Black stars shining bright

Editor's note: Here is a report that chronicles the mood in Accra, Ghana's capital after Black Stars exited from the World Cup.
By Sarah Left in Guardin blog
You might think Ghanaians would be feeling crushed at this point.
But around 10 angry, spitting, headshaking minutes after the final whistle, a horn-honking, flag-waving, hand-clapping parade started down one of Accra's main streets.
This was not the huge, joyful party of last Thursday, when Ghana fought their way into the final 16. This was a much smaller affair fuelled by a beautiful, defiant pride.
And a good dose of anger. As I walked from a bar in the trendy drinking district of Osu and up the main street to an internet cafe, Ghanaian fans called out, "Journalist! Journalist! Come write this down. That was OFFSIDE!"
The angry fans meant not just the second goal, but all three. There was detailed discussion of Ronaldo's position before he nailed home a goal in the fifth minute. Ghanaians feel cheated by Slovakian referee Lubos Michel, who I hope wasn't planning a holiday anywhere on the African continent in the near future.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Yesterday the country's bestselling newspaper, the Daily Graphic, warned that Ghana's opponents "may resort to weaken Ghana's Black Stars before the kick-off by unleashing beautiful Brazilian women sex workers around the Stars' camp at night."
Inside Duncan's bar, a group of three riled, yet characteristically cordial, Ghanaians summed it up: "The whites don't like the blacks." (I'll point out here that I'm of a deathly pale persuasion myself, and they were not directing any of their ire my way. Frankly they seemed ready to buy me a beer and explain the offside rule to me.)
"The referee was biased against us. The yellow cards prevented the Black Stars from coming up with their game plan. If they attack, the referee would give them a card," said Soloman Laar. "And that red card [against Asamoah Gyan, for diving] was questionable. They were protecting the Brazilians," added Henry Brown.
Outside the bar, a severely disappointed Kodjo Odum seethed: "Always whites put the African under. If we are able to get on top, they will stop you."
But his friend, Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, intervened with a clear-headed assessment: "It's cool. It was very okay. Some of the decisions taken by the referee weren't in favour of us. But in terms of performance, if you look at the statistics, we played better than Brazil. And I know that next time we will do better."
And that's where the pride comes in, because everyone, from the near-naked man in pink ladies' knickers bodypainted with "Brazil go home" to the market woman selling pineapples on the high street, agreed that their boys had played well, had done their best, and had represented the country and the continent with style and skill.
In the only previous Ghana v Brazil match-up, a 1996 friendly, the Brazilians thrashed the Ghanaians 8-2. Today's performance was a world away from that debacle, and with seemingly the whole of Accra's citizens wrapped in flag capes, flag hats, flag miniskirts and flag facepaint, the country feels pretty good about itself.
The Daily Graphic today led with Ghanaian poet Atukwei Okai's ode to the Black Stars, a hymn praising the team and its importance to Africa. He lauded coach Ratomir Dujkovic as
"a divine wizard and heavenly witch/
A Serbian soothsayer sent from above"."
Storming Captain Stephen Appiah/
like an assegail wielding millennium Masai, will appear/
And swing into the eye of the suffocating soccer sandstorm," the poem continued.
When the Black Stars come home, they will be greeted as heroes, returning to a country at least temporarily rejuvenated by their successes.
Under the circumstances, they couldn't have hoped for a better outcome.