later), he emerged the best student in Kajiado district.
A missed opportunity to Nairobi School saw him land at Kijabe High School, where again, the challenge of culture and language was prominent. His schoolmates were convinced that he refused to speak Swahili out of pride, and bullied him severely for it.
As if to add insult to injury, his involvement with table tennis and athletics made him appear even more ‘fragile’ in their eyes.
Finally, in his third year, Pascal decided to do something about the derision. To him, the most important thing was to build his character and show that he too had some in-built stamina. He recalls:
“Everyone thought of me as a soft and fragile boy, and I believe I lacked character…I realized I needed to build myself, get involved in a contact game. I loved the idea of playing rugby because it meant developing steel and character, being hit, yet still following the rules…”
He turned out to be so good at it that in his fourth year, he was effortlessly captaining the school team. After high school, Pascal tried his hand at athletics again, captaining the Kenya Universities 100m and 200m teams at the national level. But rugby was always at the back of his mind. An opportunity presented itself in late 1999, when he chanced upon training session for the Nazarene University team in his neighborhood.
The coach, realizing his intense interest, asked him to join them for the session. His performance was so impressive that he was given the opportunity to play for the team, even though he wasn’t a student at the university. Pascal would go ahead to join the school later for a BCom degree, and also captain the school team for five years until 2007. He also had a shot at club rugby when he spent six months playing for Ulinzi before the club folded in 2003.
 The Nazarene Team Pascal’s last year in high school and subsequent stint at Nazarene was defining in many ways, not least of which was their impact on his relationship with God. Rugby has long been associated with uncouth and immoral tendencies, and Pascal came face-to-face with these. He says:
“I was a very religious person. I’ve lived in missions all my life, because of my dad – first at NEGST, then AIC Diguna…all my holidays were about Word of Life camps and all I heard about growing up was God…I think I was really exposed to another world when I left high school – the world of rugby and its ways…”
That exposure did not leave him untainted. Soon he was involved in the team’s drunken sprees, was headlong into an unhealthy relationship and God was a resident of his life’s back-burner. All these continued without the knowledge of the school’s authorities or even his parents.
“No one knew about my private life”, recalls Pascal. “I would still go to these camps, talk to people like I was a very religious, and leave to go back to my life with the team”.
It wasn’t until after a near bust in 2004 that Pascal realized he needed to shape up – he walked away from his friends’ activities and dropped out of the team for a period, during which he gave his life to Christ. Since then, he’s been hard at keeping his faith strong, while at the same time, seeking to influence his team-mates to change their lifestyles.
It hasn’t been easy. Pascal joined the Rugby Players Fellowship soon after, a group that seeks to bring together rugby players who are also believers. The fellowship has been a practical help – now instead of having to go have the ‘customary’ alcohol party after each game, they go for coffee. In such ways, the members are able to prop each other up and portray a positive lifestyle to their team-mates.
Now playing for Impala Club, Pascal is convinced that the future holds great promise for him and the game, not only in being in top-form, but also in shining the light of Christ into the rugby fraternity.
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