Basking In Global Rugby Fiesta!

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

Right now, the Rugby World Cup is going on in New Zealand, enthralling many millions around the world. The South Africans largely love the game of Rugby and have been resoundingly backing their national team, the Springboks, to do well at the tournament.

Yes, we know that by and large Rugby is not a popular game in Nigeria; very few are interested in the sport and it has been like that for donkey years. Any Nigerian Rugby squad will struggle to have any sort of sterling followership, this, despite the fact that Rugby is a global sport.

Of course a number of Nigerians brought up, or who have largely lived in European countries like Britain (England, Scotland, Wales...) France, Italy, Ireland, might have some interest in Rugby, or at least observe how the hordes follow such a sport fanatically, yonder. I myself can say on the average, that I am a Rugby follower, though of course football will always occupy the pride of place – time willing, in my old age!

I was however prodded, or reminded, by a number of South Africans as the Rugby fever hit their country, that I had contributed in a bizarre way to even more black people here loving Rugby. This, I have been reminded, was because of my work of fiction, Tebogo and the haka (2008), which has been a hit here. How many times have I been asked why I was inspired to write the book?

It is simple: the traditional New Zealand (Maori) performance of the Haka, has always fascinated me. The All Blacks (the New Zealand team) always perform the Haka before they play anybody, and it can be a breathtaking (initially, rather frightening) performance.

Of course, if it was mainly black people performing an intriguing dance like the Haka, one won’t be surprised. In Nigeria, we have so many intricate arcane, traditional performances, for example those of the egungun/egwugwu (masquerades). The talking drum for example, can do wonders!

But, the New Zealand team is made up mainly of white players; and to see them performing the Haka will always fascinate the world. Poised athletically, fists pumping even clenched; fearsome expressions etched on their faces, the belligerent words of the Haka thundering out of their mouths, and cascading around the stadium…

But then again, we can state that this is, or should be part of the universality of human experience; the human race partaking in a plethora of ancestral, traditional rites, practices, mores worldwide, and basking in the same.

After all, (in parenthesis) why is the western world so fascinated with Chinua Achebe’s books that they read them over and over again, and relish the contents? So many white critics, thanks to the books of the likes of Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ike, John Munonye among others, have become so interested in Igbo culture and language, plus the proverbs that they have managed to build up an impressive vocabulary of their own in this wise.

And I won’t start on how Wole Soyinka via his books shedding light on, and celebrating the Yoruba gods (especially Ogun), fascinate the western world! Ah yes, the universality of human experience.

Let Rugby, with the haka performance, grow by leaps and bounds!