Our Great Sports Victory

"We will show on Friday that the gods of Atakumba and Basabasa exist and that they are as strong as the Devil if not stronger." These threatening words were said by a friend of mine when I met him a few days before the final of the Inter-School Football Competition scheduled for the Kumasi Sports Stadium on Friday, the 13th of December, 1985. In short, he was an Upper Sixth former at Kumasi High School, and he was very confident that in that match which was between Prempeh and Kumasi High, Prempeh was going to lose heavily.

"Rosa," he continued, if we beat you by less than four goals to nil I will commit suicide." That was my friend from KUHIS shouting at the top of his voice. "Joe, Prempeh has no god to go to but I assure you that in the name of the Almighty God we will beat you," I said in an uncertain manner. We argued for a long time before we agreed to let Friday decide the fate of the match.

The words of Joe troubled me as I slept that night but I consoled myself that with God all things are possible. I became confident when two days before the match our Headmaster called the players of our team during the morning worship and prayed for them in the name of God. "We are going to win the match in the name of God," he said.

The day finally came and fortunately I went to Kumasi Sports Stadium with Joe who was bursting with confidence. The sun was bright and the attendance was very encouraging. At about 3:30 p.m there was a low shout from Joe, who was sitting on my left, as the players of Kumasi High School led by John Osei of Young Kotoko, came trotting to the field. Prempeh followed shortly afterwards and as all the pre-match formalities had been completed in the dressing room the match started shortly after the appearance of the two teams.

The match started on a fast note and it took the Prempeh lads only two minutes to convince the large crowd most of whom had pinned their faith on KUHIS beating Prempeh. Joe was still confident that they were going to win but became a little uneasy when the youthful Prempeh team sttarted making sporadic incursions into the vital area of KUHIS who were now chasing their shadows. The first half ended with no goal being scored. After the first half I asked Joe for his comments on the match. He stated that though he has been shocked by the performance of our players, that was not going to stop Basabasa from giving them the goals.

The second half started with the KUHIS supporters singing their war songs to encourage their players whilst students of Prempeh started singing Christian hymns. One could hear "tell me the old, old story" from the Prempeh boys and "Prempeh will die today" from the KUHIS supporters. It was truly the gods against God. Both sides were confident but after two blinding shots by the KUHIS centre forward had hit the post and rebound into play the KUHIS players became apprehensive and started committing some elementary mistakes. In the 58th minute a beautiful inswinger from Abu found Mayele who relayed it to Captain Obu, who in turn swerved a defender and gave Fred Appiah a short pass. Appiah standing in the danger zone of KUHIS let go a non drop sizzler to which the KUHIS goalkeeper had no answer. The goal was indeed graphic.

The Prempeh students started jubilating but I could not join since my friend Joe was sweating profusely apparently from fever. Despite the spirited attempts made by the forwards of KUHIS to redeem the goal, Prempeh stood still until the final whistle went for the end of the match. Prempeh had won by a lone goal. "There is no juju, no god is powerful. They are powerless," lamented Joe after the match. "Joe, your gods may be powerful but they were just unlucky that they came face to face with God today and that was too bad for them," I teased. Another KUHIS fan who was following us overheard what I said and asked "so you mean to say that is why you won?" I told him that the only juju we had was Almighty God of Israel who created the mallam who gave the juju.

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