For one of the questions on my
final exam I asked students to come up with an enterprise-story idea in the
area of sports coverage. Here’s what one of them wrote:
The case of using “juju” (black magic) in
the Black Stars (Ghana’s senior soccer team) has become profound after the
former coach made these allegations. Some players have come out to deny it
while others have refused to comment on it. This story will therefore assess to
what extent this practice is true and the main players involved. It will also
examine how such an allegation or revelation has affected Ghana’s reputation by
speaking to football pundits around the world.
My comment: Wow, I want to read THAT
story!!! Of course, Ghana being the home of juju and all, I shouldn’t have been
surprised. When Theresa and I were browsing in the university bookstore one day,
we saw a book with a title something like “The role of juju in African
football.” Who could not pick it up? Unfortunately it turned out (naturally) to
be a tract by a Christian pastor who I think was intending to debunk the idea
that juju was important to soccer. Obviously this means it IS important, or has
been, but it wasn’t the book I was hoping it would be.
In any case, the coach of the Ghana national team created quite a stir earlier this year
after Ghana lost a tournament game everyone thought it easily should have won.
The coach (since fired) said this in a report to his bosses: "We all need
to help in changing some players' mentality about using black power to destroy
themselves and also make sure we install discipline and respect for each
other." Goodness!
Kwame says that yes, there’s a long
tradition of juju being used in connection with soccer. This sort of magic, he
explained, isn’t produced by a fetish priest – it is something that, they say, some
people just have inside them as a power. So in the case of football, he said, a
player who is afraid an upstart will force him off the team might use juju so
that the other guy breaks a leg. (Doesn’t seem very sportsmanlike, does it!)
And it can and is used sort of simultaneously with Christian prayers, he said –
cover all the bases, as it were.
We're constantly reminded that things are more different
here than we sometimes imagine. Still, it did make me wonder ... might this be a
solution for the Seattle Mariners? Nothing else seems to have worked in that
clubhouse. Want to try a little juju, anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment