A small group from the cohort and I went to the neighborhood known as Madina to watch the Ghana Black Stars take on Guinea-Bissau during the Africa Cup on July 3. The broadcast station Net-2 TV had set up a large outdoor screen for their live broadcast of the football match which was played in Suez, Egypt. Ghana prevailed in the contest, and the experience was truly unforgettable as we happily hopped on the fan bandwagon thanks to the tangible, euphoric emotion of the 200+ Ghanaians intensely watching the game. It was so much fun to scream and cheer with this massive group after the 2 exciting Ghanaian goals and watch a large portion of the crowd dance to upbeat music (it is evident that Ghanaians love to dance, an aspect of the culture I particularly appreciate).
Having previously lived in Costa Rica and studying abroad in Guatemala, I did not think there could be more enthusiastic football fans or announcers than those in Latin America; however, this game may have proven me wrong. I am still not certain how the announcer, who was announcing the game live at a table a hundred feet away from where we were standing, shouted his play-by-play of the game action with such enthusiasm and without a single pause. If he wasn’t shouting out the names of players and the action in Twi, he was shouting out quick ads and store slogans- one we could always make out was for a local supermarket- “Everyday low prices for everyday people.”
The hospitality Net-2 extended to our group also made the visit very special. The anchor and producer of the station’s morning political talk show, who also studied abroad at the U of O, found us in the large crowd pretty quickly after we arrived. He very kindly offered to take us inside the television station for a cold drink and then proceeded to give us an extensive tour of the entire station. We saw the station’s main news and sport studio as well as a larger multi-purpose studio that houses their many magazine programs including an Islamic-faith based program for the community that is predominant in this part of Accra and is produced in this group’s local dialect, a program that discusses the benefits of agriculture in effort to encourage more Ghanaians to farm, and a show about eating healthy. We even got to sit in the studio and watch the live half-time show panel analysis and discussion. We all held back chuckles when the most prominent contributor- a well-known football coach with former players on the national team- gave his take on how Ghana could prevail in the second half by simply making one substitution. It is interesting that the entire panel conversation was in English while the play-by-play announcing of the game was almost entirely in Twi. I almost missed the quick shout out we got during the live broadcast as the announcer noted the visitors present from the University of Oregon and a quick message to us, “Hope you brought your dollars!.”
Football is a very important cultural interest in Ghana, including the media around it- what a treat to be a part of both.
