All Hail the Black Stars ....

Africa is football-crazy ... its football mad. Like the old song goes - this football it has taken away the little bit of sense Africa had.

There's always a game on ... at every street corner ... in any bit of bare land in a township ... kids with no shoes ... often no real ball ... playing with tin cans .... or bundles of rags .... and every kid wants to grow up and be David Beckham ....

Even in normal times .... if you go to the gym here in cape town - there are five tellies showing every bloody league match in england ... with the spanish and italian leagues on the other channels just for good measure .... (and yes .... for those of you sniggering ... yes - i have purchased a gym membership ... and yes - i never go .... but it is just the perfect encapsulation of the new South Africa to see all the skinny white people running on the treadmills after work cos they're too scared to be outside after dark ... and then jumping into their cars to drive home .... passing in their wake all the black gym cleaning staff who have to run home cos all the death-wagon taxis stopped at sundown) ....

Anyhow .... given that general obsession is the starting point for the nation .... you can imagine that the world cup brings the whole country to a standstill .... the matches are on 24/7 ... spinning on a loop .... everyone shuts up shop, stops work and the bars/restaurants become almost american in having a telly in each corner ....

What's interesting is the team loyalties of the various racial groups here in SA (since of course EVERYTHING here comes down to race) .... the blacks all wanted the black african teams to win .... the coloreds and indians support brazil .... and the whites cheer doggedly for england or holland .... even though they've all been africans for generations ....

And its not just south africa .... the obsession is transcontinental .... there have been great articles about refugees in darfur paying a week's earnings to watch games in a make-shift viewing tent ....
and in somalia - only the banning of world cup games has provided the impetus for protests against the islamists who have taken over mogadishu (although sad news today about those who braved the ban) ..... football widows clubs have spouted all over nairobi in kenya .... and the President sanctioned a national holiday in Togo just to celebrate qualifying ...

And so it could only be football (for the first time since I've been here) that could make South Africans at last feel part of Africa at large (the South Africans do like to think of themselves as a cut above the rest .... and people even say they're going abroad when they come to Cape Town) .... and its all thanks to the Black Stars of Ghana ....

Every game they played - we all watched breathless and holding thumbs (its a south african thing ...) ... we cheered ourselves hoarse at the game against the USA .... and we all KNOW that the only reason they lost against brazil was because they were playing against 12 brazilians ....

Now everyone wants to be Steven Appiah .... and due to Ghana as well as the Ivory Coast, Angola, Togo and Tunisia .... African football can hold its head up high .... bring on South Africa 2010 ....