Oh, but it was glorious to be an African in
1990! The thrills still travel deliciously down your spine when the names are
mentioned – Makanaky, Tataw, Kundé, Ekéké, Omam-Biyik, Kana-Biyik, Nkono. And
the incomparable, the immortal Roger Milla. The Cameroonian football team did
not just humble great teams like Maradona’s Argentina at Italia ‘90. They gave
England an almighty scare, and their achievements, as well as the style and
élan with which they went about their task, gave rise to the greatest ode to
sport ever composed – Pepe Kalle et l’Empire Bakuba’s ‘Roger Milla’. 1990 was
the year African football came out of its childhood and pointed towards a
glorious future.
The footballing world was so impressed with
Cameroon’s waltz to the quarter-finals that the entire World Cup was
re-arranged. The competition was expanded from twenty four teams to thirty two,
and Africa’s automatic slots rose from two to five. Even Pele predicted that an
African team would take it all – win the diadem – by the turn of the century.
But Africa flattered to deceive. No African
team has gone beyond the quarter finals in the five World Cups since. As a
matter of fact, only two teams, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010, have even reached the quarters, and no team has
ever looked like it might threaten the established powers. What we hope for is
a surprise every so often – to snatch a shock win in the group stages. Pele’s
career as a fortune teller failed before it started.
It’s a tale of unfulfilled promise. A tale
of false starts, wasted talent and head-scratching among experts about what
could be wrong. Add two more factors to our parable.
First, African players are among the very
best in the world when they play for club teams abroad. Samuel Eto’o from
Cameroon; Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba from the Cote d’Ivoire; a whole army of
Nigerians; and our very own Victor Wanyama, can be put on any World XI, and
most times are the vital link that leads to domestic league championships and
Champions League triumphs. We even have our Obama doppelganger, in the person
of the curiously named Divock Origi – born of a Kenyan father, but reaching
full glory for others.
Second, other
regions came and did what Africa was supposed to have done. In 2002, hosts
South Korea, cheered on by a crazed home crowd, made it all the way to the
semi-finals. There were loud shouts of protest about dodgy refereeing
decisions, but an Asian team has been where no African country ever went.
That, in short,
encapsulates the entire economic history of the African continent, and a huge
proportion of current reality.
Everyone’s always
known that African countries have potential, and the question always was when
this would finally begin to be fulfilled. The false starts have been numerous.
The promise of the 1960s had decayed by the 1970s and 80s. Zambia was well on
its way to middle income, until collapsing copper prices and mismanagement led
it to stumble; Kenya had the people and the international links to propel it to
superstardom; Nigeria was even more blessed.
Deregulation and
wholesale readjustment of economic policy was the other false dawn. Museveni’s
Uganda, Meles’ Ethiopia and Mbeki’s South Africa were supposed to be the poster
children of the new Africa at the turn of the century, but, again, the talent
was wasted.
Even at the micro
level, one still wonders at the curious dynamics. Kenyans are global leaders at
any company they choose to work for abroad. Nigerians even more so. David
Adjaye is one of the world’s best architects – he’s designing the Black History
Museum in Washington DC, among other flagship projects – and he was born in Dar
es Salaam to Ghanaian diplomat parents. But he does his best work
internationally, and now flies the British flag. The same can be said of Tidjane
Thiam, the Ivorian who heads up the British financial firm the Prudential.
In the ongoing
World Cup, the Cameroonian team even conspired to re-enact current Kenyan
politics. The other night, after midfielder Alexandre Song had been sent off
for committing a stupid, violent act against Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic,
teammates began fighting among themselves. Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Benjamin
Moukandjo, instead of figuring out how to make up their goal deficit, decided
they were each other’s worst enemies, and started brawling on the pitch.
Exactly the same way Kenyans have opted to battle each other instead of
figuring out how to build an economy that’s the envy of the world.
Worst of all,
countries that were no match for us are now global leaders. The same country
that made it to the semis twelve years ago, South Korea, was famously
economically behind many African countries at independence. It decided to
hunker down and build world-leading football teams and economies. A country
such as Vietnam, ruined by war as recently as thirty years ago, has a bigger
and more dynamic economy than all but a handful of African countries. Nations
that became independent in the 1990s like Slovakia are now donors to us.
Is there hope? Of
course, hope is eternal. An African team may win the Cup soon. ‘Africa Rising’
may become ‘Africa Risen’. But don’t hold your breath. Crank up your stereo
instead, and let l’Empire Bakuba remind you of past glories.
Also published in the Business Daily on June 24, 2014 at http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion-and-Analysis/-/539548/2359414/-/item/0/-/k2189z/-/index.html
Comments
Post a Comment