Scrabble, a growing passion on the African continent
Scrabble is fairly widespread in all French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries.
(illustrative image) Seyllou AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Scrabble, with its sometimes aging image in Europe, is a very dynamic sport on the African continent, a breeding ground for high potential.
It requires immense capacities of concentration and memorization.
With surprising athlete profiles like Henri Engongue, Congolese from Kinshasa.
Meet.
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With our special correspondent in Yaoundé,
Amélie Tulet
In Cergy, in the Parisian suburbs, Henri Engongue is a handler in the building industry.
A physical job.
Around him, many ignore his passion for more than 30 years: the French language and
Scrabble
, discovered in the neighborhood in Kinshasa.
“
Friends had just moved in.
I saw them playing Scrabble and I didn't understand a thing.
At school, I was strong in French, everything related to memory, history, geography... I told myself that Scrabble would help me improve my vocabulary.
After three, four months, I started beating everyone
!
“, he recalls.
Henri Engongue is one of those competitive scrabblers with exceptional memorization skills, which allow him to compete with the computer software created for the discipline.
“
Around the years 1995-1997, I had memorized all the eight-letter words.
Before checking in the dictionary, people passed by me.
I told them if the word existed or not.
»
► To read also: Scrabble CAN: at home, Cameroon offers itself a prestigious gold medal
Today, Henri Engongue wakes up with words and spends his free time learning lists by heart.
During this CAN in Cameroon, he did not win a medal.
But Henri Engongue assures to resume training seriously and is preparing for the 2023 championships.
“I felt the potential of Scrabble development in Africa”
Scrabble CAN in Cameroon: the future of the discipline is in Africa
Amelie Tulet
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