Regarded as one of the best shooters in the world and Uganda’s most prized netballer, Peace Proscovia Agondua who hails from Arua District, defied her father at the age of 16 to pursue her netball dream by hopping on to the next bus to Kampala to join the National Insurance Council’s (NIC) Netball Team against his wishes that she stays home and gets married.
A decade later, the 29-year-old’s stand-out performances have earned her opportunities both local and internationally. She made history by becoming the first African to play in Britain’s Super League in 2015 after joining Loughborough Lightning and is currently the captain of She Cranes Netball Team and plays for Sunshine Coast Lightning team in Australia.
Proscovia is also a girl child advocate who was a panelist at the 2nd Commonwealth Debate on Sport and Sustainable Development that was held in London. She was also named as an ambassador for the 2019 Netball World Cup. We looked at her previous interviews with CNN, BBC, ESPN and Players Voice to pick these success tid-bits.
- TALENT
Peace Proscovia is immense talent in netball and basketball is undebatable. She was discovered by her PE teacher while studying at Mvara Secondary School in Arua District.
“At the age of 12 my sports master at my secondary school told me ‘the talent you have will take you miles and will make you achieve in life. If you stay disciplined and if you stay determined’.” - PASSION
Peace Proscovia’s waited for quite long for opportunities in netball and basketball to present themselves but never gave up because of passion.
“What kept me going was the faith and the passion for the sport. I genuinely loved sport and I loved playing, because the times that I was playing with my friends were always my happiest times in life. Outside of sport I never had any happy time, so that’s what made me love sports. I feel loved and out of sport I never felt loved, so that alone kept me in the sport until that opportunity came along.” - STANDOUT FROM THE CROWD
Peace Proscovia refused to follow the norm in her community of getting married at a tender age to help her family acquire wealth because it didn’t feel right to her.
“Most of the girls believed that if they continued to play sport they wouldn’t achieve what they were supposed to achieve, which was to get married and have children. As girls we’re seen as a source of wealth, whereby by getting married we bring wealth into the family, but I had to stand against the norms of the family. I was always self-motivated.” - DETERMINATION
Peace Proscovia’s father was initially not on board with her pursuing a career in sports but she put her foot down and fought to see her dreams come to fruition.
“At the age of 16 I stood my ground and I said: ‘I know netball can take me somewhere. My mother, having felt the pain that I went through, decided to sacrifice her life to get me to the city, but on arrival she was told to go back home. It was heartbreaking but I had to fight for my dream.” - COURAGE
Peace Proscovia recently replaced Sharp-shooter Bassett at Australia’s Sunshine Coast Lightning team and although she admits it’s quite a big shoe to fit in, she is not cowering but taking it as a challenge to become better.
“One of the hardest things is to join the team at the top.The question is are you going to make it better or worse? Now that I’ve replaced one of the top shooters in the world (Bassett), I have to test my strength.” - SERVICE
Peace Proscovia has always used her talent to help raise Uganda’s flag.
“I was playing for the sake of making my country shine and get to the World Cup. But in the process of fighting hard for my country, I ended up also opening a way for myself.”
She is also using her platform to empower girls to utilize their talent in sports to better their lives and change their communities.
“I want to make them feel equal to me and give them a sense of direction. I want to create a chain and encourage them to keep pulling to change the whole community.”
