THE cancellation of flights anywhere in the world normally inconveniences travelers, and the Afrophobia bile spewed by South Africans on social and electronic media after Bafana Bafana were stranded in Douala, Cameroon, this week was uncalled for.
The extreme views expressed by South African fans on hearing that the SA football team’s connecting flight to the match venue in the capital Yaounde was cancelled demonstrated the fear and hatred my countrymen harbour for the continent. The late cancellation of the scheduled flight could have been for security reasons, and therefore aimed at safeguarding Bafana’s safe passage to their destination. However, without waiting for any clarity, South Africans just concluded the cancellation was intended.
It is sad that in 2013 we still use our misplaced fear and mistrust for fellow Africans ahead of any reason. The Cameroonian carrier concerned, Camair-Co, is notorious for flight cancellations, from when it was launched by state decree in 2006 – it only took to the air in 2011. So from five-year delays, and habitual cancellations thereafter, regular travelers to Cameroon know you are better off depending on Kenya Airlines, via Nairobi, to land in Yaounde with minor glitches or none.
It’s strange that SA Football Association’s (Safa) travel manager for national teams, Barney Kujane, did not capture this valuable background. But what is more horrific were the heightened emotions by South Africans who smelled a plot to sabotage Bafana. I heard people dismissing possibility of road travel from Douala to Yaounde as a “treacherous” experience laden with dangers from massive potholes, goats and other elements.
Very rich coming from people who have never left the borders of SA, the country with potholes, hijackers and animals on its roads, as seen with the sad death of the assistant coach of the same Bafana Bafana, Thomas Madigage, who died in a road accident involving a stray donkey. Our people carelessly talk of the dangers of “going to Africa” as if we are coming from another continent, and therefore enforcing all the myths about Africa and its people, an attitude which created a fertile ground for xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
I am happy Bafana arrived safely in Yaounde eventually. I am saying safely because that’s what you would wish for one of your own whether they were travelling to New York or Osaka. I am also happy that their trip 240km to Yaounde was by bus, so that our players could properly absorb the sights and sounds of places they visit on the continent. The N3 stretch between Douala and Yaounde is the best road in Cameroon. It is also beautiful country, with hard-working and intelligent people, despite the eccentricity of its undeclared president for life, Paul Biya.
I hope Bafana find the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in the perfect condition it always enjoys when the Indomitable Lions play there. The stadium is named after the founding president of the country, whose home town is Garoua in the north. This is also where Cameroon’s best club and one of Africa’s leading football clubs, Cotonsport, come from.
Cameroon is an unintended host of South Africa after Central African Republic chose its neighbour to the west as the neutral venue for the Group A of Africa’s qualifying competition for the 2014 Brazil World Cup. CAR wasn’t happy choosing Cameroon as they wanted to play the game in Chad, a country with stronger political and cultural ties with the new rulers from the SELEKA coalition. Chad, more than a relatively modern Cameroon, could have unsettled South Africa with its tougher conditions. But Fifa would not allow the match to go there because as recent as last month Chad also had its own internal security issues.
Under normal circumstances Bafana should be enjoying a reasonable amount of support from the locals in Yaounde. There was a period Bafana Bafana packed stadiums on the continent, with people coming to give love to the team from Mandela’s country.
Things have changed. Bafana are not the same team which used to command respect and admiration, and South Africa now make the news on the continent for black lynch mobs killing fellow Africans in cold blood.
Overcoming CAR should not be a desperate matter football-speaking. Bafana’s main task in Yaounde is to win hearts again for South Africa, and put the country’s qualifying efforts for Brazil 2014 on track.
That position is perfectly summed up by coach Gordon Igesund after the team’s arrival in Yaounde: “We don’t want to make any accusations (for the delays). We must just look forward to our mission. At the end of the day we can’t look back, we can’t harp on this matter – life must go on. We are here to do a job and we will do it to the best of our ability.”
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