My first piece is up at Chimurenga’s Pilgrimages Blog:
“In Port-au-Prince there stands – or at least there stood, before the January 12th earthquake devastated much of the city – a mural depicting four great nationalist heroes of the Caribbean: Toussaint L’ouverture, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Emmanuel Sannon. If you don’t recognize the last name, you are not alone, for Sannon’s presence among this group might at first seem a little odd. He’s not a legendary revolutionary hero, but rather a legendary football player, beloved by Haitians but little known outside the country. Although Sannon had a great professional career in Haiti as both player and coach, he is best remembered for one illuminated moment on the football field. In 1974, Haiti reached the World Cup, for the first and so far only time in its history. In the group phase, Haiti faced Italy, a team against which no side had scored a goal for a long time. Yet, early in the game, Sannon burst forward, taking the Italians by surprise, and slid a beautiful goal into the net.”
Read the rest of this post at Pilgrimages…
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