D-Day Tuesday. Ghana was busy cross-country: long vehicular traffic, pockets of crowd; eating joints, drinking spots come alive. Not quite a holiday, but it was. If you were a bank cashier, you counted twice, saliva assisted.
The Living Room restaurant would not be left out, festooned in flags and buntings. The day’s dress code was Ghana, or else indigestion!
Shops around the country were busy with sales, and one vendor was celebrating an average sales of 10k cedis a day! A Black Star win anywhere, boosts local economies.
Not quite Christmas, but nearly so. Check the busy grocery shops. Closer to 6pm. Crowds started thinning out, everyone heading towards the Stadium: the stadium in their living room.
But I pity those who watch Black Stars alone, accompanied only by roasted groundnuts. In case there is a goal, how do you celebrate? And should Ghana lose a penalty, how do you cry; and unto whom do you blow your nose?
Underneath all this was panic: Ghana meets her former Colonial master. The agenda? FIFA World Cup, but secretly to avenge colonial sins visited on us; and should the plot fail, take to your heels! Throughout the week, all night prayers and fasting in churches and mosques.
But the spiritual support was multiple: traditional priests were also on duty. Kwaku Bonsam was reported saying his job description was simply Harry Kane; how to put him in check. The bottom line was to ensure Harry had been benched in the shortest possible time.
Across the globe, Ghana was on duty with Jama music and dancing. Toronto, Boston, Time Square, Mexico, our FIFA anthem was ‘Yaachajaa Ma!’ ‘Yeewinaaa Ma!’ Kofi Kinaata’s voice echoed all over. But Kakalika was on duty too. For the Gen-Z, ‘kakalika’ refers to the cockroach (in Fante).
But I doff my hat to the cockroach for taking time off its busy schedule in archival files, to choreograph the Kakalika Dance for the Black Stars. It’s for the love of Ghana. Let’s give a round of applause to the Cockroach, a new national insect now making it to a new cedi denomination: the kakalika.
In the studios of DSTV, Asamoah Gyan was on duty too as part of a discussion panel. 15 years ago (2011), he had at eleventh hour banged in the equalizer to silence England in a historic duel at London Wembley, personally witnessed by me and narrated in my last post. Gyan is part of Ghana’s winning history in soccer, and he deserved his special role to discuss the sequel to his historic goal.
But note a rare historical foundation on which Ghana’s soccer was built. In our childhood days, the global icon in soccer was one name that still lingers, Stanley Matthews, the greatest ever icon in English Soccer; indeed the first professional footballer to be knighted in England. Legendary Matthews was among the special guests of Kwame Nkrumah on Ghana’s Independence, 6th March 1957.
His invitation to Ghana at the inauguration of the new nation state, was meant to boost Ghana’s soccer; and it did after several exhibition games that attracted record crowds. Last Tuesday, the legacy of Stanley Mathews was also on trial in both countries.
The aftermath of a dreaded Tuesday is evident for all to see. Ghana with a GDP of $82 billion beating England (GDP $3trillion) to a 0-0 draw. The most dreadful game to watch if you were Ghanaian.
The whisper around the world: the impending disgrace of a poor country Ghana: if England has whipped Croatia by 4-2, what fate awaited Ghana? The weather forecast was clear enough: a 4th rated England propped against 73rd rated Ghana. Those days, we would have been warned to bring along a basket to collect goal harvest.
But England was lucky they came to the game with a twelfth player: the referee. He was so embarrassingly biased, the world kept pointing accusing fingers at him for self-betrayal. Technical commentaries run on the match were unanimous: a penalty earned by Ghana was outrightly denied, not even crosschecked on VAR.
Hear Wayne Rooney former England forward: ‘I think that is a penalty. Konsa took a huge risk; his feet were off the floor when he came flying in; and he got the man, not the ball.’ And hear the confession of Jude Bellingham, Man of the Match: ‘I didn’t deserve it, it should have probably gone to a Ghanaian player…” So then let’s collectively hoot at Referee Said Martinez, ‘Shay shay sha-a-a-me!!’
On the whole a difficult game to sit and watch: you had to be an itinerant spectator, vacating your seat, moving around, kicking along with Semenya, sitting again, then yelling anytime our boys slowed down the pace, or passed the ball back to our goalkeeper instead of ‘simply’ towards the England post.
Then whenever Harry Kane headed in our direction, a quick dash to your washroom pretending you had prostrate problems!
The heroes were many: the entire Black Star team, especially the goalkeeper, Ben Asare, but a loud applause for the master tactician: our Coach Carlos Queiroz, and the people of Ghana, singing along with Kofi Kinaata:
YAACHAJAAA MA! YEEHEATAA MA!
