Africa is the richest continent, yet so poor. It started with colonialism where the English, French, Portuguese and to a lesser extent Belgians, Germans and the Spanish arrived on our shores and imposed their cultures, languages and way of life on the continent.
It did not end there; they plundered our minerals What’s even more devastating was that they were even able to take our soul…
It messed up the progress and the prosperity of the African continent. Ghana was the first to send them packing when Kwame Nkrumah led their revolution against British rule.
Others followed suit and reclaimed their countries and land. South Africa was the last, luckily with a more decent economy and infrastructure.
A cold fact is that an African country has never reached the semifinals of the Fifa World Cup. Even in this year’s tournament in Qatar, the five African representatives Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, had a rather lethargic start. Amazingly, they managed to turn things around in their second round of matches.
After dusting themselves off, the bongo drums, the colourful regalia, the deafening horns and trumpets and the juju-men were all in their element. The colour and splendour that was lacking in the Middle East country was back in abundance – there cannot be a World Cup without the African vibe and ambiance.
With African countries struggling to stamp their authority in the tournament, it is still disheartening to see players of African descent and parentage shining and banging in goals for their “adopted” European countries.
Countries like France, England, Germany, USA and Switzerland are benefiting because of the discourse. The trend started making headlines at the 1998 World Cup in France. Armed with an army of African soldiers such as Lilian Thuram, Marcel Desailly, Thierry Henry, Claude Makelele, Christian Karembeu, Patrick Vieira to mention but a few, Les Blues went on to win their first Fifa World Cup. As the years progressed, it caught on like wildfire.
Peter Tosh once sang: “Don’t care where you come from, as long as you are a Black man, you’re an African…”
So, with every World Cup tournament, we are reminded of such a pain when we watch our African brothers maiming fellow Africans and it does leave a bitter taste. For instance, Switzerland’s Breel Elombo did not celebrate after he scored against Cameroon, his country of birth. The Ayew brothers, Andre and Jordan, were born in France, but opted to swear their allegiance to Ghana – their father Abedi Pele, was a superstar for the Black Stars.
So, would it not be poignant for Bukayo Saka doing his magic tricks for the Super Eagles of Nigeria? Imagine Kylan Mbappe forming a dangerous combination with Vincent Aububakar for the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon or Romelu Lukaku flying on the touchline in the colours of DR Congo? That would be fantastic but it’s just a pipe dream we must live with as more people of the diaspora are adopting European countries.
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