Et si nous étions tous des Pape Thiaw ? (Par Ousmane Fall BATORA)
With every defeat, Senegal looks for someone to blame. After the Lions' elimination against the In Belgium, the culprit had a name: Pape Thiaw. Within hours, the coach was it has become the symbol of all our frustrations, as if one man alone could, to explain the boundaries of an entire nation.
But one question has haunted me since that defeat: what if, deep down, we were all... Pope
Thiaw?
I am not trying to defend or condemn the coach. My point is elsewhere. Because A national team never falls from the sky. It is the product of a society, of its football's strengths as well as its weaknesses. Football doesn't create our contradictions; it reveals them. reveals. We have developed a strange reflex: that of seeking, with every difficulty, a External explanation. The referee, the coach, bad luck, fate… We rarely Let's agree to look at our own reflection.
Even before the big events, social media is flooded with videos influencers or self-proclaimed spiritual healers promising to mystically "reach" the players opponents. Whether it's Michael Olise, Kylian Mbappé, or someone else, some claim to be able to change the outcome of a match using invisible forces. Thousands of People believe it. This phenomenon might be amusing if it weren't a symptom of a deeper reality: we sometimes have more faith in the unseen than in work. Our The relationship to the past tells the same story.
Because Kalidou Coulibaly, Sadio Mané and Idrissa Gana Guèye have given so much to Senegal, we find it difficult to look at them with the coldness that high art sometimes demands Competition. We confuse recognition with clarity. We sometimes continue to judge. men in the light of what they were rather than what they have become.
Yes, they have given so much to Senegal, but if we sometimes confuse gratitude and In the absence of clarity, emotion will then replace analysis.
I have often been fascinated by the commercial genius of the Senegalese. At the Sandaga market, after During my baccalaureate studies, I met men who came from nothing, capable of building a heritage through the sheer force of their courage. But I also observed a phenomenon Recurring: once the house is built, the car bought, and the comforts are in place, Many stop building. As if success consisted of escaping poverty, and not of to build a work that will outlive us. Here again, football is like us: we We know how to reach the top, but we struggle to stay there. Like when we were leading by two goals. to 0.
We sometimes admire fortunes without questioning the wealth actually created. We are a people who know how to conquer. We still struggle to endure. We celebrate victories seen as end points when they should be starting points. At the same time, social media provides a platform for individuals who claim curing all sorts of serious illnesses without any scientific evidence. Others promise to bring back a spouse thanks to the "nob", as if human feelings could be manipulated at will through occult practices. Even more worrying, these speeches find an audience. Like those who believed in the success of this federation, who put on the bench touches people like Mady Touré of Génération Foot, Saer Seck of Jambaar, etc., people who have proven themselves in local football.
Conversely, researchers, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and all those Those who patiently build the country through their work often remain in the shadows.
We have many contradictions. We are quick to become indignant when an individual damages someone else's honor, but we sometimes seem less demanding when it comes to Scams that ruin entire families.
It was in Senegal that I saw that one can Imprisoned for a public insult, but let you go free if you scam people tens of millions of honest citizens because it's a civil matter. We let us demand excellence for our own children, while accepting that, in part, In Senegal, the establishment of new public schools remains severely restricted, while that private establishments are present there.
As if a quality education should depending on the financial means of families rather than being a guaranteed right for each child. We invoke the national interest in our speeches, but our decisions remain still too often guided by our religious, fraternal, and ethnic affiliations,
family or political.
That's why I say we might all be Pape Thiaw. Senegal possesses Yet we have everything we need to succeed. What we lack is not potential, but a permanent culture of high standards. The day we value competence more that relationships, work, shortcuts, and the general interest that With our particular affiliations, our victories will no longer be accidents. They will become a habit. Pape Thiaw may not be the real subject of this article. He is simply The pretext. Because tomorrow, another coach will arrive. Then another. We We will continue to change men if we refuse to change our habits.
A nation does not progress because it finds better scapegoats. It progresses. when it becomes capable of producing better citizens.
So yes, the real question is not whether Pape Thiaw was the man of the situation.
The real question is this: are we, each in our own place, up to the task? The Senegal we dream of building? The real question is this: are we have they finally become the people we expected of them?
OUSMANE FALL BATORA
Trader at the Sandaga market ousmaness@icloud.com
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