“God is Ivorian”, chant Ivory Coast supporters before the final against Nigeria

Ivory Coast qualified for the final of “its” African Football Cup of Nations (CAN) by dominating the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 1-0, Wednesday February 7 in Abidjan. On Sunday, the Elephants will face Nigeria for victory. In a very religious country, many people saw it as a divine will.

Wednesday, as soon as we left our hotel, an elderly lady, an Elephants jersey on her back, addressed us to explain that Côte d’Ivoire was going to win against the DRC because “God is Ivorian”. The discussion continued for a while: “You can’t say the opposite, it’s obvious! You saw clearly: God saved us. He made Morocco win so that we could go to the round of 16, he gave us Senegal, then he gave us made it possible to overthrow Mali”. And now, Madam, what will happen?

“It’s simple, God will give us the strength to beat the DRC and we will win this CAN.”

A supporter of the “Elephants”

at franceinfo

This exchange is just one example among dozens of what the Ivorians have told us since the quarter-finals. Muslims or Catholics, in a beautiful ecumenism, they are generally convinced of playing under divine protection. The problem, if there is one, is that their opponents in the evening were just as convinced of it.

A prayer by FaceTime

Arriving at the Alassane Ouattara stadium, well near the stadium rather, because the security perimeter was so important that we had to be dropped off very far from the enclosure. When we arrived 3 kilometers from the stadium, we had to start walking. The sun and the humidity of the air forced us to take a break in a nearby hotel-restaurant to regain some strength.

Luckily, the establishment was literally full of Congolese journalists with whom we obviously spoke. From the match, first of all, then from Chancel Mbemba, when they understood that Marseille was our favorite club, then from the good Lord, very quickly: our new journalist friends explained to us that in a few minutes, they were going to have to tell us leave because they had an appointment with a Congolese pastor for a collective prayer. Naively, we then thought that the said pastor was also a resident of the hotel. But after checking, the man of the Church was in Kinshasa, and the prayer was going to take place by FaceTime. So we slipped away, leaving them all, sitting around a telephone, hands clasped, and collected.

“God is here!”

We arrived at the stadium a little sweaty, but absolutely convinced that our mystical adventures would continue. And there was no shortage of it! Throughout the match, our neighbors in the stands did not stop imploring God, calling Him to witness, or more prosaically asking Him for explanations when, for example, Sébastien Haller missed a lob or placed a header side. But shortly after the hour mark, when this same Haller missed a volley which nevertheless ended in the Congolese goal, the divine left the heads, to give way to a sort of collective hysteria, noisy, but extremely playful.

God only returned to the Ébimpé stadium at the final whistle, when the Ivorians were certain of being able to claim victory. At that moment, all the Elephants supporters wanted to thank God. In the corridors, some rolled their eyes to heaven, while others took out their prayer books and showed them to us, shouting. “God is here!”when the rare Congolese we crossed explained to us that the DRC had “missed his match”without invoking the impotence of the heavens, the Orange repeated over and over again “God is Ivorian”. They were convinced of it. Also convinced that the Almighty has never been interested in Nigeria.