Okwonfor with his two guinea fowls at the Ohene Djan stadium during the AFCON 2008 opening match between Ghana and Guinea. | image source: guardian.com
The African Cup of Nations or the African World Cup if you like will be with us again in a few days time and today being a Friday, what better way to keep up with the #FlashbackFriday theme than a trip down memory lane to Ghana 2008.
If anything, I wish AFCON 2015 will be as entertaining as AFCON 2008 was and with that, today will mark the beginning of my recollections of AFCON 2008. I have so many memories of that AFCON since it is one that I enjoyed following and it is my hope that the memories of Ghana 2008 will warm you up well for AFCON 2015.
The Marhaba may not be colourful a ball as the Wawa Aba was but hopefully it can produce close or even more than the 99 goals that the Wawa Aba treated us to.
Dressed in a green robe, a Mount Everest-size turban which was in the colours of Ghana's national flag and some beaded necklaces, Okwonfor was an oracle as well as the unofficial tournament mascot.
Until Ghana's 1-0 semifinal loss to Cameroon, the Black Stars scored as many goals as the number of birds he carried to the stadium in which they played. In Ghana's opening match against Guinea he carried two guinea fowls and they won 2-1. In their second match against Namibia, which Ghana won 1-0, he carried an eagle. He erased any doubt of luck and coincidence playing a part in his "game" when he carried two guinea fowls to the stadium to watch Ghana defeat Morocco 2-0 in their final group game. For the quarterfinal match against Nigeria which the Black Stars came out 2-1 winners, he had a guinea fowl and an eagle.
Perhaps the reason why his tricks did not work against the Cameroonians in the semi-finals is because his use of voodoo to support the Black Stars was inspired by the Cameroon team of 1990 who had, according to him in an interview with postnewsline.com, a witchdoctor whose rituals and incantations helped the Indomitable Lions reach the quarterfinals of that year's World Cup which was held in Italy. You can not fight fire with fire it seems or should we say, the student was not still up to the master's standards.
If Marhaba and Wawa Aba rhyming is anything to go by, then hopefully we may be in for a goal fest in AFCON 2015.