BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Culture diplomacy or soccer diplomacy has won the day in Qatar. Although the Qatari team did not travel long during the month-long event, the organizers have definitely won the other competition, by offering, in the words of FIFA boss Giani Infantino, the best World Cup so far. Western media outlets that tried to tarnish Qatar’s image have been proved wrong. It is now up to them to encourage the organizers of the next World Cup i.e. the US, Canada and Mexico to work harder and give the soccer world the next best World Cup.
Last week in Doha, Qatar, as the World Cup game between Croatia and Morocco for third and fourth place was in the offing, there was a TV show depicting the launching of a fashion show nearby the stadium where the game was taking place. The fashion show was about Qatari couture that reflected its traditional attires for women that have been updated and modernized in order to reflect the present status of Qatar as a highly developed modern Arab country.
Qatar has not only shined by organizing an unprecedentedly high-tech and high standard soccer festival. It has also won the culture diplomacy or the soccer diplomacy by proving that it has organized the best World Cup as many commentators have agreed despite the criticisms and negative propaganda that was evident from the beginning to the end of the once in four years event.
The organizers of the fashion show took traditional costumes and simply gave them modern twists that appeal both to older and younger visitors. There were also jewelries on display that beautifully reflected the traditional materials that were worn by Qatari women when they were not as wealthy as they are now and gave them still more beautiful looks. Why has Qatar displayed its traditional costumes nearby the stadium? The answer is obvious. It wanted to sell its culture to the visitors who came to see soccer at the highest level. There are of course tourists among the throng of people who crowded the venues. How did the Qataris sell their culture? Simply by giving its old traditions new faces without abandoning their Arab and Islamic backgrounds. Whether in the Arab world or in Africa, the approach is similar. Modernization is not about inventing new things out of nothing but rather giving traditions modern touches and presenting them on different occasions. Fashion is culture but most of all it has become an industry in many parts of the world in general and in Africa in particular.
From Paris to New York, where some of the fashion houses produce the most unbelievably stylish designs, African designers have already carved out their niches. The latest brands in design and couture, promote the black and beautiful faces of African young women that are adorning the glossy fashion magazines. The fashion world is breaking old stereotypes that marginalized black or African women who were considered not beautiful enough to work as models in fashion outlets.
These young Africans have broken the stereotypes and have repeatedly featured in beauty contests winning the top spots and, bagging in the meantime fat payments for their courage and efforts. Some of them have even opened their own fashion houses and modeling schools to promote the new fashion wave African women have pioneered only a few decades ago.
Qatar has added a new innovation as far as culture and culture tourism are concerned. The organizers have effectively promoted their country in this sense. Despite the controversies surrounding the Qatar World Cup, the organizing committee has proved its mettle by finishing the preparations on time and by doing an excellent job in all areas of the preparations, including culture, tourism promotion, and by elevating soccer tourism to a new height. More than 1.5 million foreign soccer fans have attended the events in addition of the millions local fans who could attaining a new level of soccer culture.
Soccer diplomacy has proved itself stronger than traditional diplomacy that is often exercised by professional diplomats living in foreign countries where their embassies promote their respective national interests. Soccer diplomacy does not require education, training or being stationed in embassies in different capitals of the world. In soccer diplomacy the actors are the fans and the meeting points are stadiums. You do not send diplomats but diplomats come to you. This was what happened in Qatar. Hundreds of thousands of fans who came to Doha were kind of “mobile diplomats” without knowing they were. They visited Doha, interacted or connected with the people, saw the culture of the country and spoke a few words of Arabic and talked soccer. Brotherhoods, connection, peace and inspiration must be the words most spoken or exchanged among fans from dozens of countries.
These were moments away from the usual gibberish and brutality of world politics. They forgot those brutal moments and turned their eyes and minds towards the most peaceful and most entertaining game on the planet. This was also true to those fans that followed the games on TV screens. They breathed sighs of relief as they turned their attention away from conflict news and were fixated on soccer for a month before returning to the boring and frightening realities of wars and economic hardships. That is why soccer diplomacy and soccer culture gives a positive alternative to bad news and daily boredom for the entire world.
Soccer was not usually the most celebrated sporting event in Arab countries. The fact that Saudi Arabia participated in this tournament and Qatar was the organizing country gave soccer in the Arab world new opportunities for growth and development in the near future. Qatar gave the inspiration not only for a new soccer culture in the Arab world. It also inspired the world an opportunity for connecting and for mutual understanding without compromising its own culture and traditions.
The opening and closing events and the cultural displays in Doha proved this point. It was a display of modern Qatar without compromising its old traditions, religion and social aspirations. Some critics may argue that Qatar built this wonderful World Cup thanks to its foreign technology and the money spent to buy it. It is important to note at this point that even those who have invented the technologies have never managed to organize a World Cup that inspired the world in every way without forgetting once again that the next event will be organized by the US, Canada and Mexico.
What do we Africans can learn from the Doha World Cup as far as Soccer culture or soccer diplomacy is concerned? There are lots of lessons in store for us. First thing, we have managed to shine at this World Cup despite the early exit of teams like Senegal and Ghana. The Moroccans have made us all proud of our soccer performance or culture and gave us a new and solid basis to build our optimism in African football for the coming years and until the next World Cup.
African countries must now believe that they can do it as Morocco has done it through hard work at players and coaches levels. Most of all African players need to get a lot of experience from players in Europe and in other parts of the world. Second, they need to do a lot of inter-continental games in order to discover new talents who can shine on the international stage. FIFA and CAF have a lot of work to do in this area, besides providing the financial, technical and inspirational backing they are expected to give to African players on the continent. World football is changing and Africa has to change accordingly because it has proved in Doha that it can.
As far as selling our culture to the outside world, we Africans have ancient and rich traditions that we need to modernize and offer them to the world. We can learn for instance from the Brazilians who organize carnivals every year to attract the attention of tourists to their country and earn a lot of hard currency in the process. We in Ethiopia, have religious traditions that have earned international recognitions and that we could work harder to put them on the tourism market. Take the soon to come Ethiopian Christmas and Timket in particular.
Take also the Great Ethiopian Run, an annual festival that has started to attract global attention. We can perhaps upgrade it by combining culture events with it as the Qataris have done at the World Cup. These are rare occasions that attract visitors from every corner of the world. Sadly enough, we have not yet fully exploited them to our economic benefits and this is the time to be inspired by the Qataris or the Brazilians to launch an aggressive campaign to reach the global tourism consumer market which is vast and unexploited.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 23 DECEMBER 2022
