One Thing We Need Before Going To Qatar

Ghana ose, ose, ose, ose, oseeeeee yeeeeeei! Yeeeee, yeeeeeei! Ghana ooo, yeee, Ghana ooo, yeee, ayeee!

I’m reliably informed that it is this ‘War Song’, which is sung by Ghanaian soccer supporters ahead of our matches that more than anything else, sends shivers down the spine of our Nigerian friends and virtually ‘disarms’ them even before our matches start. Poured out in a fully packed stadium – like we saw at Baba Yara recently – followed by thunderous sounds of African drums and horns it is no doubt as inspirational for our boys as it must be intimidating not only for Nigerians but for every national team.

Unfortunately, to maintain the support throughout a match that alone is not enough since it is neither a song to sing along nor to dance with. And thank God, for a country like Ghana where music and dancing have always been an intrinsic part of our culture coming out with a dynamic and danceable supporters’ song cannot be a problem for us. Indeed, we do have one such song which I congratulate its composers for coming out with it. Unfortunately however, that song, in the tradition of our usual desire to place personalities, rather than the country (or the institution) first, was almost dead on arrival. As at now, almost all the people mentioned in that song for praise are either no longer playing for the national team or have hung their boots altogether. It is a shame in the sense that, with all due respect to the composers, it is a clear demonstration of our short-sightedness. Obviously, with all their best intentions they seem to have ignored the fact that as important as the players who were flying the Black Stars flag at the time the song was being composed were, they could not have been more important than the Team, the Black Stars or the country Ghana for that matter. So that song, which I believe was composed when we qualified for our first FIFA World Cup campaign in 2006, and a good one at that, is no longer relevant now because we now have an entirely new set of players and management staff.

And this is not peculiar to only the Black Stars song. Among the better-known traditional teams in Ghana I think it is only Accra Hearts of Oak who have a song which can always stand the test of time simply because it did not seek to eulogise anyone whether an official or player. Compare that with that of their main rivals, Kumasi Asante Kotoko, and you may better appreciate what I’m talking about. In fact, as a Kotoko fan I even get embarrassed when that song is being played when the team is playing today. It has completely lost any usefulness you would expect from a song the main use of which is to motivate and urge players on. If anything at all perhaps it may only be useful when studying the History of the club.

To conclude, therefore, I’m calling on our musicians to come out with a suitable one-size-fits-all supporters song for all our national teams. A song which shall be inspirational as well as danceable but devoid of any names whatsoever so that if in 100 years to come someone else decides to compose another song for Ghana it wouldn’t be to replace the one we took to Qatar and came back with glory because it is ‘obsolete’ but rather to serve as an additional one.

Go Black Stars Go! Qatar here we come!

Kwame Twumasi-Fofie

Sunyani

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