Boxing Bukon

Late afternoon in Bukom, a small fishing enclave in the popular Jamestown district of Accra. The children run out of class and immediately head to the boxing clubs for their daily training.

Bukom is reputed to be the den of Ghanaian boxing and concentrates the most clubs in the world. Here, for over 75 years, the greatest champions have been produced. In bukom more than anywhere else boxing is a matter of survival. In this very poor neighborhood, there are few exits for young people. Delinquency here is strong, and boxing is one of the only escape routes, a lifeline. Many of the coaches have understood this and are trying to inculcate the values of the "noble art" of extracting young people from a spiral of infernal violence. The one of the great champions they adore. Seven world champions come from Bukom.

Bukom looks like a shantytown with its shacks of shiny metal sheets, surrounded by crumbling old colonial houses.  Most clubs are open air and do not have electricity. In small concrete courtyards, breathless punching balls rub shoulders with dumbbells rusted by the sea air. On the ground yellow circles have been painted to practice moving. Young people in these very difficult training conditions develop a "fighting spirit", a rage to fight that many Western clubs envy them.
This report takes us to meet these children who find in boxing a new hope, an impetus to escape the misery of their deprived neighborhood.

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