They won’t be doing the pogo in Togo, and it will still be Coca-Cola in Angola, but I’m willing to bet there will be a lot more than banana being consumed in Ghana tonight after they got through to the second round of the World Cup!
While I am slightly tempted to dig out my Ghanaian tribal robes tomorrow to show some support and solidarity (well Fridays are casual day!) there are a few reasons why I shan’t be doing that:
- The robes were brought back from Ghana by my father-in-law when I was married to a Ghanaian. I don’t like to be reminded of her too much, and Jayne certainly doesn’t want to.
- Like any candidate for palest white man in the country, traditional African costume does not really suit me. To put it bluntly, I look even more of a twat than normal when I wear anything at all ethnic.
- I have been hitting the pies considerably since acquiring these clothes. I like to kid myself that stuff from ten years ago still fits. Actually trying them on might force me to face up to reality.
- No pockets. I don’t think I could face the journey to work with nowhere to stash my wallet, season ticket, fags, and most importantly my iRiver.
Maybe I’ll just wear the Australian bush hat instead, although I have a suspicion that my head has grown a bit since 1988. Might be safer to just stick to the normal Friday-wear.
Still… well done to the Black Stars and good luck to them when they play Brazil.
The rest of Africa is rooting for Ghana now – they even had Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast urging them to beat the USA today. For anyone not familiar with African footballing relationships, that is a bit like Tottenham cheering on Arsenal at a cup final to win it for London. Some people (lets not generalise, but for the sake of argument call them “wives”) say its only a game, but we know it can be so much more.
Just have a look at this article by Kofi Annan (himself a Ghanaian of course) admitting that football can have the capacity to do more for bringing nations together than the UN. Especially poignant is the mention of how the football games are played on a level playing field and the comparison with the very un-level playing field of international trade.
You can tell the effect football can have simply by going to the pub during an England game, the feelings of unison that is achieved after a win is an amazing feeling. it reminds me of millennium eve when we where in London and for a few wonderful seconds it felt like the whole world would change as everyone came together in happiness, it was the best feeling of my life (10 minutes later I was confronted by an attempted mugging which brought me back to reality)