Thoughts about FIFA 2010 World cup
Like many Africans around the globe; from London, Harare, Yaoundé, Denver and Chicago, among others, I have been watching the FIFA 2010 World cup with a sense of excitement and nostalgia. Africans have been watching with particular curiosity because the World cup is one of those barometers being used to measure success for the continent. Even before the finals, the judgment call is already out.
To me, it is clear; the actions of the African governments being represented by their teams, players and officials have been thoroughly scrutinized. And rightly so. The scrutiny comes from everyone; those with high expectations that African teams will represent Africans well and those with little knowledge about the economics and politics of African soccer. For Afro skeptics, it is time to nail the countries, the teams and their leaders. For the optimists, perhaps the bar has been raised a little higher and everyone is looking up, whether the countries reach the bar or not. African leaders, beware!
I must confess that I did watch every game in which Algeria, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa played. Some of us who love the continent and yet find ourselves living elsewhere other than in our native countries, many of us are in America watching our teams play; sometimes, we would sneak time out of our work schedules to catch the games. Except for those professional soccer analysts on big name TV outlets who get paid to watch and analyze the games, the glimpses of South Africa 2010 have been something to be proud about. That is what I think.
Not just when African teams win, but in many other aspects. Soccer is no longer a European game, it is an African game and Africans love it and live it.
The Nigerian government banned its team from future participation in international soccer tournaments for two years because of the teams dismal performance, Paul Le Guen proved that he could not handle infighting within the Cameroonian team, Ghana beat the U.S.A and reached the quarter finals before elimination by Uruguay, the French continue to blame their national team for not representing them well, Argentina was eliminated by Germany with a 4-0 beating at the Semi’s, the horns continue to blare with each soccer matchup. I love the noise produced by those horns. Sounds to me like something that makes South Africa 2010 unique in its own right. Let’s take those horns to the next Broncos or Nuggets game.
While soccer, the beauty of the South African nation, South Africa’s exemplary leadership in organizing the games, remains the focus of Afro optimists, the Afro pessimists were out digging for bad news around Africa. Yes, the skeptics in the western media obsess about poverty, AIDS and crime in Soweto and Johannesburg, and not about progress that the continent has made in the face of daunting challenges.
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