Tag: Zambia national team

2012: The Joys of Africa – Who/What did we celebrate?

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People1 Comment
The Africa Cup of Nations/ La Coupe d'Afrique des Nations
The African Cup of Nations/ La Coupe d’Afrique des Nations

2012 was also a year of joy in Africa. Africa celebrated quite a few people and events:

1. The African National Congress (ANC) celebrated its 100 years of existence (January 2012).

2. Zambia won the African Cup of Nations 2012 by defeating the great selection of Côte d’Ivoire in the finals (February 2012).

3. Senegal went through a peaceful, democratic transition, with the election of Macky Sall (March 2012).

4. Africa got its 2nd female president: Mrs Joyce Banda of Malawi (April 2012).

5. President Laurent Gbagbo‘s hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) was scheduled for June 18, 2012, but was postponed to August 13, 2012, and now has been postponed indefinitely.  Apparently the ICC cannot find proofs of all their allegations against Laurent Gbagbo, and thus prefer stalling.

The VMK (Source: VMK)
The VMK (Source: VMK)

6. Oussama Mellouli, of Tunisia, won Gold in the 10 km marathon open water, to become the first swimmer to ever win olympic medals in both the pool and open water (August 2012).

7. David Rudisha of Kenya, became the first man to break a record at the London Olympics, in the 800m (August 2012).

8. Alaeeldin Abouelkassem of Egypt won silver in fencing, becoming Africa’s first medal in fencing (August 2012).

9. Rwandan writer, Scholastique Mukasonga, won the prestigious French Prix Renaudot for her book “Notre Dame du Nil” (November 2012).

10. Verone Mankou, a Congolese inventor, presented the first tablet and smartphone entirely engineered in Africa (December 2012);

Zambia wins the African Cup of Nations

On By Dr. Y.In Great Art, Great Moments9 Comments
Zambia's national team celebrate their win of the African Cup of Nations (Source: AFP)
Zambia’s national team celebrate their win of the African Cup of Nations (Source: Issouf Sanogo/AFP)

Wow, I started watching the finals yesterday rooting for Zambia to win against Côte d’Ivoire… I had watched them throughout the cup, and the last one as well, and knew that they were a young strong team to reckon with.  Throughout the game, I prayed that the memory of those Zambian players who died in a plane crash in 1993 in Gabon be honored.  At the time when the crash occurred, the Zambian team was on its way to Senegal from Libreville (Gabon) to play a world-cup qualifier.  We, Africans, were all stunned, and cried as an entire country had lost their heroes.  One of the only survivors was Kalusha Bwalya who would have been on the plane during the crash, but had found his own way to Senegal (he was playing for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and had to make separate arrangements to meet the team in Dakar).  We watched and cried with Kalusha who had lost all his teammates.

Zambia's national team, the Chipolopolo
Zambia’s national team, the Chipolopolo

Imagine rebuilding an entire mature team who had just crashed? It will take a lot of years to foster the same talent and train them.  The country had just lost a generation of extremely talented football players.  Kalusha went on to become coach of Zambia (at the 2006 CAN), and is currently the president of the football association of his country. It is extremely symbolic that Zambia won last night in Libreville (Gabon) against Côte d’Ivoire (who played outstandingly well), only a few hundred metres inland from the crash site.  The Chipolopolo (the Copper Bullets) dedicated their victory to the ones who lost their lives in the 1993 tragedy.