![]() Bafana boasted the likes of the technically gifted Doctor Khumalo, the solid defender Neil Tovey iconic defender Lucas Radebe (who would later captain Leeds United) striker Chippa Masinga, overlapping defender Mark Fish striker Shaun Bartlett and others. That final wasn't just a meeting of political giants (Abacha and Madiba) but some of the best soccerplayers at the time. Madiba had been vocal in his condemnation of the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995 and other Ogoni activists fighting Shell's pollution of their homeland. Abacha, in a moment of childish pique, withdrew the Super Eagles team as a snub to Mandela. ![]() The last time we hosted the final, in 1996, Nelson Mandela, then president, was involved in a diplomatic spat with Abacha. He died suddenly in 1998, of a heart attack, in the company of prostitutes. None exceeded the murderous Sani Abacha who stole up to US$4.3-billion when he was in power between 19. For decades they were ruled by corrupt soldiers who pillaged the country. It's only in the last decade that Nigerians have shown signs of breaking with the negative that had become synonymous with the country. Yet it remains a country with shocking levels of poverty, the face of misrule and corruption. Blessed as it is with petroleum and numbers, Nigeria's equals in the world should be Malaysia, Brazil and South Korea. So the Burkinabes' meeting with Nigeria is perhaps appropriate. A week before he was killed, he said: "While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas." He was betrayed by his friend Blaise Campaore, a lackey of the French, who had him murdered. His impressive resumé includes planting millions of trees to halt the southward march of the Sahel, outlawing female circumcision and linking the north and the south of the country by a rail network. His anti-imperialist stance was inconvenient to the French, for whom the concept of decolonisation never really meant much. In 1983,maverick and revolutionary Thomas Sankara seized power as a 33-year-old and promptly changed the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (Land of Upright Men). At their best (or worst), the two countries are embodiments of two different philosophies: one of self-sufficiency and self-determination and the other of kleptocracy and decline.īurkina Faso was formerly known as Upper Volta, the colonial name bequeathed on the tiny state after the river that runs through it. ![]() The opposition of Burkina Faso and Nigeria provides a compelling binary. The dream meeting of Nigeria and South Africa in 1996 (that never was) was embodied in the dialectic of the saintly Madiba against the evil soldier Sani Abacha.īut perhaps my fascination with grand narratives or neat binaries is preventing me from seeing the obvious. A meeting of Egypt and Nigeria (north Africa vs sub-Saharan Africa) Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria (Anglophone vs Francophone Africa) Nigeria vs South Africa (numbers vs wealth) would have held more interest. From a geo-political point of view there is something deflating about the final. Many would agee that beating the plucky Burkinabes is not as sweet as beating Bafana, the continent's cheese boys (we have the richest soccer league). At 162-million, Nigeria is Africa's most populous country South Africa is, of course, the continent's economic fulcrum. The rivalry is rooted in the advantages that numbers and wealth bring. Nigeria and South Africa are fierce rivals. Indeed, at a press conference Nigeria's coach Steven Keshi said this is a trophy they should have won in 1996, when the Nigerians withdrew from defending the cup they had won in 1994. But the victory must feel empty – the Nigerians would have preferred beating Bafana on home soil. The Super Eagles have finally landed the Cup that has eluded them for 19 years (Ghana, Egypt and Cameroon have a superior record).
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