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It’s approximately 14,500 kilometres to go from Cape Town to London by foot, and one bold man is running this astounding distance all to bring awareness to racial justice.

This challenge is an extension to the 381 days running for justice campaign that Deo Kato, a Ugandan man, formed in the wake of the murder of the American man George Floyd. The movement encouraged people to run 10km a day for 381 days as a form of activism. This was inspired by the 381-day strike of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 which African Americans participated in.

Deo wanted to take the movement to the next level, however, and so he decided to run all the way from Cape Town to London. The 36-year-old works as a personal trainer and said that he wanted to continue the movement through a different lens – “by taking it to Africa”.

“The experience I’ve had moving from one place to another, I’ve experienced racial discrimination myself,” he said. “All humans come from Africa and I want to educate people of that fact through running.”

Deo has so far crossed through seven countries – South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya – and has completed 6,690.2 km. He started his run in July last year and believes he will arrive in London at the end of September 2024.

At the moment, he should have crossed from the northern border of Kenya into Ethiopia, according to The Mirror.

 

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Planning the route was no easy task as he had to avoid certain countries due to war or political instability.

“We are kind of creating a roadmap as we go along. The human migration story goes off the beaten track away from known forms of travel through Africa. We did lots of research to figure out the best safe routes and countries. It turned out the conflict in the Congo was too much so we changed route to go into Kenya and stay on the eastern side of Africa.”

The political instability of certain countries is sometimes the least of Deo’s worries. Angry farmers, vehicles letting him down and even lions have threatened to turn his journey upside down.

“Most companies don’t allow cars to travel across borders into new countries so organising new vehicles at each border is quite difficult. We also had a very angry farmer call the police on us. Then of course there is the wildlife. We’ve encountered elephants on the roads, springbok, antelopes and lots of giraffes. In Tanzania, we had to run in the daytime with an escort from park rangers in case lions came.”

With the help of his girlfriend Alice, Deo also organises visits to local schools to spread his message.

“Through social media and in person, I try to reach as many young people as possible. My girlfriend Alice arranges lots of the material and contacts in the background. Educating the next generation is so important but also teaching them that there will always be naysayers telling you you can’t do something.”

“But if you have your mind set you can achieve it if you want.”

With his body coping well with the task so far, Deo says it is the mental side of things that are harder to keep on top of.

 

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From Ethiopia, Deo’s next stop will be Sudan before crossing through to Egypt and then onto Greece – all of which come with their own set of challenges.

“With Sudan, we are looking into the route we have planned out and how safe it is. Ethiopia and Sudan are huge and we can’t go around them so we have to find a way through them to not put the whole project in jeopardy.”

Deo has already envisioned himself achieving this monumental challenge saying, “In my mind, I’ve already finished. I just need to get my body there. It will be very emotional.”

He said it has taken up close to five years of his life in total from the start of the campaign already, but his desire to fight towards ending racism is driving him forward every day.

 

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What a person.

[source:mirror]