The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I know the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is not over but I am not waiting till July 11, 2010 to talk about the Black Stars' tournament. It's been a week since the Black Stars crashed out of the Mzansi Mundial, after solely carrying Africa's charge through to the knockout stages. I have finished mourning. The Black Stars made Ghana and Africa proud. They knew they had a job to do when they changed the inscription on their bus to 'Hope of Africa'. You could hear it in their interviews. The Ghana flag was redesigned with the African map replacing the Black Star. The Black Stars became known as the BaGhana BaGhana of GhAfrica. Well done, Black Stars, you made us all proud. Let's recount your journey. I blogged about before the tournament - "I believed that when the boys camped together and built chemistry, they'll do well. And we saw how they made Afria proud in 2006." "The boys have been together and I know they are shiing jama at this very mome...

I've been meaning to write a blog post about yet another tournament that ended without the Black Stars of Ghana winning the whole shebang. And then the Ayews 'retired' from the Black Stars. Bang! Opinion is divided on whether Ghana should get the services of Dede and Jordan Ayew for our national football team. Opinion is also divided on whether they could have helped the Black Stars do better at the African Cup of Nations that just happened in South Africa. I think they would have helped but I had few reasons to believe we couldn't end our trophy wait earlier this month. If you're counting, the Black Stars have not won a major tournament in more than 30 years . In fact, the Black Stars have not lifted a trophy since I was born. Yeah, go ahead and put the blame on me . I have been an avid supporter of the Black Stars. I get antsy when Ghanaians don't support, don't show belief or rally behind them. I almost believe that if our belief in the Black Stars is...

As many of you would know by now, Ghana has just confirmed its qualification to the World Cup in Brazil next year. It was a foregone conclusion after the Black Stars spelt Egypt and walloped the Pharoahs in Kumasi Agoropramaso last month. Congrats to the Black Stars and big ups to all the supporters of the Ghana national football team. I got to watch most of the second half and saw our goal. I missed a lot of tweets too. So for our collective benefit, here are some tweets you may have missed as you were following the Ghana game versus Egypt and the subsequent celebrations. And my comments :-) Video of Black Stars players singing on the pitch last night ahead of today's game against http://t.co/DWDBJI18lM . follow for live updates. — Ghanasoccernet.com (@Ghanasoccernet) November 19, 2013 We love these kinds of videos. I love Jama too! Just like these guys  +Donald Ward   +Seyram Freddy Ahiabor  and  +David Nikoi . Big game ahead of us #blackstars #gh...

Oh so close! That's what I said when it dawned on me we had lost the game. The lady sitting near me seemed to agree with my assertion. I had been watching it with a couple of friends, two of which were Ghanaian. We watched as the 'boys' battled, stayed aggressive, created chances, foiled their opponents' chances, oohing and aahing through an edgy 90 minutes of football. I had predicted, 'whoever would score first' would win the game and the tournament. After all, we had had 3 consecutive lone goal victories. When that first goal came in the 85th minute and it wasn't for Mother Ghana, it seemed the game had been decided. How cruel! We didn't have enough time to respond. Football is like that. Sometimes it is not dictated by luck, karma, form, reputation, paper, prophecies, superstition or jersey colours. It is dictated by grabbing opportunities and utilizing them. People hardly remember the team that won silver, but even fewer remember the team that won ...

The Kangaroo dance was probably the most popular dance in Ghana in 2008. First the Black Stars unveiled it when Michael Essien got on the end of Sulley Muntari's freekick to score Ghana's first goal against Morocco in the African Cup of Nations at Accra's Ohene Djan sports stadium. I was at the stadium that day and believe you me, I was so ecstatic to see the goal that I was making so much noise jumping up and down to pay any attention to the Black Stars' celebration. They did the dance again after Sulley Muntari scored Ghana's second and the next day, a new dance craze was born. The NPP employed it in their Election 2008 campaign as well. Do you know where the dance originated from? Do you even know that it was a dance craze in Kenya as well? Now you know. The Kangaroo dance celebration became a phenomenon during the CAN 2008. In fact, Ghana's dreaded rivals, the Super Eagles, actually used that same celebration when they drew first blood in the quarter-final a...

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this post, I pray God will forgive me if I step on His toes in any way. I am trying to hammer some points home and He knows my heart. A good number of times last month, I heard people say God is a Ghanaian. Obviously, they said this in a good way. Some non-Ghanaians got in the act. Why? Ghana had reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup with an interesting story. I am superstitious and I believe in God. Some people define GHANA as God has a nation ahead, God has anointed Nkrumah already, etc. Tina Sampong defined GHANA as 'God help Africa now, Amen!'. Ghana's national anthem starts with 'God bless our homeland Ghana'. A very popular video of the Black Stars surfaced before the Uruguay game with them singing and dancing. You know what they were singing about? God. Gospel. Religion. Ghana is a religious country. I am a religious person. Before the tournament, I had spoken to a friend who is not religious. He tested my faith, I ...

I'm on a roll, I've already published three blog posts today. Let's talk about sports for a bit. Last week, with little publicity, the Black Stars of Ghana faced Bosnia-Herzegovina in a friendly in Sarajevo. The Black Stars lost 2-1. As usual, while some fingers were pointed, some fingers were crossed, some toes were crossed and some toes were giddy. It's about 3 months to the start of this year's World Cup in South Africa and I can't wait. I am fully confident that the Black Stars team will get their act together before the World Cup and make Ghanaians and Africans proud. A few things need to be done and I want to offer a few thoughts and suggestions. Goalkeeping Richard Olele Kingston may be warming the bench at Wigan Athletic in cold England but he's still the undisputed number one Ghanaian goalie. In fact, he's right up there with all African goalkeepers. He's lost some of his agility but a goalkeeper must command respect and he does this best am...

I just watched the Black Stars of Ghana play the Latvian national team in the team's final friendly before the start of the Mzansi Mundial, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa which starts June 11. After the news of Michael Essien missing out due to injury, Sulley Muntari being doubtful, Bra Laryea Kingston left behind at Kotoka, and the poor performance against Holland where we lost 4-1, many Black Stars fans were worried. I wasn't but I believed we had to do and prepare better. After this game against Latvia, I have great confidence. The boys are gewd! They've always been. They have to believe that "Aha yɛdɛ o, beebia awu! Ka sɛ vim, vim! I am excited for the World Cup, the Black Stars will shine and do us proud . The Black Stars played with some swagger in this game. Hey, I know it is Latvia, but this is the kind of the game they needed. They bossed the game, had some slick passing, created chances, etc. We only scored one goal, and that was by a substitute, Qui...

You can't start talking about the Black Stars without talking about their "hairstyles". Vorsah, Wakaso and Gyan stood out amongst the lot at the African Cup of Nations. A few image searches of the players below would yield what their barbers have been doing to them for reasons I cannot barb. Let's stick to dissecting the usual suspects, and name (with nicknames) who should feature for the Black Stars as we prepare towards shockprising the world in Brazil 2014. Richard Kingston , Olele! Wait, he has retired right? Adam Kwarasey probably let the Ghanaian ladies affection for him get into his head. Cos when he Googles himself, this is what he sees . The ladies would choose him while the guys choose Fatau Dauda . A man must be ugly and fearfu l. That works well for goalkeepers. Fatau should be Ghana's first choice (hear the bevy say nor! no-way!) Daniel Adjei will be the third banner, with enough liberty to be professional on the bench. As much as I would love...

Wow! On my way home, I was tired and the first things I was going to do when I got home were check my email, Facebook, etc and then head straight to bed. I saw a friend, Kwabena Poku , post a link from Afroklectic saying the "the weight of Africa is on the Black Stars". What I found at that link was very heartwarming. Later, still on Facebook, I stumbled upon a status of Lydia Forson's on Facebook. It said "The HEAT Is On;GHANA vrs germany.I Lydia Forson Beleive in the Black Stars of Ghana.DO YOU???" This whole World Cup season, I've been calling on all who would listen to 'believe' in the Black Stars. Earlier this week, I realised this 'belief' is even more about things bigger than the Black Stars. That, I will revisit in another blog. For now, let me tell you about what has me excited. I saw a couple of videos about the Vodafone Flashmob . These videos below will tell you everything you need to know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjt-Mu...

Last Friday, the Black Satellites put in a finale to cap an impressive outing in the FIFA U-20 World Cup by beating mighty Brazil on penalties to emerge champions. I had watched every single Ghanaian game in the tournament, following the boys' men's progress. It was such an awesome feeling to finally win another World championship after the Black Starlets ruled the world at the U-17 level in 1991 and 1995. Congratulations to the whole squad, the technical team, and the fans who supported the Satellites with their prayers, and encouragement. This world triumph has not been without talking points and I'll seek to address some in this post. Being world champions at youth level is not the end, we have to build on this and become a world-class footballing nation at every level. The name Ghana should be on the lips of football fanatics all year round, forever. This class has been magnificent from the get-go. Two years ago, they lit the FIFA U-17 World Cup and just fell short at ...

While I was in Ghana over the Christmas break, I thought of my blog. I had missed blogging. I was browsing mostly on my HTC Aria phone powered by Android using Vodafone's mobile internet. Power to you, Vodafone. My laptop decided not to turn on once I got to Ghana so I was computerless. I couldn't get to use my brother or sister's pcs, because they were on it a lot. It didn't really occur to me to blog using my phone. Too much to type. That brought up another idea. Who said blogs should be 6 paragraphs? No one. If someone did, I'm not buying it. Blogging should be fun. Why so serious? Anyway, Why so serious was the title of my blog when I started it. It was chosen because this blog would be a place for me to speak my mind, promote people and projects, air out opinions, publicize things, etc. And I was going to do it my way, in a witty and funny way cos there is no reason why we can't talk about serious things in an 'unserious' way. But, this Christmas, ...

I was extra excited for this year's African Cup of Nations (AFCON). I felt South Africa would host a good tournament but mostly because Ghana's Black Stars were returning to the scenes of the Mzansi Mundial where they captured the imagination of football fans everywhere. Sadly, the Black Stars came away without the trophy which was very disappointing. The Orange African Cup of Nations did give us a lot of stories though which I would like to recap through my various lenses. I'd leave the Ghanaian point of view to another blog post. I've been introducing my various alter-egos to the world. East African nations don't do as well at football so Uganda's  Richard Nshuti Mayanja , Kenya's   David Ochieng Mwangi   and Tanzania's   Hamis Ambwene Massawe   had to find other countries to support. The Cranes have been getting Ugandans excited about their football but ultimately fell short. Victor Wanyama is tipped to join Manchester United and McDonald Marig...