THE SOJOURNER: Cheering with Vodka France’s World Cup glowing glory

People celebrate with French football player Antoine Griezmann in his hometown of Macon, eastern France, on July 20, 2018, after France won the Russia 2018 World Cup final football match. 
PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

What you need to know:

Millions of Africans joined the French in celebrating the emphatic win of the Le Bleus, 4-2, against Croatia, and thus getting crowned as the new Kings of global football.

Naturally, I was one of the billions of members of the human species who sat glued to the now popular LG TV screens to watch that dramatic final match in Moscow between the tiny Croatia and the mighty France.

Under normal circumstances I, and many other Bongolanders, could have been cheering on the tiny Croatia, being the David against the mighty France, the Goliath. But not in this case. This was on account of the very visible fact that six or seven members of the French national team had their origins from mother Africa, in places like Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and the like.

And remember our very own African teams – Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco, had performed dismally at the World Cup tournament and were bundled out in the very first round. Therefore we were now orphans.

Naturally most other Africans had to embrace Plan B, and that is root for and support teams with noticeable African blood, at the head of which was France.

No wonder millions of Africans joined the French in celebrating the emphatic win of the Le Bleus, 4-2, against Croatia, and thus getting crowned as the new Kings of global football. I did the same. I remember downing some generous amounts of neat Scotch whisky at my neighbourhood pub, the 100 per cent joint in Njiro, in the suburbs of Arusha.

It was while watering my now bloated figure that Russian memories of yonder years came flowing back. I recall it was in the 80s when I found myself landing at the Moscow Sheremetyevo International airport for a two week study tour in the then Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).

Flying by the then regular Russian airline, Aeroflot, from the hot and humid Dar es Salaam to the wintry, icy and sub-zero degrees Moscow was quite a chilly experience. But as soon as I walked into the imposing Ukraine Hotel, in downtown Moscow, I learnt my first Russian words –‘ Piva Pashavski’, and, ‘Nyet’ – that are ‘Beer please’ and ‘No’.

Unfortunately the Russian beer, by then, was nothing to talk about. But I soon learnt to enjoy their many varieties of what seems to be their national drink – the Vodka. Memorable visits to the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and Moscow Circus are some of the unforgettable experiences I still cherish to date of that city.

A few days later we were off to another city, which also played host to this year’s World Cup tournament, Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. A city in southwest Russia, on the western bank of the Volga River.

This was another memorable visit, because this city was the site of the famous WWII’s Battle of Stalingrad, commemorated by a towering huge statue, ‘The Motherland Calls’, which is part of the hilltop Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex. We toured this complex and learnt of the horrors and sacrifices made during that war.

We went on to visit Tiblis and Batumi in the now Georgia Republic , near the border with Turkey. We were shocked to learn that most Batumis would greet each other ‘Salaam Aleikum’, in the then Georgia which was by then still part of the USSR. But then that is a story for another day.

In a nutshell I ended up mastering the art of drinking Vodka. No wonder as I celebrated the Le Bleus victory in Moscow and as they lifted that famous Cup in rainy Moscow I ordered a double Vodka to wash down this global experience.

Uncharacteristically I have to applaud Putin for staging a very successful tournament in Russia. No wonder, a few days after this event he was seen domineering Donald Trump, the US President during their summit in Helsinki. He had it in him.