TOGO SOCCER TEAM UNDER ATTACK

On Saturday, January 9, 2010, the Togo bus carrying Togolese players who included the Togolese Captain and striker Emmanuel Adebayor was attacked in Cabinda en route to Angola from the nearby Congo where the team has been camping. Cabinda is a small breakaway republic imbued in civil war. Angola is just recovering from a long and deadly civil which left millions dead and wounded. The Togolese soccer team is in Angola to take part in the African Cup of Nations (ACoN) beginning in January, 2010.

Three of the Togolese players on the bus and the driver of the bus are reportedly dead from bullet wounds and others are still reeling from the attack with shock. ACoN has attracted some of the best African players including Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Simon Karlou, Emmanuel Adebayor, and so on, mostly playing professional football in prestigious clubs in Europe.

There were already concerns whether the Togolese team would continue the tournament. Emmanuel Adebayor had hinted his nation might withdraw. Manchester City, the club Adebayor plays soccer for in England, had made a statement that Adebayor should return if safety was still a concern. The Togolese team eventually withdrew.
 
ACoN organizers refused to bow to pressure to cancel the tournament. ACoN has promised to tighten security while the Angolan Government has accused a terrorist group fighting for the liberation of Cabinda as being responsible for the attack.

Others are expressing concern over the World Cup itself to be held in the Republic of South Africa (South Africa). Mark Gleeson said that the attack raised serious concerns over the holding of the World Cup in South Africa.

Kennedy Moola Gutinyu (in picture) disagrees with Gleeson. Gutinyu reminds Gleeson about South Africa’s competence to host games of international repute in the past: “Doubts about South Africa's ability should not even be tolerated because South Africa proved its capability during the Confederations Cup in 2009, IRB World Cup in 1995, Africa Cup in 1996 and the ICC World Cup including the Twenty20. It is Africa's time!”

Gutinyu’s comments come at the time when incidents like the one in Cabinda may blind people to important facts. Usually when it comes to African affairs, most European commentators prefer to throw the baby with the water. The attack on Togolese players should not be used to cast doubt on South Africa’s resourcefulness. Africa has been home to some instability, but that is not the whole story. Africa has also been a harbinger of peace, love and economic developments in many respects.

On December 31, 2009 I wrote an article titled World Cup in Africa: History in the Making. In this article I brought to light why some in Europe wanted to see Africa fail to organize the World Cup. They even predicted that South Africa, the host nation, would not make profit from it. I was right in asserting that Africa has matured and that she is capable of ordering her own affairs. I still believe so despite the Cabinda incident. Incidents like this only go to undermine the progress Africa is making.

Moreover, this incident provides justification by some Europeans why Africa cannot manage big stage events like the World Cup. The truth is Cabinda has been a trouble-torn area for decades. The organizers of ACoN should have known better. Angola itself is just waking up from a long unforgettable civil war between the government and UNITA.

Gutinyu is of the same view when he says, “It was quite a gamble to stage some of the games in Cabinda given the instability in that region.” Gutinyu goes further to state that mainland Angola is in fact enjoying peace and economic success: “However, it is worth noting that mainland Angola is enjoying peace and quite buoyant economic activity resulting in GDP growth in the range of 8 - 10%. The only option is to move the affected games to the Capital Luanda. “

This unfortunate incident should be condemned, but it was avoidable. The organizers of ACoN could have planned for safer camping and training facilities for the participating nations. Where nations like Togo had to be settled in other nations, transport by air should have been recommended. Those thugs in Cabinda cannot be a measuring rod of how safe or competent Africa is in hosting big tournaments. ACoN itself has been held in more peaceful nations very successfully over the years. The history of Angola called for stiffer safety measures in the first place.

I call upon emerging African leaders to use this incident to condemn civil wars and every appearance of conflicts in Africa. If Africa of today and tomorrow is to be different from the once Dark Continent, we need to begin to speak out for what is noble. This incident has the potential to pour scorn on our progress and to enable those who have labelled us as less-than-capable to justify a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

Africa is more than Cabinda; Africa is about safety and peace as well. Those who carried out such despicable acts in Cabinda are not doing so in the interest of Africa. Neither are they a standard through which African peace or desire to progress should be measured. They are thugs; that is who they are. Their acts must be condemned in very strong terms!

WORLD CUP IN AFRICA – HISTORY IN THE MAKING!

When it comes to African issues and affairs, most people don’t just get it. I mean, when a British Szymanski, an economics professor at Cass Business School in London, and Kuper, a sports writer living in Paris, allege, according to Stephen Wade writing in the Toronto Star of December 2nd, 2009, that the 2010 “World Cup will be no money bonanza for South Africa,” they are again digging a dagger into the old stereotypical mentality.

For one thing, they forget to acknowledge the historic nature of hosting the World Cup for the first time on the African continent. For another, they are playing with the same old propaganda of negating anything developmental taking place on the African continent. How many times have we heard such imperialistic epithets about Africa!

Let us face it; the Soccer World Cup is highly lucrative by any standards, especially for the host nation. That is why there is so much stone-throwing when it comes to bidding for it. The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world. The last one held in Germany had an estimated 715.1 million people watching! Don’t tell me that any sober thinking, capital-minded person will not raise eye-brows!

Let us come to basics, the championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930 with the exception of the interwar years, 1942 and 1946, when it did not take place due to the Second World War.  Governed by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association or FIFA, the sport's global governing body brings together 32 teams to compete for the title at venues within the host nation or nations over a period of a month.

The 2010 World Cup will be held in South Africa between June 11th and July 11th.

Everyone cashes in during the World Cup. The host nation or nations reap in terms of forex and the growth of local industries like tourism and catering. Who in his or her right mind would farce over such an occasion?

For example, the 2006 World Cup was predicted to generate $6.35 billion in revenues through traditional electronic services. This was to the exclusion of Mobile TV!

Szymanski unleashes a caveat for South Africa to prepare to be disappointed because South Africans are not going to get rich hosting the 2010 World Cup. Of course, some of us already know that. We know that that has always been imperialistic policy towards Africa. It’s always been like announcing: “Never, never get rich! Never get rich and become like us!”

He goes on to predict that “if experience matches the last World Cup in Germany, spending by visitors will be much less than the South African government shelled out preparing for the tournament.” Szymanski is forgetting something. He is forgetting that he’s talking about Africa – a continent that has suffered adversely economically at the hands of Britain.

It’s like bringing back the gold, diamonds, and human capital that easily flowed from Africa in the colonial days. Give me a break; don’t tell me about the example of South Korea or of soccernomics! Talk about history in the making, and tell me about Africa emerging as a global player, yes, a player – albeit with soccer – on the world stage.

There is nothing that any data analysis, history or psychology can tell me about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Yes, South Africa is building state of the art stadiums and investing enormously in the preparations. So what? You call that a problem, come on, drop that imperialistic facade. Africa has matured now. To quote Szymanski directly, “Germany could afford this, and it had stadiums anyway. But South Africa is a nation that can ill afford to fritter away a few billion on white elephants.”

Come on. This is 2010, not 1890! And you’re forgetting that those billion dollars are not getting off A-class to some undisclosed destination; they are in fact, remaining in South Africa. And even more, a few more dollars will be pouring in during the World Cup – on that one, I am one hundred percent sure!

The only thing I would have agreed to, is if you wrote about how the rest of Africa can tap into the World Cup revenue. I am sure that most African countries are not taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Zambia and other neighbouring countries can use some ingenuity and dunk into the dollar safe!

What I have in mind is why not buy ad spots and localize the adventure? Why not channel some of those soccer tourists into neighbouring’ tourists? Why not organize some profitable national campaigns and drive the soccer traffic back to some unforgettable destinations – soccer is great, and so are the Kilimanjaro Mountains, the Zambezi National Parks, the Kariba Dam, the Victoria (Mosi-oa-Tunya) Falls!

What about the big screen television screenings in shanty-compounds, to bring the local revenue to wire! What about setting straight for the first time that Africa has come of age!

I may not be so sure of many eventualities, Mr. Szymanski, but one thing I am so certain of is that the 2010 World Cup is on in South Africa – and the rewards will be plentiful!