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US-based South African comedian Trevor Noah has become involved in a spat with the French ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, over the identity of the French football team which won the World Cup.
Noah said he received a letter from Mr Araud after joking on his The Daily Show that “Africa won the World Cup”.
Mr Araud wrote that “nothing could be less true”. The “great majority” of the players were born and educated in France, and were “proud of their country – France”.
“The rich and various background of the players is a reflection of France’s diversity,” Noah quoted Mr Araud as saying, before quipping that it was in fact a reflection of France’s “colonialism”.
Mr Araud said that France, unlike the US, did not believe in “hyphenated” identities.
“By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness,” Mr Araud said in the letter posted on Twitter by the French embassy:
In his response, Noah said that black people “all over the world were celebrating the Africanness of the French team – not in a negative way but in a rather positive way”.—BBC Africa
Online Reporter