By Innocent Madawo The 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament was an astounding success as both a sporting and socio-cultural event. Today, the sporting heroes of soccer return home and South Africans begin cleaning up after the month-long party. Far from that madding crowd, here in the Greater Toronto Area and across the African diaspora in Canada, it’s time to take stock of the event, which has had a tremendous impact locally. Prior to the tournament, Africans living here fervently hoped the World Cup would bring them something that has hitherto been elusive — recognition, respect and acknowledgement. Africans have long wanted to be identified with something more positive than the wars, disease, hunger and political corruption too often on display on the African continent. When the World Cup came along, all hopes were pinned on it and it has not disappointed, thanks to a superb job of hosting by South Africa and the gallant performance of the Ghanaian national team, which equalled Africa’s record of reaching the quarterfinals. The impact on Africans living here has been positive as many of their fellow Canadians, now having seen the World Cup, no longer regard Africa simply as perpetual victim of its history and demography. Africans are talking Many with origins in Africa now living in the GTA are talking about workmates, schoolmates, neighbours and others consulting them, many for the first time, about their home continent. Of course the conversations revolve around South Africa and the World Cup, but in those discussions, questions are also being asked about other African countries and nationalities. Do they have cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town? Are people in Zimbabwe and Tanzania as humble and hospitable as South Africans? Is all of Africa as beautiful and modern as we see on television? “We are being seen in a new light,” says Ndaba Njobo of Zimbabwe. The effect has been a long hoped for recognition of Africans as a people capable of accepting their responsibilities in the modern world. Hosting the biggest sporting event in the world, for a month, without a hitch, is something Africa was supposed to lack the ability to carry off, according to the naysayers. Just revisit many of the foreign media reports prior to the tournament, which predicted doom and gloom. Instead, the opposite occurred. Nevertheless, this new respect Africans have gained will be fleeting if not seized upon and sustained through a unity of purpose, something I regret to say has historically been lacking among diasporan Africans. A glimpse of that unity was witnessed during the run of success by the Ghanaian national team, when Africans of many nationalities rallied behind the Black Stars, turning a little-known marketplace at Jane Street and Wilson Avenue into an African hub. But even as that was happening, Ghanaian Mark Abankwa sounded an ominous prediction that once Ghana was knocked out of the World Cup, “we will go back to normal” — meaning the internal disunity that has seen Africans left out of the socio-economic and political accommodations accorded many other communities. The African community here was desperate for a uniting force. It came in Africa’s World Cup. The question now is: Will the community build on that experience to make it count for something more lasting than the great sporting spectacle it was? Written by Innocent Madawo E-mail: innocent.madawo@sunmedia.ca Source: www.torontosun.com