Soccer Taught me Geography
The excitement is in the air. In neighborhood boutiques, on farm trails, even in hotel lobbies, people are likely chatting about it. Households that can afford it, are planning to renew their pay TV subscription. Things have also evolved on the technology side. A few days ago in an internet café, I overheard a group of three middle schoolers seriously brainstorming on how to watch all the soccer matches online. The first thing they agreed on is to each contribute 17¢ for each 2-hour session.
Soccer is a small god in Togo and in many other parts of the world
The African Cup of Nations (AFCON) is not to be missed, especially this year. Although Togo has failed to qualify, eliminated by her neighbor Benin, the expansion from 16 teams to 24 teams this year is an irresistible new element to the tournament. It’s a soccer lover’s dream.
The enthusiasm the AFCON is generating made me reminisce about my childhood. I began to reflect about the moments when there was an international soccer tournament or really, any soccer game. Whenever Togo played a match, school was closed during that day or afternoon classes were cancelled. It felt like a holiday and in retrospect, soccer games were unifying events.
Soccer did bring people together. I remember that folks who didn’t have a TV would go to their neighbor’s house, assemble in a cramped living room, and fixate a 20-inch T.V. During those occasions, most people didn’t mind visitors. In fact, the more people there were, the jollier the event.
But, to me soccer was also an education avenue
Something else enticed me to soccer though. Something that during that period, no one and nothing else could provide me with. It was geography. Yes, I was mainly fond of soccer because of human geography.
Although I studied geography and history throughout primary school, the lessons in class weren’t dynamic and they mainly consisted of memorizing the names of countries and their capital cities. At the time, I think there was a library near downtown Lomé, but it was only accessible to people within a particular social class.
Unlike my dull geography and history lessons, soccer was livelier and I realized that during the games, there was often a random country that played and which I didn’t know about. This pushed my inquisitiveness and I began to pay more attention to soccer, beyond the game.
Case in point: Korea 2002 FIFA World Cup
For example, during the 2002 world cup games, Senegal the underdog, eliminated France the juggernaut. Although I enjoyed the game, I was particularly intrigued by Senegal’s star player El Hadji Diouf. I wasn’t fascinated by the star because he was eccentric, yet talented.
Instead, I took particular interest in his skin color. Diouf was fair-skinned and this crushed my misconception about the typical Senegalese. Up to that point, to me, the archetypal Senegalese was tall, very dark-skinned with vivid white teeth.
This was a stereotype that I conceived from mainly French movies and a few Senegalese immigrants in Togo. In any case, when you live in an isolated world you begin to develop misconceptions and stereotypes, especially at a very young age. Fortunately, I had soccer to enlighten me at the time.
How exactly did I learn geography through soccer?
The learning process always involved two phases. The first phase occurred during the games. I learned from the commentators and especially then, the announcers had a lot more to talk about than soccer. “The Gambian players are displaying some energy early on, the players from the small country in West Africa” or “The Congolese team appears to be in good spirits despite the recent violence in the country”.
Those were side comments, but because I didn’t have access to resources to discover those countries, the comments represented lessons for me and I maximized on the lessons as long as the classes (matches) lasted.
The second phase of the discovery process was in school. The next school day after a match, I had to see my history teacher. I absolutely had to meet with him before he even had the chance to inhale the scent of the school compound in the morning. I would wait for him at the entrance of the school before he arrived. The man finally grew tired of my antics, so I changed my strategy.
I began to ambush him in the hallways and fired off my questions in such rapid succession that the poor man didn’t have time to catch his breath. “Sir, sir, where is Burundi? What was the cause of the war? Are they still in war?” He would look at me, clearly exhausted, but he replied to all my questions anyways.
Occasionally my history teacher wasn’t available, but I wasn’t worried because I had an alternative source. It was my English teacher. He was a brilliant man. Although English was the primary subject that he taught, when some teachers were absent, he taught physics, math, and history with ease at the middle school level. He was brainy and he often encouraged us to broaden our minds. We didn’t truly grasp what the teacher meant by broadening our minds, but some of us attempted to do just that.
Business tycoons also do it quite often
You see, my strange interpretation of soccer with human geography wasn’t any different than what most people do frequently. Some celebrated business magnates for example, utilize military tactics in their business operations.
Although in the business world, we don’t see soldiers in military fatigues climbing up and down skyscrapers, eliminating their competitors in tactical combats, business leaders often use war strategies to compete. I imagine that they read books about war, watch films regarding combats, and they implement the winning strategies in their business operations.
Essentially, I did something similar with soccer. During childhood when we watched soccer games, it was a convivial sensation to be around family and friends, enjoying a sport that we all loved. For me though, beyond its fundamental utility of entertainment, I watched the games because it helped me to learn a bit more about the world around me.
Above everything else, whenever I watched a soccer game at such a tender age, the world was reduced onto a small television set, just like I saw it on the globe in our principal’s office. It was such a distinct feeling.
I don’t think my association of soccer to human geography is peculiar. Perhaps to some people, hiking isn’t simply a physical activity or a hobby. Maybe it has a more profound meaning– you’re conquering something: your fears, your imperfections, or even the world (why not?).
