The French team in the World Cup final had eight players of African origin and all three substitutes were black. Le Pen, the racist politician, complained about the number of "coloured" players though most had longer associations with France than his kind of white ancestors. No one with any knowledge of how the game is played could doubt that France was the better team and that the Italians "won" by the methods perfected by their countrymen in the Mafia.
Their coach is one of the best in the world and clearly recognised that Zidane and Henry were linchpins of the French team, Zidane for his creative genius and Henry for his speed and ball control. So the strategy of Italy was to eliminate these two and reduce France to an ordinary team like the Germans they had beaten. In the second minute, Henry went on one of his runs which the Italians lacked the pace and technical skills to halt.
So Cannavaro the Italian captain body-checked him, rendering the French striker almost comatose. It took the physios minutes to restore Henry to playing condition as most people assumed he would be substituted. Cannavaro did not receive a card or concede a free kick to the French. Meanwhile, the Italian defenders kept hacking at Zidane's shins and ankles, pulling his shirt and goading him with taunts about his country, mother and sister.
They knew the French playmaker had a short fuse and had been sent off 14 times in his career, including the World Cup in 1998 when he stamped on an opponent who tormented him. Remembering his history, and determined to bring a derided French team once more to glory, Zidane ignored his tormentors this time. But shortly before he was sent off, the Italian captain jumped and rode on his shoulder, almost dislocating it. Zidane sat on the pitch for minutes, pointing to his shoulder, and everyone expected him to be subbed also.
But Cannavaro was not cautioned and Zidane soldiered on, though his movement was affected as he could not move his arm. Then Mazzerati started pulling his shirt, pinched his nipple, and kept following him, taunting him about his mother and sister. Zidane whose mother was ill finally snapped and head-butted the Italian, who has a history of being a low-life thug. The French captain was sent off and the Italians "won" on penalties as Zidane was their best taker.
One cannot blame the referee for this travesty, because criminality has developed as a national characteristic in Italy. Winning dirty is a very Italian, very European way, which the Africans on the French team could not emulate. How could a man accept "victory" by not retaliating against a thug who insulted his sick mother? The "victories" which Europe "won" over Africa through massacres, deception and theft in times of slavery and colonialism, characterise the modern world which DuBois described a century ago as divided by the "colour line". The Italians, with millennia of contacts with Africa, had not a single African on its squad, while Germany which produced Hitler had two.
The significance of the World Cup for Africa is, however, even more fundamental. The African teams which did best had players trained in Europe and European managers. Africans had the natural talent - speed and ball control - but lacked the organisation and tactics. France, because of its colonial history, was the beneficiary of some of the most talented players in the world, who managed themselves effectively because the French coach lacked imagination and boldness.
Once again Africa exports raw material to Europe to be shaped, moulded and sold for a fortune while its own geniuses rot on the vine. Africa is not backward because it lacks the skills to organise itself. In fact, society is so organised that it fosters mediocrity at home while driving its best people into exile. And this is true of people of African origin in the Caribbean. Colin Powell, the number one soldier in the United States, would not have become a sergeant in the Jamaican army if his parents had not migrated. Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Harry Belafonte would not have excelled at home.
From my experience in Nigeria when teams were winning junior World Cups decades ago, I predicted that the country would win the World Cup before 2000. Nigerian footballers have the pace and power of the Germans and the hypnotic skills of the Brazilians and French. But their Football Association, like other sport administrations in the Caribbean and the rest of Africa, is run by mediocre bureaucrats incapable of understanding or managing genius.
So they lose their best people, like ministries of trade export bauxite, cocoa, coffee, petroleum and other raw materials, to be turned into treasures for enhancing the opulence and grandeur of Europe, while confirming the "inferiority" of Africa.
Patrick Wilmot is visiting professor at three Nigerian universities and lives in London. His novel "Seeing Double" will be published in the US next month by Thomas Dunne.
Culled from
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...FRICAN_CUP.asp
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