Perhaps, the primary beneficiaries of Ghana 2008 were the merchandisers of sports memorabilia. They made good money, it is said. The merchandisers included children and young adults who have prematurely interrupted their childhoods to become petty traders knowing that this country has nothing to offer them. This was their cocoa season and they harvested. Good for them! Prostitutes also made good (bad?) money.

My guess is that through sheer deceit of divination, juju, voodoo, sorcerers and various brands of ‘black power’ practitioners also made some good dough. Of course we know of mud-painted-faced Hakim and his guinea fowls who, with such audacity, made bold predictions of the number of goals Ghana would score – and became an instant celebrity, featured in the mass media.

But we would never know of the many chickens, lizards, rats, eagles, parrots, sparrows, pigeons, snakes and goats that were sacrificed in parts of the continent to make talismans and concoctions to be buried, drunk, worn and laid on the altars of fetishes – for the sake of GOALS! Granted that Hakimas a predictor of goals was a nice comic relief. He was in the open. There must have been several Hakims in the backyards of the continent doing whatever, for goals.

Many times as I watched the games on TV, the naughty part of my left brain could not help but wonder who among the players had swallowed a cowry shell, bathed in weird concoctions brewed in funky African pots in poverty-stricken villages in low-height mud-huts that they entered by stooping so low – all with the dream of enhancing the likelihood of scoring goals!

Regardless, many, including Ghana, suffered defeat. For us, it was at the legs of Cameroon’s Lions. It hurts, especially if, like me, you have difficulty in pronouncing indomitable for fear of losing some precious teeth.

In the end, when gold dogged, the good people of the former Gold Coast gleefully settled for bronze! Yes, bronze! We had no choice. Although Ghana did not win the African Cup of Nations as expected of a host nation, the Black Stars introduced to Africa and the world, the memorable ‘kangaroo dance’. I’m practising; so watch out.

The tournament was a show-off of the vibrant national colours of African countries. It was amazing to witness the extent of Ghana’s influence on the continent over national flags. As the first country to gain independence from the colonialists, we inadvertently also set the example for what should constitute national colours of countries that followed our footsteps. Not surprisingly, red, gold and green – in different combinations – feature predominantly in several national flags.

A great plus of the tournament is that we now have four world-class Chinese-inspired stadia as bonus infrastructure. The challenge now is how to maintain them. Who will be responsible to ensure that they do not become white-elephants; that the grass remains grass and not gravels; that the bathrooms remain usable and not ‘kakae; that when seats, windows and other parts of the infrastructure break, they are replaced; and that the surroundings do not succumb to petty traders who would leave behind their nonsensical footprints of shacks and filth?

One wonder of Ghana 2008 was that some failed states which are coming out of idiotic ethnic squabbles managed to pull together formidable teams. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that Sudan and Cote d’Ivoire could assemble teams. But then, that is the mystery of football: it is a uniter in ways which do not make sense. The same folks who unite to represent a country and in unison, belt out GOAL!!! would in the next senseless minute, pull out machete to butcher their neighbours. How I wish the uniting power of football was not just skin deep but seeps into the bones and marrow of Africans.

Throughout the tournament, my racial pride was deeply injured and I don’t know where and who to go for healing. It was troubling to spot sole white-men on the fringes of the playing fields who like hawks, attentively watched over African players. And these are aging European coaches on their tour of recycled duty in Africa! I can only liken them to second hand clothing that changes hands. It is as if as soon as they grab coaching certificates, they head to Africa to milk us of non-existent money.

How come a person of Coach Jones Attuquayefio’s calibre sits on the fence while a white-man coaches the Black Stars? After all, the Pharaohs of Egypt did just fine with an Egyptian coach who has won the African Cup of Nations twice for his country!! How come the black-man can play football very very well but can’t coach? Eh?

There is a strange, striking, worrying and eerie similarity of our situation with our African American kith and kin who are the main players of football and basketball in the USA while coaches are white. This is neo-colonialism in football and it hurts this continent.

In the same vein, African governments contract funny international loans for one funny project or the other and bring in foreign consultants as part of funny conditionalities. At the end of the day, at times, up to 80 per cent of the loan money goes into paying foreign consultants just so our continent would be perpetually locked in foreign debts and dependent on neo-colonial masters. For countries with weak economies, immense grinding poverty, hunger, disease, street children, any signs of throwing money away gnaw at the hearts of citizens. We can do better!