Go South Africa go! Welcome to Soccer City stadium, which kicked off at the World C alcio 2010. Begun in 1986 and opened in 1989 with work completed in 2009, the stadium shows a calabash, the typical African container on a raised base on which there is a pit of fire. A great representation of that - combined with the opening ceremony with 40-minute show, 1,500 artists, 198 countries connected, 3 billion television viewers expected 40 heads of state present and responsible for Fifa 35 - is full of charm and energy. It then takes notes of waka waka (This time for Africa) recorded by Shakira Freshleyground with the South Africans, to excite and heated tempers.
Sounds, flavors, colors: for Africans that this World Cup is something more than a football field, more than just a game and a competition: it is visible, 
challenge, passion, expectation, desire for redemption, pride. It also represents the many contradictions of a continent still in search of an identity that no longer wants to be forgotten and excluded from the rest of the world. To catalyze attention, they are there, the Great, the 92 year old icons like Nelson Mandela , leader of the anti-apartheid veteran of a death in the family the very first day of the World began with bad news: 13 year old great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela has lost life in Soweto in a car accident while returning home after the opening concert of the World Cup. Such is life.
And even icons such as former Archbishop Desmond Tutu that I had occasion to meet in Johannesburg years ago, the symbol of an Africa that he wants to emerge, grow and move forward 
(Do not miss the video where Tutu opens the ceremony in sportswear: http://iamashadow.w ordpress.com/2010/06/12/world-cup-2010-desmond-tutu / .
The festival is also an opportunity to resurface ancient African beliefs and superstitions. Grow back in all their mysterious power of rites, rituals and spells. Forces are esoteric, subtle, difficult to grasp for a Western culture that has lost its ancestral roots connection and memory. The way I can think of a 2006 article by Paul Bakolo Ngoi , writer, mediator and journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo who lives in Italy. I met him through his books, one in particular football, very nice, called Header. So it was that I decided to work together to do that then I took care of the immigration page for The Newspaper ( National - 34] GIORN/SPORT/PAG04 <UNTITLED ). Pen brilliant, Paul soon found also that my colleagues on the sports editor at the World Cup in Germany has commissioned a series of articles. And this in particular is very interesting and topical. Here it is: 
"The tchangeur there, il est fort", this is what we hear in the stadium bleachers and grandstands in Africa. In many countries in the African mind, no doubt, most of the players is the Tchangeur or nganga, also known as "preparer psychological," the true architect of victory, sometimes responsible for the defeat and the end of the career of a player . There are anecdotes about the powers of these marabouts and if they hear of all colors. "When the ball turns into a lion's head, a pain for goalkeepers or when a player is lost in the fog and does not see the door, many are the stories but where is the line between fantasy and reality? Hard to say because no player would ever admit to resort to these gris-gris. " The tchangeur working in the shadows, certainly not in the light of the sun, its rites could scare the public. Often this works at the request of a manager or a player. Distributes to the players something to chew on, is the contact with the spirits, the goalkeeper is almost always something to put on socks. Some also talk of an oil to sprinkle on the body. What is there behind all this? One thing is certain: if football is part of the company, so it's a social phenomenon, and if we admit that the African society lives at the rhythm of the magic in his newspaper and his magical rituals have marked its myths and traditions, is not difficult to admit that football can be subject to these magical rites. The question is perhaps most interesting is to know the extent to which these rites are getting the results or improve performance. One thing is certain, players while not relying on these practices do not refuse to accept the help of tchangeur and often prefer to use instead of the simple prayer amulets. Someone comes to believe in the power of magic enough to refuse to salute during a game or the opponent to spend the night with his woman. It is said that there are two prohibitions that may be lacking the beneficial effect of nkisi, the fetish indeed. The tchangeur a good consultant is getting paid before the meeting. In some cases, the government also intervened officially to support these "préparateur psychologique." One could cite the case of the one million CFA francs, about 1500 euros, paid out by the Federation of Gabon, according to a ruling of the same. In any case, we are far from 34.5 millions - 52,600 euros - from Senegal spent during the Can (Africa Cup) and the 2002 World Cup. Called djou-djou, gris-gris, xons, the Tchang knows no boundaries and is a practice cultivated in many African countries. The African believes, is in his DNA and you might think that each team has its own. Why do black magic does not win a world cup? In truth there is magic to be able to make a quantum leap in quality to those who do not. That's all the secret of the game of football: a head, two good feet, a tactical sense and athletic resources. The hopes of African football in Germany 2006 are handled by Drogba, Akwa, Amoah, Cougbadja, Dos Santos, and these are not names grisgris, but magic for what it can do on the football field.
photo credit: Axel Bührmann photo credit: Eustaquio Santimano photo credit: Chaouki
