A not so ordinary World Cup match: Canada plays South Africa in the shadow of hope, xenophobia and Nigerian roots
No sporting event lends itself to symbolism like the Fifa World Cup.
No sporting event lends itself to symbolism like the Fifa World Cup. For one month, every four years, this showpiece of the beautiful game serves as a microcosm of our changing world, its virtues and failings, its highs and lows.
So it should surprise no one that the 23rd edition of football’s greatest spectacle is freighted with a lot of politics. Immigration, borders, protest, war – even trade: the co-hosts Canada, the US and Mexico are currently locked into a three-way tug of tariffs, threats, and distrust. Mercifully, since the tournament began, Donald Trump has stopped threatening to annex Canada. His mood might change if the US gets eliminated.
On Sunday, my country, Canada, takes on South Africa, where I have worked and lived for more than a decade, in the knockout round of 32. That Les Rouges and Bafana Bafana are meeting at this stage of the tournament is both insane and expected: the World Cup always has a hint of the divine. Canada, eager to stake a claim as a footballing nation, is built largely on first- and second-generation Canadians, reflecting Canada’s immense diversity. Traces of Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America abound.
Les Rouges have symbolic echoes of Les Bleus – France – especially the exquisite team captained by Didier Deschamps (France’s current head coach) that won the tournament at home in 1998. Their victory was celebrated as a win for France’s model of diversity and inclusion, even if that image sat uneasily with the reality of life in the country’s banlieues, where many immigrant communities still faced discrimination and social exclusion.
Nigerians watching Sunday night’s match will no doubt wonder what could have been: three players lining up for Les Rouges switched allegiances from Nigeria, where they played at national level in the country’s youth programme. Of the three, Promise David, born in Canada to Nigerian parents, is likely to be the most consequential. The imposing forward scored with his first touch coming off the bench against Switzerland and will almost certainly feature in the match against South Africa.
In a way, diversity and inclusion is the backcloth for the match for Bafana Bafana, too. The only African team with all its players born in their home country, South Africa is very South African: only one player has any tangible recent ancestral connection outside the country.
That player is Ime Okon, born in South Africa to a Nigerian father and South African mother. Okon has not had it easy playing for Bafana. Questions about his “identity” have followed the defender since he was first called up to the squad last year. They are of a piece with the wider issues of xenophobia and illegal migration gripping the country on the eve of Sunday’s match.
Earlier this month Nigeria evacuated hundreds of its citizens from South Africa as attacks on foreigners, especially other African nationals, escalated. SA president Cyril Ramaphosa has warned his citizens not to take the law into their own hands but rejected descriptions of South Africans as xenophobic and vowed to crackdown on undocumented workers.
Across the continent, however, the damage has already been done. The continental backlash is palpably evident at the World Cup. African fans have broken with the traditional solidarity shown amongst African teams and are cheering against Bafana Bafana. All the sadder for the fact that this could finally be Africa’s year, with so many African teams qualifying for the knockout stage.
Things could reach a dangerous tipping point two days after Sunday’s match, with nationwide anti-foreigner marches scheduled across South Africa for 30 June. Organizers of the “March and March” say it is an opportunity for all South Africans to vent their frustrations over unemployment, crime, and migration. But the movement’s rhetoric could easily inflame tensions and spillover into violence and vigilantism. Not least because the SA government’s attempts to lower the temperature have been so feeble.
The unexpected progress of Bafana Bafana in the World Cup has given South Africans a much-needed boost – and perhaps even a balm to soothe those tensions.
Since South Africa successfully hosted the 2010 World Cup, Bafana Bafana has mostly disappointed. Commentators routinely deride the team as a source of embarrassment and shame for a country that is a footballing nation, having produced several top players and boasting domestic club matches that can attract up to 90,000 fans.
Bafana Bafana frequently struggle to attract 1/10 that number to their home fixtures.
Football, unlike rugby – which is one of South Africa’s best run institutions at national level – is frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons: corruption, mismanagement, waste. Much the same reasons why the country’s politics and finances are in such a mess.
But all was forgotten when Bafana Bafana pulled off a stunning upset of South Korea in Monterey last Wednesday and qualified for the next round. The World Cup is always filled with days of miracle and wonder. This time it was South Africa’s turn. And it could be again on Sunday night. If Bafana Bafana beat Les Rouges, my bet is that the hotheads bent on violence and destruction on 30 June will instead get swept up in an altogether different kind of frenzy, of the kind World Cups have made famous.
I still hope my country, Canada, wins. But South Africa needs it more. And the football gods have their way.
Dr Terence McNamee is a writer and Senior Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Global Security. He divides his time between Canada and South Africa
