Football, like music, is an art form that transcends boundaries, dissolving the barriers of culture, age, race, and tribe, Soccernet.ng reports.
It came across as no surprise, really, when the entire African continent bashed Jamie Carragher’s comments about the AFCON tournament not being enough for Mo Salah to seal a Ballon d’Or campaign.
The French award would eventually go to Ousmane Dembele, although the Egyptian has been nominated for the CAF 2025 POTY award.
However, football isn’t just a sport in Africa. It’s a culture, a way of life, a rhythm, a common language, and a heartbeat that pulses through the continent’s collective identity.
For Nigeria, a nation still healing from the scars of a civil war that ended more than half a century ago, something remarkable happens whenever the Super Eagles walk out in their green and white.
In that moment, the country forgets its divisions, strife and even economic problems, as the beautiful game provides a cop-out for ninety minutes.
During the AFCON 2023 final, I was at a watch party, and saw several people who bashed the Nigerian players for their not-so-convincing display en route to the final fix their gaze on the screens before Ivory Coast crushed their hopes. Only then did everyone remember a dollar had hit ₦1350, a hard reset to reality.
How African Fans Celebrate AFCON
However, his phenomenon isn’t unique to Nigeria. Across Africa, the AFCON transforms ordinary people into artists of passion.
As the 24 qualified nations gather, AFCON becomes more than a football tournament; it turns into a continental carnival, as described by a colleague.
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“Cross-cultural fan celebration at AFCON is always fascinating,” says Nigerian sports journalist Toyosi Afolayan.
“You see football become a full cultural parade. Colours, costumes, drums, dances, the whole identity of a nation on display. Rivalries are real, but the atmosphere is more ‘we are Africa’ than ‘us vs them.’
He’s right, you know. The AFCON is where football and culture collide, and the noise is only at its peak in the stadiums. Across the streets, in the malls, even in houses, and on social media, the joy permeates.
West Africans, the colours, and the drums
The football isn’t just watched, it’s lived. West Africa, home to giants like Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Ivory Coast, celebrates with unmatched intensity in a seemingly similar fashion.
In the Stadiums, fans come out repping their national team colours en masse. They also come dancing, beating drums and playing wind instruments.
You’d hear chants like ‘over the bar’ whenever an opponent attempts to shoot on goal, while it switches to ‘inside the net’ when it’s their turn to conjure an attempt, but there’s a slight difference across generations.
“The older fans are calmer,” says Michael Adegbile, a Nigerian journalist who’s been to multiple continental competitions.
“They’ll sit, shake their heads, and complain that today’s players can’t match the old greats, but the younger ones live for the moment. They’re loud, online, and always ready for banter.”
On social media, X, especially (formerly called Twitter), Nigerian and Ghanaian fans engage in playful wars of memes and slang, reviving decades of the Jollof rivalry. Yet, when either team faces a non-African opponent, the same fans unite behind the continent’s pride, like during the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay.
During AFCON 2023 in Abidjan, Ghanaian fans arrived in matching kente outfits, carrying drums and trumpets. When Mohammed Kudus scored, he sprinted to the stands, celebrating in unison with the supporters’ club.
Even the little Yoruba community in Abidjan celebrated and cheered the Nigerian team whenever the Ivorians weren’t in action, all the way up until the final.
Cape Verde’s fans brought their own charm too, alongside their very beautiful women. Their tiny island nation may not have the population of Nigeria or Ghana, but they radiate flair flags wrapped around waists while cheering their team.
Cape Verde thrilled us both on the pitch and off it.
Enjoy a fan cam of the finest Cape Verdean ladies at the #AFCON2023 #AFCONonGTVSports pic.twitter.com/lm0MvUbM2W
— GTV SPORTS+ (@mygtvsports) February 4, 2024
And then there’s Ivory Coast, a country that breathes football. In 2023, a local dance called Coup du Marteau swept through Abidjan just before the tournament. It quickly became AFCON’s unofficial soundtrack. Each time the Elephants scored, the song blasted through streets and bars, fans hammering the air in rhythm.
Even at halftime, when the stadium camera panned across the crowd, Ivorians danced with reckless abandon.
“Ivorians might love football more than Nigerians,” mentioned Soccernet’s Chief Editor, Ayomide Oguntimehin.
North Africa
If West Africa gives you rhythm and noise, North Africa gives you a charade of colours. They’re also known for smoke flares and laser shows, which might sometimes be uncomfortable.
In Rabat, fans often chant ‘Dima Maghrib‘which translates to Long Live Morocco. Their celebrations are deeply communal and emotional, but also very structured. They also banter in Arabic.
East Africa
East Africa’s footballing history may not shine with as many AFCON trophies, but their fan culture isn’t all bad.
When Tanzania’s Taifa Stars returned to the AFCON stage in 2019, Dar es Salaam turned into one long carnival. Streets flooded with fans waving the blue and yellow flag, motorbikes trailing ribbons, and drums beating from sunrise to midnight, as they supposedly thanked the God of football for qualification.
South Africa
Southern Africa’s celebrations are dominated by sound, especially one sound: the vuvuzela. Ever since the 2010 World Cup, Bafana Bafana fans have claimed the plastic horn as a cultural export.
The fan culture borrows from the country’s musical diversity. Supporters mix Zulu dances, gospel choruses, and Kwaito beats. The atmosphere is part church, part concert. Bright coloured-wigs, and oversized sunglasses are synonymous with the 2010 World Cup holders.
Zimbabwe and Zambia add their own spin. Zambian fans, still nostalgic after their heroic 2012 AFCON triumph, march with replicas of the trophy.
Diaspora Celebrations
AFCON’s reach extends far beyond the continent. In London, Paris, Toronto, Berlin and even America, African expatriates gather in bars, cultural centres, and living rooms to cheer for their home teams.
Online, the celebration continues. Hashtags trend in multiple languages, memes fly across borders, and TikTok become a digital fanzone, especially in the 2023 edition, as the competition hit over a billion views for their very first time.
Beyond the noise and colour, there’s a deeper story as AFCON unites Africans as a people, on one ground that no other has achieved in history, as everyone has a shared sense of African identity, a clinging of belonging.
The competition creates a platform for nations to collectively argue, laugh, cry, and forgive through football.
Many journalists who’ve covered the tournament describe it as a lesson in unity. You arrive as a reporter, but you leave as a renowned African, a proper one who’s left the borders of their countries, and seen the other side, and then realised that we’re all the same.
Every edition of AFCON tells new stories, but one truth remains constant: Africans don’t just watch football; they feel it.
So maybe when Beautiful Nubia wrote seven lifes, detailing the journey of being a proud African child, he had the Unity of AFCON in mind.