BLOGGING AFRICA'S WORLD CUP!

Muhammad Karim calls himself "informed and dangerous"The African blogosphere now has a village voice thanks to The Rantings of a Kenyan Villager, who believes the gods have been smiling on him.
"After the prolonged drought, the rains are finally here and money is also flowing around. I've made good profits in the last several weeks. I even managed to buy a small colour TV in time for the World Cup."
Despite the drought of African victories on Germany's pitches, some bloggers have taken heart from Africa's spirited play on the field, especially Togo's opening goal against South Korea.
"What a screamer of a shot it was... a brilliant goal," writes Soul on Ice.
"Mohamed Kader beautifully controlled the pig-skin and lashed home a rocket. At work I and my boy Willie were ecstatic."
Such ecstasy was shared by Ryan Corazza later in the week when Tunisia played Saudi Arabia. On Dead Spin's live blog he described it as the "most exciting tie I have ever seen in my life".
"To Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, thanks for making a seemingly boring game pretty kick-ass."
Identity
But for Muhammad Karim it is the more serious subject of football and racism that gets attention in his posting Soccer doesn't care about Black People.

I will almost always support a team that is fully or majority black against a team that is not. Does that make me racist?
Jay's Idle Notes
"If you're not white, stay away from small towns," is his advice to fans in The Front Line blog.
Racism in the beautiful game is also pondered on Jay's Idle Notes Rambling Thoughts From Sunny Kampala.
"I will almost always support a team that is fully or majority black against a team that is not. Does that make me racist?" asks Jay.
"I guess it does in a way."
Elisabeth Divis, a school teacher blogging from South Korea, addressed stereotypes with her students during a lesson about Togo after their defeat by South Korea.
"When I show my students where Togo is by chalking in its slim shape on the world map painted onto my classroom chalkboard, they all ooh and aww about how small it is. 'Smaller than Korea!' they say, rather enthusiastically.
"When I ask them what they know about Togo, they say not much, 'dark skin', 'poor', 'tall', and 'ugly'. When I asked one class what language Togolese people speak, I got 'African' in response. 'Yes, and you speak Asian fluently.'"
Landing on the moon
Nkem Ifejika, writing his blog from the tournament, sees the unifying force of the game.

TRAE says he's into hip hop, soccer and is a "fun loving intellectual"
"Football is a religion, the stadium is the temple, and the fans are the worshippers. There is no other way to explain what happens when people gather in one place in the name of football."
One commentator on his African Shirts blog felt this could have positive spin-offs for Nigeria:
"It would be interesting to have Nigerian presidential elections around the same time as World Cup (assuming the Eagles always qualify). History suggests Nigerians only share a common view at such big tournaments. In the process, we might just combine football, nationalism, humour, culture, heritage and politics."
For Aderemi the failure of Nigeria, who he describes as "the giant of African football", to qualify for Germany still rankles, something he puts down to priorities such as Nigeria plans moon landing by 2030.
"At least we can now explain where the money we refused to invest in our football team disappeared to," he concludes on Aderemi's Notebook.
Electricity
Blogging from Abuja, TRAE is more concerned with the here and now and expresses fears on TRAE Days that his World Cup viewing will be scuppered.

When Ghana qualified for the World Cup a gigantic street party broke out in the middle of Osu... we stumbled on the street party and joined in to the dancing
The (wish I was in) Ghana Journal"The power situation in Abuja is at its all time worst. PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) is so... unpredictable, they seize the power almost every day for at least five hours."
But Kenyan blogger Kabinti has a solution for those trapped at work during the tournament.
"I had to do something about watching a few matches since my kaboss was not going to give me a whole month off just to watch the world cup. Therefore, I bring you live streaming of the World Cup. You have to download a zip file and then fuata instructions."
For Emily, blogging on The (wish I was in) Ghana Journal, it is not yet over for Ghana - despite losing their first match to Italy.
"When Ghana qualified for the World Cup a gigantic street party broke out in the middle of Osu, my old neighbourhood. I was having dinner with the JHR crew and we stumbled on the street party and joined in to the dancing.
"The Black Stars gave me two of my favourite memories from my time there so I will be cheering until they're back on the plane."

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