Many have responded angrily to Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s remarks about how soccer could help reduce the shameful incidents of Africans dying in the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe.
His offending remark was: “We need to find ways to include the whole world to give hope to Africans so that they don’t need to cross the Mediterranean to find maybe a better life but, more probably, death in the sea.”
How could he? many exclaimed. We are not objects of pity and, in any case, staging the soccer World Cup every second year will not conceivably keep Africans in Africa. And, says Human Rights Watch, all Africans who risk death in the high seas “never mention the timing of the World Cup tournaments” as a possible disincentive. Using Africa’s misery to justify Fifa’s greed is distasteful in the extreme. Others have said the remarks show just how hopeless the Fifa president is at diversity management, and that he might require some sensitivity training.
In his defence, he resorts to a line mostly abused by politicians: “I was misunderstood.” What he meant, he says, is that “everyone in a decision-making position has a responsibility to help improve the situation of people around the world. If there are more opportunities available, including in Africa ... this should allow people to take these opportunities in their own countries.” Even as he explained, he was castigated as being a xenophobe worried about Africans finding creative but dangerous ways to cross the sea in search of opportunities.
While it’s correct to tell people like these off, this is half the story. In its fullness, this ought to be a story about why we, as Africans, find life unbearable in the land of our birth.
Forget the infantile Infantino; the question is how do we create the life we want for us and our children? How do we stop from being subjects of pity by a greedy lot at Fifa?
Here in SA, the post local government election is about Africans who are in the country illegally. Let’s fix the borders and send everybody back to their own countries, we are told. What is unreasonable, we argue, about insisting that everyone who doesn’t have papers must leave? This too is partly correct.
The truth is that over 1.3-million Africans flee poverty and conflict on the continent, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The International Labour Organisation says migration on the continent is 80% intra-regional, with many searching for labour markets in neighbouring countries.
Just recently, Burkina Faso was the latest to endure a military coup. It is true that a lot of these are instigated by the Global North. Instability enables the illegal exploitation of Africa’s resources to create and sustain economic success elsewhere.
But it is also true that we, as Africans, are dangerously disengaged from governance and political processes that impact the human condition.
We can throw shade and insults at bigots in the world, but we have a responsibility to ourselves. Forget the infantile Infantino; the question is how do we create the life we want for us and our children? How do we stop from being subjects of pity by a greedy lot at Fifa?
To the extent that Africa will get more opportunities to host the soccer World Cup if it’s held biannually, this should be welcomed. We should be able to go to Windhoek or Gaborone to watch the World Cup games in the same way the soccer hooligans of London are able to travel to Barcelona or Paris for games. The conversation we should be having is how frequently Infantino and his Fifa executives believe Africa should be able to host these games. He is right when he says: “We cannot say to the rest of the world give us your money, but watch us on TV. We need to include them.” A firm commitment and not some nebulous promise of inclusion is required. In the end, though, this will not stop the migration of desperate Africans to Europe, but it will stop the silly thing about SA being the only country in Africa to host the world spectacle.
Infantino must indeed be admonished for his unseemly remarks in the same way we must have an honest conversation about how Africa is misled and, importantly, how the billion people on the continent wallow in poverty and misery without organising themselves into a force our leaders can’t ignore.
Where we fail to do this, we will always get the poor leaders we deserve — and probably continue to be witness to our brothers and sisters dying in the Mediterranean in search of a better life many years to come. That is a bigger tragedy than some infantile remarks from the Fifa boss.
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