The urge in the beginning had been to entitle this piece “The Death of African Solidarity”.
It took no time at all for me to throw away the title when I remembered friends from many African countries who’ve sworn to damn all dangers to come into Nigeria to take me away upon the eventuality of the troubles of Naija zeroing in on The Poet!
For instance, my dear brother from Ghana, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, author of the acclaimed short story collection, The Prophet of Zongo Street, lives in New York but insists on giving me a home in Ghana because it’s not in my constitution to “Japa” to America or Europe!
I’m writing now because the much-ballyhooed African solidarity was cast aside as multitudes of African soccer fans supported other nations that played against South Africa in the 2026 World Cup.
It all came to a climax in the first Round of 32 knockout match between South Africa and Canada played on Sunday, June 28, in Los Angeles, California.
When Stephen Eustaquio scored in the second minute of injury time to defeat South Africa there erupted continent-wide celebration of the goal that ousted the ill-fated “Rainbow Nation”.
The joy was more than volcanic as fellow Africans celebrated the injury given to South Africa by Canada in injury time!
The legend on the map of Africa was writ large thus: “Xenophobic & Afrophobic South Africans, go beck home to take beck your jobs!”
The tragedy that befell South Africa in the World Cup due to xenophobia made me to undertake a recall of the many South African friends who had studied on Nigerian government scholarship at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in the days of Apartheid in the early 1980s.
Back then, the South African students in Nigeria were giddy with joy over the African solidarity showcased by their acclaimed big brother Nigeria.
I can remember a particular instance when one South African student who was totally drunk and completely legless was offered yet another bottle by the legendary actor Jimi Solanke!
Those happy days ought to have been sustained and extended, even with all the excesses, instead of the currency of xenophobia that is all the rage.
It is indeed an ill-will such that South Africa may in the very sordid end become Nigeria’s past.
It’s one thing to claim to drive foreign workers away, but another matter entirely to instantly grow the native workers to meet up with the needs of the country.
The sad lesson of the World Cup is that South Africa has nowhere to go within Africa given the exclusion created by the powers-that-be.
Nelson Mandela acquitted himself quite well by showing no bad blood to his white jailers, and actually worked to build a nation for all.
Thabo Mbeki followed the Mandela trend in his own capacity, but with the coming of Jacob Zuma it’s been all messy on the southern front.
Cyril Ramaphosa has been quite dodgy on the xenophobic matter, as though hiding behind a finger while his nation boils.
It takes more than yakking about Nigerian men taking South African jobs and women to address the clear and present danger presented by Zuma’s rabid Zulu nationalism.
Using the influx of the so-called Kwerekwere to thwart the shared identity, mutual support and collective unity embodying the spirit of African solidarity will do plentiful harm to South Africa.
Let it be put forward that the little progress that South Africa made in the World Cup owed much to the contribution of a defender with Nigerian antecedents, Ime Okon, in her team, the Bafana Bafana.
Even Canada is counting on the exploits of a Nigeria-born player, Tani Oluwaseyi, to make needed progress in World Cup 2026.
South Africa may need to borrow a leaf from Canada on the treatment of immigrants and sundry visitors.
Back in 1989, I was appointed the Distinguished Visiting Journalist at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
Even as I had no plans whatsoever to migrate or stay on in Canada, the Canadian bank gave me detailed pamphlets on how to start my business in Canada.
I had travelled with a single-entry visa to Canada but then had to fly out to the USA to present some lectures in the Black Studies Department of the iconic South African poet, Dennis Brutus, in the University of Pittsburgh, and when I was coming back to Canada the Canadian official I met at the airport used his pen to turn my visa into a multiple-entry visa with extended stay – the genial man actually pleaded with me to consider staying for a much longer time in his country!
That is the way to go for South Africa to regain her humanity.
My advice to the remaining African teams in World Cup 2026 is that any of them that wins her next five matches wins the coveted World Cup – as the first African country to do so, and thus create world history!
A tear for South Africa!
South Africa must learn the hard way that killing your brothers may in the end not only kick you out of the World Cup – but out of the world entirely!
