Three days of national mourning for the two men who did not survive last Friday’s attack against the Togolese national football team, come to an end today. And now, it is time to name the culprits. Of course, rebels carried out the attacks but in Togo, the two players considered most responsible for the tragedy are the Angolan organisers and CAF, the Confederation of African Football. Let us look at both a little more closely.

About Bram Posthumus

Bram Posthumus is a freelance producer for Radio Netherlands Worldwide and, since shortly, is based in Dakar, Senegal. Besides RNW, Bram is a regular contributor to other publications in the likes of Zam Magazine. His areas of interest and experience are Africa (politics and economy), international relations (trade, aid), the arts and music (jazz, world, and much more)

 

If you would like to react to Bram Posthumus's article, write to us at

Angola
Angola is the first Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) African country to organise the African Cup of Nations. It is rolling in oil money and in principle, it can pull this off. Angola surpassed Nigeria as Sub-Saharan Africa’s number one oil producer in 2008, producing close to two million barrels per day and raking in anywhere between 15 and 20 billion dollars annually. The well-connected elites in Luanda profit from the oil boom; everybody else gets by on less than a dollar a day.

Angola has been at peace since April 2002, following the violent death of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. In fact, the Angolan government will simply say: “We won”. The only area escaping its writ has been the northern enclave of Cabinda. A rebel movement calling itself Frente de Libertacão do Estado de Cabinda, or FLEC, has been fighting the government in a long smouldering conflict ever since independence in 1975.

Angola meets CAF
Enter: CAF, the Confederation of African Football. Togolese sport newspapers L’Équipe Sportive and Galaxy describe its boss, Issa Hayatou, as a high-flying prestige-seeking football top official – in other words: fairly typical. So when newly peaceful, newly rich, increasingly powerful and prestige-seeking Angola met CAF officials to discuss holding Africa’s number one football tournament there, this was a match made in heaven. Hayatou agreed with a key Angolan demand: games in its troubled province Cabinda. Luanda assured CAF that there would be absolutely no risk involved – after all, its official position is that FLEC has ceased to exist. The man claiming this was none other than Antonio Bento Bembe, a former FLEC top official turned government minister…for Cabinda.

Why Cabinda
But why Cabinda? Three reasons: it has an almost mythical (if exaggerated) status as an important front in the struggle against Portuguese colonial rule; it is home to Angola’s prime source of wealth - oil. And finally: hosting a few football games here shows that Luanda is in control of Cabinda. CAF went along; Angola was awarded the tournament in 2006.

‘If CAF knew that Cabinda was a dangerous area they should never have organised the tournament there!’ Diffa Oclo’o, whose elder brother Stan was one of the two deadly victims in the Cabinda attack, is upset and angry with the behaviour of Africa’s top football officials. ‘Just after the attack, the CAF boss told the players: “You can leave if you want to, this tournament will stay where it is…”, well, I’m sorry, but that is just beyond imagination.’

Togolese anger is very much more directed at CAF and its failure to recognise that this football-mad nation had been hurt. The response of Angola, on the other hand, is considered par for the course here. The official declaration on the tournament website called the attack against the Togolese team “terrorist”. (Remember, FLEC does not exist.) Angolan president Eduardo dos Santos waited until Sunday evening, fully two days after the attack, to offer his condolences to the Togolese. Forum de la Semaine, a Lomé weekly, helpfully reminded the nation that there is bad blood between dos Santos and Togo, as the late president Gnassingbe Eyadema (whose son Faure currently runs the country) was an active supporter of Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA. A few dead Togolese is ‘not their problem,’ as a local football fan remarked. He went on to comment on the opening match, on Sunday: Angola 4 Mali 4. ‘We were not happy when the Angolans were 4-0 up against Mali but then when the Malians equalised we shouted for joy.’

CAF’s gaffe
But CAF? ‘CAF must apologise in front of the whole nation. We expect nothing less,’ insists Oclo’o. His and the nation’s wrath are directed at Issa Hayatou and CAF’s communications manager Souleymane Habuba. Last weekend, Habuba made a statement claiming that CAF rules say, very clearly, that national teams participating in a tournament should travel by plane. In other words: it is your own fault. L’Equipe Sportive adds very subtly that it is in fact FIFA, the world football body, that offered its condolences and ordered an inquiry into what happened in Cabinda…

Habuba’s remarks went down extremely badly and the speculation now is that more than anything it was this gaffe that prompted the Togolese government to say: well - if that’s your position, then as far as we are concerned, the African Nations Cup 2010 is over.

Meanwhile, the show put together by Angola and CAF goes on. But where does that leave Togo and its football authorities? Are they off the hook? Not by a long shot.

(to be continued)

Photo: EPA