CAN 2008

I’ve never read Franklin Foer’s book, How Football Explains the World, but after living in Ghana during the African Cup of Nations, I am beginning to understand his hypothesis. CAN 2008, which culminated this Sunday with Egypt’s victory over Cameroun, brought 16 countries together to 4 cities in Ghana for the 20-day tournament. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a football buff but you could find me on match days with my face painted, waving the Ghanaian flag and cursing the opposing team. In fact, I even surprised myself at how excited I got about the whole thing. I even lost my temper at the Guiness Fan Park last week when Cameroun scored Ghana, a goal that cost Ghana a trip to the finals. Mind you, it was difficult not to get carried away, what with all the 24-hour whistle-blowing-horn-honking-flag-waving-Ghana-cheering action.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that football reveals any Earth-shattering truths about the world, but it has highlighted a number of interesting aspects of the way society works. I also feel it has gone a small way to explain aspects of Ghana’s politics, development, cross-cultural relations that I had not thought too much about. For instance, never have the feelings of Ghanaians, towards their former President, J.J. Rawlings been more evident than during CAN 2008. The former President was offered VIP tickets to the matches, which he refused and opted rather to sit in the popular stand with “his people”. He even received a warm welcome at the airport when he flew from Nigeria in economy class for the opening match. While he was sitting in the stands hooting and hollering with is fellow Ghanaians, President Kufuor was sitting demurely in the State box. The sentiment of Ghanaians was obvious. Somehow football managed to explain the intricacies of Ghana’s federal political parties.

Apart from politics, CAN 2008 has also opened a whole can of worms on corporate investment and development. Ghana has received a major tourist boost from the tournament with accompanying investment in hotels, transportation, sporting facilities and beautification. The major sponsor of the tournament was surprisingly Pepsi, which seems strange in a Coca Cola frenzied environment. However, Coca Cola did manage to make its presence known amidst a strong Pepsi presence by creating one of the catchiest fads in beverage advertisement. Coca Cola coined the slogan, “It’s Brrrr on the Coke side of life”, inciting a domino effect of people saying “Brrrr” at games, in the bar and on the streets. Somehow football managed to explain the competitiveness of corporate rivalry.

And of course, there is the obvious explanation that football can offer about the world, that sport can somehow ignite that Olympics-style optimism and hope that all society’s ills can be forgotten, if only for a short time. Football has some magical way of fostering global unity and cross-cultural understanding. A tournament that brings together cultures as north as Cairo to as south as Cape Town with numerous religions, languages, and races in between is bound to nurture some form of Pan-African unity. If you saw Ghanaians putting aside their animosity towards Cameroun for wiping out their team in the semi-finals or the Ghanaians waving Egyptian flags at the finals you would think the same. Or maybe that's my own optimism coming out? But even the fact that the finals brought together teams representing French- and Arabic-speaking Africa in an Anglophone country, must symbolize some form of unity, right? I know that this sense of euphoria will go as quickly as it came and many people will return to the daily struggles in their lives. The Sudanese must turn their focus again to conflict-ridden Darfur, Nigerians will turn away from their Super Eagles to face ongoing corruption and oil challenges, South Africans will turn to hosting World Cup 2010 and facing the challenge of trying to lose their title as the crime and rape capital before the world comes to its door. This is to mention only a few of the challenges that the continent currently faces. Despite these challenges, I still want to believe that there is one thing in this world that can bring people from different cultures together to laugh, cry, share and learn. Football somehow manages to do just that. So I won’t let my Ghana flag fall to the floor, nor will I let anyone dispute the fact that football somehow explains how a little black and white ball can bring joy to this world.