To my close friends, I am known as a die-hard supporter of Tanzania’s soccer giants, Dar es Salaam Young Africans—popularly called Yanga. The evidence is plain: I often sport the Yanga jersey, especially during a winning streak and never miss a chance to poke fun at archrivals Simba Sports Club. I have even proposed (and still firmly believe) that the Tanzania Football Federation should impose a five-year break to give other teams time to become worthy challengers to Yanga.
The truth is, I’m an even bigger supporter of the national team, Taifa Stars. That’s why it may sound odd that I’m actually relieved both Kenya’s and Tanzania’s teams were knocked out of the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN). At least the noise level has dropped.
While still in the tournament, Tanzanian and Kenyan fans were among the loudest and most boisterous—against rival teams, but especially against each other. If words alone counted as goals and CHAN were the World Cup, Harambee Stars and Taifa Stars would have easily met in the final.
Though placed in different groups, the rivalry was already heating up despite the two never facing each other. Tanzania topped its group with three wins over Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Madagascar, plus a draw with the Central African Republic. Kenya, for its part, advanced with victories over the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco and Zambia, along with a draw against Angola.
Recent off-the-field incidents have pushed tensions between Tanzanians and Kenyans beyond the usual neighbourly disagreements, spilling into shouting matches, name-calling, and the harshest of insults. Had either team advanced past the knockout stage, the exchanges would have continued and had one reached the finals and lifted the trophy, the hostility might have reached its peak.
We often remind ourselves that it’s only a game, yet the mix of patriotism and sports fanaticism can be volatile. That’s why so many runners-up, while receiving their medals, are overcome with emotion and reduced to tears. But it can escalate further. When Honduras lost 2–3 to El Salvador in a World Cup qualifier in June 1969, the result ignited riots and violence, eventually sparking El Salvador’s military invasion of Honduras and leaving several thousand dead.
Could such a scenario unfold between Kenya and Tanzania? We cannot say for sure but what we do know is that in 1968 no one imagined two nations would one day go to war over a soccer match.
What is clear for now is that the noise levels in both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam have finally dropped to something more bearable.
