Julian Drew Soccer
George Castador’s little establishment near the central market in Pointe Noire was really cooking the night before Congo played South Africa in April. A shebeen on top of one of the single-storey buildings surrounding the market, there was plenty of space to dance to what is one of the best record collections in town.
Brazzaville band Extra Musica were the flavour of the month with an animated ritual of military marching and exaggerated saluting accompanying their song Confirmation. Later in the evening Castador put on an old, crackling record with the more simple guitar melodies of an earlier era.
The response was quite unexpected to the uninitiated observer. The whole place rose as one and sung and danced to Marie-Jeanne by Les Bantous de la Capitale. It is an eminently danceable number in its own right, but in Congo, it came to represent something much more than that.
It was a song that caught the mood of the nation, and in March 1972 the mood of the people was happy. Their beloved Red Devils had just won the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon and Marie-Jeanne just happened to be the right song in the right place at the right time. A humorous love story about a Cameroonian who is searching for Marie- Jeanne, his lost love from Brazzaville, it captured the imagination of the people who immediately christened the cup Marie- Jeanne.
That weekend in Pointe Noire, Marie-Jeanne time appeared to be just around the corner again, and although I never got back to Castador’s place after Machembe Youngha- Mouhani stuck two goals past Andre Arendse, I’m sure the Ngok beer ran out well before dawn and his Marie-Jeanne disc did some serious overtime.
The Congolese certainly had reason to celebrate that night, but they may yet come to regret the methods they used off the field to secure their victory. Their general harassment of Bafana Bafana was not inspired by the spirit of fair play but, that aside, on the pitch both teams faced the same conditions, and there seemed to be an eerie inevitability about the outcome of the game which followed the much-repeated script of the locals as if it was pre- ordained by greater powers.
Since that game the plot in Group 3 of the African World Cup qualifiers has taken a few twists and turns, and when Congo come to Johannesburg at the weekend, the stage is set for the mother of all battles with both sides playing for a place in France.
Thankfully “Congo Fever – The Return” is one health scare for which Health Minister Zuma doesn’t require an Mbongeni Ngema script. All that is needed is 80 000 people with “Township Fever” in FNB stadium on Saturday, and Bafana Bafana will take care of the rest.
Safa chief executive Danny Jordaan is right when he insists that Congo should receive the best hospitality South Africa can offer. The Congolese ambassador may have felt it necessary to give a qualified apology for the way Bafana Bafana were treated in Pointe Noire and the Congo team may now only arrive on the day of the match to combat fears of retribution, but, for South Africa, there is no need to stoop to the same level as their opponents.
The stadium is the only place for Bafana Bafana and their supporters to do their talking, and coach David Memy and his team must be given a welcome they will never forget.
For Lucien Ibarra – the hard man at the back who did a hatchet job on Mark Fish and Jerry Sikhosana – and his team-mates, Sunday is indeed Marie-Jeanne time again. “Quand j’etais avoir peur, mon couer fait un boom, boom, boom,” goes a line in the song. On Sunday it is time to be afraid. It is time for every Congolese heart to go boom, boom, boom.