My friend Spencer Chiimbwe is from Zambia and the founder of the Center for Conflict Dialog in New York (CCDNY). He did not send this to me, but I came upon it somewhere on the Internet and thought I would share it.
Part of the reason for sharing a message about sport is that both sport and music seem to have universal appeal and potential to bring people together in exciting ways that are mainly positive. I cannot attempt to explain why people like sport so much ... or like music so much ... but they do.
So I want to join with Spencer in saying also "Thank you Ghana" ... you did a great job. Well done!
Thank you Ghana
Well, I have never written a piece on soccer but I am moved to comment on Ghana and Africa at large.
It is what it is, we have lost. Nevertheless, the formidable outlook of the aggressive team of Ghana has inspired Africa in so many ways. Notwithstanding the first 15-20 minutes in which Ghana got together, the humble and aggressive souls of the Gold Coast showcased their talent to the last drop of their sweat.
All the scores from the other team (I have not mastered the spelling yet) were free kicks without which they would have been goaless, including penalties. Under the cirmustances, we have engraved a name on the tabloids of soccer history that we were two games away from making it to the finals. Once upon a time, it was a huge celebration for an African team to qualify to the FIFA World Cup Series, how much more do we need to celebrate with few inches away to testing focal arena of concluding progress?
Tomorrow isn't far, Africa stocks a lot of talent and let us be hopeful that one day the cup will come home and home we shall keep it. One may interpret this statement as irrational optimism but listen; we got out of the cup with penalt shoot outs and the last thing we would do is to walk face down.
Even with Ghana off the pitch, I am still for Ghana and more importantly I am for Africa. Congratulations Ghana, you have mastered the art of the game, hang in there and recover from this perfomance that has been marred by penalt shoot outs which are won by chance. Success is not a product of chance, we might have not ascended to the next round but we are successful
because what you have shown is a product of hard work.
Asante Sana!!!!!!
Spencer Chiimbwe
Very African.
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