Africa: Beijing Olympics: I think Burundi did it wrong.
8 August Friday night Beijing time was as you already know a great day for the whole world and Chinese people in particular. Chinese demonstrated to the whole world what they are able to through the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Not many people think that either England or its former colony South Africa will make a comparable party to the world in 2010 and 2012 respectively. We may have to wait for more decades to see, not an event of the kind but an event of the same or comparable taste.
I was watching the ceremonies with other many Burundians and friends mainly Africans at Nanjing. Only Burundian girls seemed to have deserted the city. Every body was cheering Zhong guo jia you and Qind dao beer was of course present at the party as always. We were waiting to see the team representing the country of Runyonga: Burundi and its President Nkurunziza Pierre could be seen siting beside other many head of states.
Unlike Burundi which had just 2 girls and one guy representing him, big nations like USA were represented by a huge number of people and hailed from wherever in the stadium.
It was a time for all nations especially the small ones with less world wide reputation like Burundi to say: Hail , I m here, I do exist, this is how I look like, common look at me and see how I m beautiful, this is my flag . No much time to say how good is the economy, how many inhabitants in the country,how long is the history, how good at football is the President or the date of independence and whatever you would say when introducing one’s country.
What would you do if you are to introduce yourself or your friend to a such huge number of people without saying even one word ? You want them to know not as much as they can from you but only the best and in few minutes without speaking ?
It’s hard I can imagine and it’s even harder when introducing the whole country. Big well known countries just need to demonstrate their power to maintain their reputation but for some countries it’s just a moment to say they exist and try to give a better image to the world.
The Burundi team seemed to have experienced difficulties or if I can be specific they got it wrong: they walked barefooted and dressed in old traditional way to mean I don’t know what. Something you will see no where but in traditional dances. The costume of the guy on the picture above is for dancers INTORE and it’s used only when dancing. Don’t expect to see Burundian dressed in such way on your trip to the most beautiful mountainous country of Africa. I won’t say any thing about the girls, the world most beautiful ever in the world but unfortunately it’s not easy to see trough the picture.
Especially in Asia, where not few people still believe that in Africa we live on the trees, a such way of dressing give a wrong impression. It does in any how give a good image to the country. I m happy that all other African countries have already understood that. See some teams pictures:
I said Burundi got it wrong because it wasn’t a moment to show how a country is or used to be. It wasn’t about the history but the best about ourselves or what we would like to be. The rest should be kept at museum or for traditional performances. I m not saying that we should hide from the world that we used to make clothes from trees ( UMUMANDA) and not from cotton before the the Germans invaded us, I want to say that “when at Rome do as Romans do”.
Daniel