By Madaraka Nyerere, 3rd July 2010 @ 12:00, Total Comments: 3, Hits: 3776
The soccer World Cup currently underway in South Africa depicts how a sports event, soccer in particular, is able to unite Africans in a way that politics and economics cannot. As the first match kicked off in South Africa on June 11 there could hardly have been talk of ‘Africa South of the Sahara,’ and ‘the Maghreb.’
There were five national teams representing Africa and it is unimaginable that whenever an African team played in the World Cup it lacked near-total support from Africans throughout the world. From sports commentators in Tanzania’s media who referred to ‘us’ to consistently mean Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Ghana, and hosts South Africa, to the soccer fan on the street, the World Cup has united Africans in supporting, first, the African teams that began the competitions, and lately, Ghana, the African team that has held out the longest in the competitions.
When Ghana’s Asamoah Jiang scored the second goal for his national team against the United States at the knockout stage of the competition, I suspect if I could suppress my cheering I would have heard the rapturous and thunderous cheers of other residents of Butiama, and with some imagination, even the collective cheer that engulfed the entire African continent.
That the World Cup should have such sway in African countries is not entirely surprising. It is one of the few sports that is played through most of Africa an the fact that it costs very little or nothing for even impoverished children to mould a football out of discarded cloth or strips of plastic makes it even easier.
However, the recent news that President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria suspended the Nigerian national soccer team for performing dismally in South Africa suggested he was taking life a bit too seriously. It’s only a game. Or is it? If the public’s euphoria in soccer could be harnessed towards political support and action the economic and social challenges Africa faces could become easier to surmount. The possibility that public anger against its
national team could manifest itself against a country’s political leadership is not far-fetched and President Jonathan could be playing his political cards.
The French minister for sports also seemed to share Nigeria’s sentiments and was contemplating action against the French football federation for France’s early
departure from the competition although the stern warning by FIFA’s Seff Blatter for government’s to keep out of sports administration may soften any planned punitive measures. Despite Blatter’s warning, events in Nigeria and France illustrate the tremendous influence that soccer has on society.
The default suspicion will be that politicians only want to be seen to be in solidarity with fellow citizens, but when national teams fail, not because of poor refereeing, but because of poor preparations and maladministration of national soccer authorities, then
there is no telling how far the public’s discontent can travel. FIFA’s rules may prevent politicians from interfering with football administration, but, invariably, when teams perform poorly, it is not Seff Blatter who gets the blame but a country’s football administration, and however distant FIFA wants to hold government nterference the public will eventually place responsibility on its government.
With time the fallout that FIFA will permit in Nigeria and France will replicate itself elsewhere. The World Cup in South Africa is a huge party, and as with most parties where alcohol is served, hangovers are inevitable. Like an antidote, the effects of the euphoric atmosphere at the stadiums in South Africa will wear out with the departure of the World Cup trophy from African soil and our hopes, aspirations, successes, and failures will resume their rhythm. What is temporarily hidden by such a prestigious event is exposed by its ending.
In 2008 foreigners in South Africa became victims of xenophobic attacks by some South Africans who accused foreigners from neighbouring African countries of raising competition for employment, and housing. After this event the fans will return to their normal life routines, to daily survival and contemplation, to laughter and sadness, to love and hate.
While some South Africans will be counting the cost of hosting the World Cup, some of their xenophobic compatriots who stood side by side with fellow Africans to cheer their African teams at the stadiums could very well resume their campaign to drive other Africans out of their neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, that tenuous unity that brings together Africans in sports cannot withstand the prejudices, suspicions, and insecurity arising from the daily challenges that confront us, and we continue to face those challenges in our quest for regional and continental integration.
That "sports event, soccer in particular, is able to unite Africans in a way that politics and economics cannot," is not a debatable issue.
Truly, any sports event entertains the idea of "feeling-good"; it is a sociological propaganda (similar to public relations), per excellence.
Yet, such acclaimed unifying factor is nothing but the “opium of the masses."
Imagine, Tanzania wasting those coveted millions of shillings for the mirage "feeling good" mood that lasted lasting for ninety minutes, when our school kids sit (for hours, weeks, months and years) on buttocks-pinching stones!
Enlarge the laager: Our maternity women keep on sharing beds if not sleeping on floors! Thanks, these sleep on floors; there many in the rural areas who give birth, similar to gnu of Serengeti upon reaching Ngorongoro plains!
Comment
That "sports event, soccer in particular, is able to unite Africans in a way that politics and economics cannot," is not a debatable issue.
Truly, any sports event entertains the idea of "feeling-good"; it is a sociological propaganda (similar to public relations), per excellence.
Yet, such acclaimed unifying factor is nothing but the “opium of the masses."
Imagine, Tanzania wasting those coveted millions of shillings for the mirage "feeling good" mood that lasted for only ninety minutes, when our school kids sit (for hours, weeks, months and years) on buttocks-pinching stones!
Enlarge the laager: Our maternity women keep on sharing beds if not sleeping on floors! Thanks, these sleep on floors; there many in the rural areas who give birth, similar to gnu of Serengeti upon reaching Ngorongoro plains!
Comment
What a shame! The World Cup management, the attending foreign teams and Bafana Bafana supporters, all have behaved so well so far, compared to previous World Cups. Why would any well-wishing indigenous South African, or some cynical troublemakers want to tarnish it with a xenophobic scenario of violence at the end, for God's sake?
Anyway; come back home. And let's drag you out of your hallowed Butiama hideout for a change!
Let's talk now how we have a unitary and presumably non-devisive EAC Common Market protocol. Shouldn't we revisit and rethink about the immensity of the potential from the Victoria-Nyanza lakeside cities and towns? Kampala, the UG capital is lakeside, so is Entebbe, with its International Airport. The CHOGM and successive international conference venue successes in Kampala relied on the lakeside hospitality investments and accommodations.
Mwanza, Kisumu, and Jinja, the next second cities of importance in the EAC are all lakeside. The Victoria-Nyanza lakeside spawned the likes of Nyerere (from your Butiama), Obama, Odinga (O to R), UN's Tibaijuka, and the Ugandan anglican saints, within a stone's throw from the lakeshores. Mwanza, Musoma and Port Bell cargo container ports lie fallow, and Kisumu's dry dock has been surrendered to hyacinth overgrowth.
Yet these are the very cities and towns strategically and centarally-placed within the geography of the the EAC and beyond.
Dar es Salaam and Mombasa may be the entry points. Nairobi may be a central rallying yard. But ignoring the potential of the freeway through the lake would be extremely short-sighted. And this has nothing to do with ngege, Nile perch or Migingo.
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