LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Zambians poured out of their houses, clubs and bars to celebrate in the streets early Monday after watching their team beat Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in the African Cup finals.
It was a bittersweet victory in Libreville, Gabon. Last week after arriving for the finals, Zambia's current players laid flowers on a stretch of sand in Libreville not far from where a Zambian military plane crashed into the ocean soon after takeoff in 1993, killing 25 players and officials on board as well as a state news agency sports reporter and the military transport plane's crew.
Back in 1993, state broadcasters interrupted normal programming to announce the crash in the eight languages spoken in Zambia. In Lusaka, the capital, men and women wept in offices and on the streets.
On Monday, there were only cheers."It is a dream come true," said David Phiri, a plumber. Then he blew hard on his vuvuzela, the piercing trumpet heard around the world during broadcasts from the World Cup in neighboring South Africa in 2010.
Jubilant Zambians also honked the horns of cars draped in their flag, shouted from windows, and sang football songs.
"It was written in the stars that we will be the champions," Winfreda Muyunda said breathlessly as she ran out to join a street party that had converged in front of a Lusaka police station. Some women were in their night gowns covered by traditional cotton wrappers known as chitenge, while most men and boys were shirtless
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