On a hot afternoon at Zande Primary School in Ntcheu, the dusty *pitch seems to vibrate with anticipation. Hundreds* of villagers, children balancing on tiptoes, men leaning on bicycles, mothers with babies cinched tightly to their backs, crowd the touchline. The sun’s heat pours down without mercy, but still they stay, eyes fixed on the teenage girl at the centre of it all.
She raises a whistle to her lips. One short blast slices through the warm, buzzing air. The match begins. And with it, something else, something bigger is happening in this village in Traditional Authority Ganya.
Makina in the line of duty on the pitch.
That girl is Mercy Makina, 18, the unlikely referee commanding a game many around Magola Village or indeed Ntcheu at large, never imagined a young woman could officiate.
Makina’s love affair with football began long before she stepped onto a pitch. As a child, she was the girl hovering around the edges, cheering, clapping and running water bottles to exhausted players. She played netball at school, but it was football that captured her imagination.
The turning point came when she reached Standard Eight, at just 12 years old and surrounded herself with other girls who loved the sport too. Together they cobbled a small girls’ team, an act of defiance in a place where football was seen as strictly for boys.
Then one afternoon, she stood transfixed watching a local bonanza. But her attention wasn’t on the strikers or the keepers. It was on the man with the whistle.
“I watched how he controlled the match,” she recalls. “I asked someone how referees do their job. And that’s when everything changed.”
Makina approached the referee afterwards, telling him, shy but steady, that she wanted to do what he did. Soon, she became a regular at football grounds, not to cheer but to study–observing positioning, hand signals, the subtle cues of authority.
Her chance arrived faster than she dared hope. In 2025 Makina was selected for a refereeing course organised by the Ntcheu District Sports Council. She was stunned. But excitement collided with fear the moment she stepped into the room.
“It was full of men,” she says. “I was the only girl. My heart was pounding. I almost gave up.”
But she stayed. And in staying, she started a quiet revolution.
Today, she has officiated in three leagues, including a major bonanza organised by Norwegian Church Aid as well as Dan Church Aid and also FDH Bank Cup. Each match she oversees chips away at the old assumptions that football’s authority belongs only to men.
Makina’s rise comes at a time when Ntcheu faces a different kind of crisis, one rooted not in sport, but in addiction. According to district figures, six out of 10 young people are involved in alcohol or substance abuse. Even more alarming, two to three of every five girls are consuming alcohol.
Ntcheu District Sports sports officer Mathelo Sitima said sports has become an unexpected shield.
“The training programmes help young people avoid drugs and substance abuse,” she says. “Last year, we trained seven girls. For us, that’s a huge milestone.”
Grace Makuti, a programme officer for a gender-based violence project implemented by the Catholic Health Commission with funding from NCA and DCA, said bonanzas help them raise awareness about alcohol and drug abuse in Ganya and Njolomole areas.
As the sun begins its slow descent behind Magola Hills, the last match of the day ends in penalties. One team erupts in triumph; the other walks off with quiet dignity. But when Makina blows her final whistle, the loudest cheers are for her.
Parents nudge their daughters forward to catch a closer glimpse. Boys who once laughed at the idea of a female referee now nod in respect. Older men clap approvingly from beneath mango trees.
Makina takes it quietly. She is used to being the smallest figure on the pitch, but the one carrying the biggest message, that courage is often louder than tradition.
She is preparing for her Malawi School Certificate of Education examinarions this year, balancing schoolwork with matches, studying with the same discipline she applies to refereeing.
