no less than the French ambassador to
the US who reminded him that in France,
unlike the US, they do not refer to their
citizens by their ethnic backgrounds. Les
Bleus are French period. that we have such a poor image of
ourselves and have acquired a poor global
reputation that whenever we turn out to
a football tournament we are always the
underdogs.
The celebrations prompted one agitated
French journalist to even point out that
were you to take the team that won and
gave it to any African country, the team
would not qualify even in the preliminaries
as corruption would not allow them to
proceed. Do take those statements with a pinch of
salt since the Nigerian national team has
consistently done well in the Olympics and
they are also famous for their corruption
and are always in the leader board when it
comes to that particular malaise.
Some of the reasons that he gave for
his assertion were telling; money for
preparation would be diverted, the
delegation would be full of joyriders
and mistresses and they would visit the
witchdoctor and go for prayers rather than
train.
What he did not add was that the same
Africans did actually send observers to
the world cup, those who were suppose d
to debrief the country on what we need
to do to up our game. Those that have no
sporting interest and their mistresses got
the tickets.
An African reporter had earlier in the
tournament remarked that he has noted
that the African teams that had qualified
were playing not to lose as opposed to
playing to win. When you are trying not
to lose all you do is defend and hope you
survive.
The painful part is that all these statements
have merit and it is a negative indictment
96 MAL25/18 ISSUE
What the French victory brought out was
what was great about diversity and that
we should all really be world citizens but
it also brought out the hypocrisy of the
western nations when it comes to dealing
with other nations and hence the debate.
When a foreigner does well in his adopted
country he is a citizen with full rights to
the country but when they are dealing
with those that clean their roads and do
work that they would rather not do then
they are immigrants and should go back
home.
This very idea was starkly demonstrated by
the same French republic when the now
famous human spider man, who happened
to be an illegal immigrant, rescued a baby
and was rewarded immediately with a
French citizenship.
Does it mean that only men and women
of outstanding achievement are the ones
that shall be granted citizenship and feted
at the Champs Elysees while all the others
are rounded up and dispatched back to
their countries of origin?
It is well to note those French victors
of color had one thing in common, they
all came from former French colonies
and they did not just land in France per
chance. There is a history of subjugation
that goes with the country of choice they
moved to.
If the French would like us to believe that
there is no discrimination in France, how
would they then begin to explain to us
how Marie Le Pen nearly got elected to
the French presidency and she is of the
same ilk as the Trumps of this world and
she had huge support.
Ochieng is yet to finish his theory on the
connection between football and political
maturity but is aware that the last word in
this matter cannot be that ability to play
football is what gains you acceptance into
western citizenship.
The tournament has put into focus the
double standards that the western world
lives by and their ambivalence as to
whether those of color that represent
them are really their accepted compatriots
or temporary citizens.
If we like to win together then we must be
prepared to live together as a community
of world denizens and quit this artificial
debate as to who qualifies to citizenship
anywhere. If the tournament was able to
bring the issue of discrimination on the
political table, then all we can say is ‘Viva
World Cup!’