I've been home in New Jersey for five days now, feeling a bit strange and not sure how the adjustment back to the US is going. People ask me, and I realize that I don't even know exactly what I'm thinking, and it all feels like a blur in a lot of ways. So, without the ability to process or reflect very much yet, I'll do what comes more naturally: talk about football.
The timing of this World Cup is perfect for me, as it gives me the chance to relax and enjoy the biggest event of the game that I love at a time when I need to relax and move slowly. It is also timely because I've just spent two years in Africa and am now watching Africa's first World Cup. Watching South Africa play Mexico in the opening game, the pit in my stomach told me that I was rooting whole-heartedly for South Africa. I celebrated when they scored the first goal of the tournament, a stunning goal from a player with the wonderful name Tshabalala, and predictically, the South Africans danced. I realized that in this World Cup, more than anything, I am pulling for the Africans. South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon - I just want one of them to go far.
It might seem strange, as all of those countries are very far from Uganda and culturally very different. They could be rivals. You wouldn't root for Argentina because you had spent time in Uruguay; you would hate Argentina. But this is different. An African team doing well would be celebrated across the continent, millions of people cheering for their "neighbors." Never mind that a Ugandan might know nothing about Ghana: they are fellow Africans, and the success of Ghana would be success for a Ugandan. Africa is a continent that is downtrodden, that has borne the yoke of colonialism, of slave traders, and of murderous rubber-traders, and now bears that of tyrants, of violence, of tribalism, of corruption, of poverty, and of AIDS. It has been said that Africa's biggest crisis is a crisis of confidence, and so I hope for the encouragement of seeing an African nation go far, of seeing people like them, people with whom they can truly identify, succeed on the world's biggest stage.
Am I dreaming? Maybe. But the excitement about this tournament is palpable in Uganda, and people are crazy about any African team when they come up against competition from outside the continent. I found that Ugandans don't seem to identify themselves strongly as Ugandans, rather they identify first with their tribe, and then as Africans (likely one reason that colonial boundaries can lead to African nations being dysfunctional, but that's another, much longer story). There is a sense of African-hood, perhaps arising from their shared skin color and their history of being ruled over by Europeans, which means that Ugandans could revel in a victory by Cameroon as their own victory. At least I hope so. That pit in my stomach is hope. Hope that so many people I know, and millions more that I don't, can take courage and confidence because of the world's biggest game.
3 comments:
I am so glad you have the World Cup. It will help you make a gentle re-entry.
And 3 more cheers for Ghana for their win over the US today. Thrilling for a downtrodden country to have reached such a height!
Here's your key point and an astute one:
"It might seem strange, as all of those countries are very far from Uganda and culturally very different. They could be rivals. You wouldn't root for Argentina because you had spent time in Uruguay; you would hate Argentina. But this is different."
You can say that because you make the important distinction that Ghanaian culture and custom isn't Uganadan.
We do have to be careful about trumpeting the World Cup, though. I seem to remember Afghanistan qualifying in 2006, or nearly, and creating something of a buzz.
I wasn't there. I don't know Afghan culture, so I can't be sure, but aside from small respite, I doubt there was any real impact.
I'll agree that sport can be used in nation building because, as you said, the nation-state is a decidedly European concept that hasn't transitioned well in the African continent.
The identity as African is -- for better and often for worse -- tied into historical sense of being non-European. The old identity by being the other.
Our world system is based on the nation-state, so nation-states we'll have. So to develop Ghana there'd need to be sense of being the other as in, not Ugandan or more likely, not Nigerian.
But also as you said, tribe and tradition still seems to play a bigger role in most states there, as I understand it.
Moreover, sport on the big stage is a big sham. The Olympics, World Cup, etc., I don't think there is any pedagogical evidence of sport actually impacting anything more than T-shirt sales.
The point is the point that has been made for at least a half century. African nations need their own homegrown heroes -- not Shakira -- and they likely won't come from the soccer field.
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