One of the great benefits of living in Africa is that most Premier League games are shown live. This means that I have seen almost all of Tottenham's games this season which has had its' expected share of ups and downs so far.
To a certain extent I live under the radar of care from the locals in Tombo as there are very few Spurs fans here. However, this has meant on occasion I have become a very minor celebrity when wearing my Spurs shirt in town. Actually what I mean to say is that I have often been the white man to humiliate.
Most people in Tombo support Manchester United, Chelski, Liverpool, The Woolwich Wanderers, Barcelona or Real Madrid which has been my experience in many African towns and cities I have visited over the years. Due to Manchester City's recent success they have won a few fans too which demonstrates the fact that these guys are the worst kind of glory hunters you'll ever find.
Our security guards on site are lovely fellows and mad keen on football like most men here.
"Mr Steve - Tottenham" they shouted excitedly at me recently and followed it up with "Are they the best team?" to which my reply was "of course we're not". This perplexed and disturbed them deeply. I saw it written across their faces. The look said 'but why would you support them then?' This is a question which I am sure Spurs fans ask themselves over and over again along with 'why do we put ourselves through such misery?' We all know the answer, it's because we love them unconditionally but this made no sense to my Security friends.
The journey to the local 'football cinema' comprises of a 15 minute walk, 5 of which are to get my from my front door to the main gate of our compound. Then you are into bandit country. Well not really, unless you count 6,7 & 8 year olds shouting "Oporto" (white man) as bandits. Recently I've noticed they've even gone to the trouble of translating their cries to "white man" or "white man give me 10000 leones" (approx £1.50) which is very kind of them although I knew what oporto meant. Maybe they are doing better in school.
As they try to verbally mug me I often ask them for 10000le instead which confuses them nearly as much as the security guards had been when questioning me about Spurs.
On the day of the Arsenal cup game, and after my first altercation with these young bandits I soon had another group to walk past, this time a group of 9 children. They didn't ask for money but rather took great pleasure in shouting "white man" at me. I tried to turn it into an impromptu English lesson by identifying them as "black boy" and "black girl" which just confused them and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
Disappointingly my normal 'cinema' was not open for the Arsenal cup game which meant I needed to walk a further 5 minutes down the high street to get to "BMX", the premier football venue of Tombo.
On the way a topless middle aged woman with very droopy boobs tried to make me buy some of her wares but I passed on her kind offer and moved on. Finally I reached BMX, paid my 1000le entrance fee and trod on a number of toes as I tried to secure a spot on one of the wooden benches.
Without another Spurs shirt in sight I felt this place was a little hostile so I did what every other Spurs fan would do and starting singing. As it turns out nobody sings in the cinemas except for me apparently so the looks I exchanged with locals suggested they thought I was stark raving mad. Eventually a few smiled at me mid-way through a long C-O-M-E... O-N... Y-O-U...S-P-U-R-S but it was too late, the floodgates had opened and the glory hunting Arsenal fans started to shout at me. "We will beat you today" (some offered a scoreline) to which I replied "yes I think you probably will". This of course caused more confused looks.
There are many similarities between Arsenal fans at home in UK and in Sierra Leone, firstly that they obviously support the wrong team but also that they seem very uptight and lack a sense of humour. I batted away their aggressive scoreline guessing with many smiles and a few laughs. I did get some support from other locals though who turned out to be Man Utd or Chelsea fans who hate Arsenal too and were supporting Spurs.
At half time I swapped the 35 degree heat inside for a cool 30 degree outside and started having some banter with a few Arsenal fans. These guys seemed alright and one happily posed for a photo with me.
I watched most of the second half and my heart sank when their second goal went in. I have to admit I nipped out of BMX as it got to injury time and couldn't really complain about the score. We'll fight to live another day I thought as I started my walk back up to the Academy.
COYS!
Most people in Tombo support Manchester United, Chelski, Liverpool, The Woolwich Wanderers, Barcelona or Real Madrid which has been my experience in many African towns and cities I have visited over the years. Due to Manchester City's recent success they have won a few fans too which demonstrates the fact that these guys are the worst kind of glory hunters you'll ever find.
Our security guards on site are lovely fellows and mad keen on football like most men here.
"Mr Steve - Tottenham" they shouted excitedly at me recently and followed it up with "Are they the best team?" to which my reply was "of course we're not". This perplexed and disturbed them deeply. I saw it written across their faces. The look said 'but why would you support them then?' This is a question which I am sure Spurs fans ask themselves over and over again along with 'why do we put ourselves through such misery?' We all know the answer, it's because we love them unconditionally but this made no sense to my Security friends.
The journey to the local 'football cinema' comprises of a 15 minute walk, 5 of which are to get my from my front door to the main gate of our compound. Then you are into bandit country. Well not really, unless you count 6,7 & 8 year olds shouting "Oporto" (white man) as bandits. Recently I've noticed they've even gone to the trouble of translating their cries to "white man" or "white man give me 10000 leones" (approx £1.50) which is very kind of them although I knew what oporto meant. Maybe they are doing better in school.
As they try to verbally mug me I often ask them for 10000le instead which confuses them nearly as much as the security guards had been when questioning me about Spurs.
On the day of the Arsenal cup game, and after my first altercation with these young bandits I soon had another group to walk past, this time a group of 9 children. They didn't ask for money but rather took great pleasure in shouting "white man" at me. I tried to turn it into an impromptu English lesson by identifying them as "black boy" and "black girl" which just confused them and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
Disappointingly my normal 'cinema' was not open for the Arsenal cup game which meant I needed to walk a further 5 minutes down the high street to get to "BMX", the premier football venue of Tombo.
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| Tombo High Street |
On the way a topless middle aged woman with very droopy boobs tried to make me buy some of her wares but I passed on her kind offer and moved on. Finally I reached BMX, paid my 1000le entrance fee and trod on a number of toes as I tried to secure a spot on one of the wooden benches.
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| 'BMX' - Tombo's premier football cinema |
Without another Spurs shirt in sight I felt this place was a little hostile so I did what every other Spurs fan would do and starting singing. As it turns out nobody sings in the cinemas except for me apparently so the looks I exchanged with locals suggested they thought I was stark raving mad. Eventually a few smiled at me mid-way through a long C-O-M-E... O-N... Y-O-U...S-P-U-R-S but it was too late, the floodgates had opened and the glory hunting Arsenal fans started to shout at me. "We will beat you today" (some offered a scoreline) to which I replied "yes I think you probably will". This of course caused more confused looks.
There are many similarities between Arsenal fans at home in UK and in Sierra Leone, firstly that they obviously support the wrong team but also that they seem very uptight and lack a sense of humour. I batted away their aggressive scoreline guessing with many smiles and a few laughs. I did get some support from other locals though who turned out to be Man Utd or Chelsea fans who hate Arsenal too and were supporting Spurs.
At half time I swapped the 35 degree heat inside for a cool 30 degree outside and started having some banter with a few Arsenal fans. These guys seemed alright and one happily posed for a photo with me.
.JPG) |
| Just before I punched the Gooner's lights out. Not really. Good natured fun outside BMX |
I watched most of the second half and my heart sank when their second goal went in. I have to admit I nipped out of BMX as it got to injury time and couldn't really complain about the score. We'll fight to live another day I thought as I started my walk back up to the Academy.
COYS!
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