Nation building; one soccer match at a time

Most who know that Africa is not a country, also know that the continent has all the trimmings of an unstable region. Colonialism check, insufficient crumbling infrastructure check, and major interethnic tensions double check. After Europe was finished slicing and dicing the continent in every which way, frenemies were made, enemies forced to pretend to be friends, and voila, special interest groups created in the form of ethnic groups, all competing over scarce resources, only widening interethnic gulfs. Perhaps, though just maybe Football, (soccer in American) may be able to help bridge some of these ethnic cleavages, and do what the mad/imperialistic/dash/scramble for Africa failed to do; nation build.
Last night I was laying in my bed listening to the BBC on the radio. In between tossing and turning, my interest piqued in the broadcast as they were covering Ghana's win at the Under 20 World Cup Match over Brazil. It was hard to make out the conversations between the BBC news correspondent and the Ghanaian football fans, being drowned out by the madness that ensued after Ghana’s triumphant win against the legendary football team that is Brazil, but what I did hear over and over again was a pride in not any particular ethnic group, but in Ghana. One over jubilant fan poignantly shouted that Ghana was often considered the Brazil of Africa, but now Brazil is considered the Ghana of South America.