Goooooooool Cabo Verde!!!

As some of you may know, the Coupe d’Afrique des Nations (Africa Cup of Nations) is the continental soccer tournament of all 54 African countries that is currently being held right now in South Africa. The tournament was first held in 1957 and since then the island nation of Cabo Verde/Cape Verde has never once managed to qualify for the group stages (the final 16) until this past October. Considering they have a population of 501,000 (that’s less people than the city of San Francisco) you could understand the massive disadvantage they have sourcing talent compared to nations like Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, etc and what a huge achievement it was to make the final 16. This past Sunday while facing Angola in their final group match needing a win to avoid going home they were trailing 0-1 with less then 10 minutes left to play. Through a corner kick they drew level and then scored again in extra time for the win and in doing so creating one of the best “Cinderela stories” in all of sports. Nice article here about it.

Bulimundo - Ó Mundo Ka Bu Kába

Bulimundo – Ó Mundo Ka Bu Kába

To celebrate I’m offering up one of my favorite records Ó Mundo Ka Bu Kába by the Cape Verdean group Bulimundo. Oddly their name doesn’t appear anywhere on the their 4th album from 1982. Maybe the designer just forgot? Bulimundo achieved their unique sound by taking traditional music such as Funana, which we featured 3 years ago, and replaced the traditional instrumentation with a that of a funk band. Checkout the amazing title track

Ó Mundo Ka Bu Kába – Bulimundo

Ó Mundo Ka Bu Kába

Fidjus di Funana – Bulimundo

Bulimundo also happen to have made one of my all time favorite African 80s videos, Terra Bufa. The analog video effects used here are better than anything CGI could create.

 

Tomorrow, Saturday February 2 you can count on the entire nation of Cabo Verde along with myself watching their national team take on mighty Ghana. Hopefully we can keep celebrating with more Funana!

~dj pozole