Black Star

My friend Chet is from Ghana. His family lives near the capital, Accra. He's a member of the Ga tribe, one of many tribes in Ghana. Yesterday we sat together in the cafeteria at work and watched the World Cup match between the United States and Ghana. The World Cup is a big deal here at work. They have TVs set up everywhere, with broadcasts of all the games. It's funny to see clusters of normally staid economists whooping and cheering for their teams. And everyone is doing it; as I watched the game, Chet was seated to my right and to my left was my boss's boss's boss.

I don't really follow the World Cup but I wanted to watch the match with Chet because he was so excited about it. After the second goal by Ghana he was so nervous and excited he was almost shaking. When they won he jumped up and cheered at the top of his lungs. The rest of the crowd laughed and applauded; he was the only one from Ghana in the room and they were happy for him and for the underdog team that had pulled off such an upset. On our way back to our offices he kept running into fellow Ghanaians and hugging them. He gave me a high five slap so hard my hand stung for half an hour afterwards.

I read a New York Times article today about the troubles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (once known as Zaire). The article said 1000 people are dying every day as a result of a four-year civil war. Four million have died so far. That's a lot of people. To us Westerners, Africa is a backwards place, kind of a nightmare continent. If we think about it at all it's usually with pity ("those poor starving people"). Or contempt ("why can't they get it together?"). Much of it is fucked up but its also home to millions of people who are proud of their lives. People like to be proud of their home. And they invest their emotions in a team (the Redskins, etc) because they feel the team represents their home and when that team wins, they can share the pride of being on the winning side. In that sense it's more than just a soccer match. It's fulfilling a basic human need: pride.