By the BBC's Ben Dotsei Malor

On a continent where political, religious, and ethnic strife have received a lot of coverage - especially in the international media - soccer provides a welcome respite for many Africans.

And nothing illustrates this better than the Cup of Nations tournament, where ethnic or club rivalries and tensions within nations are forgotten - at least, for the time being - and real sporting passions are expressed to the full.

Two vivid images remain in my mind from my coverage of the 1996 tournament, which was hosted for the first time by South Africa.

Post-apartheid spectacle

The country had emerged from decades of international isolation caused by the racist policies of apartheid and sport was serving as a unifying force among the races.

In fact, apartheid had divided South African sports along racial lines with most whites supporting rugby and cricket, and the majority blacks fervently supporting soccer.

But the 1996 African Cup of Nations provided South Africans with the most mixed-race sports team in the country's history.

It was quite a sight watching the 80,000 strong crowd at the opening game between the host nation and World Cup heroes Cameroon.

Some white South Africans painted their faces in the new national colours of the rainbow nation and joined the majority blacks to cheer the Bafana Bafana (the Boys) to a resounding 3-0 victory over the Indomitable Lions - something quite unusual for most South African whites who considered soccer the "black people's game".

President Mandela, South Africa's first black president, arrived at the stadium wearing the Number 9 jersey of the white captain, Neil Tovey.

There was dancing and singing by fans and schoolchildren as jet planes flew above the stadium streaming smoke in the colours of the South African flag.

It was quite a spectacle!

Families divided

The second scene that sticks in my memory was in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth where I was following the performance of my country's squad, the Ghana Black Stars.

Outside the stadium, I found a group of enthusiastic cheering supporters of the Black Stars.

The talk and animated discussions were not about the game at hand against the then Zaire (Ghana won 1-0) but about the possible semi-final clash between the host nation and the much-fancied Ghanaians.

Something about one of the fans caught my attention ... he didn't look like a travelling supporter, but appeared to be a local.

Approaching him with my microphone, I discovered that he was in fact, a Ghanaian living in South Africa.

More interestingly, he had with him his South African wife, who was backing the host nation to beat Ghana.

But also there was their five-year old son, Kojo, who was caught in the middle with daddy saying Ghana would win and mummy favouring South Africa naturally.

Husband and wife comically threatened each other if their favoured team failed to win.

Within a few minutes, the special case had attracted quite a crowd of soccer fans and someone in the crowd prompted me to ask the young Kojo to be the judge.

The young boy boldly declared that Bafana Bafana would win against the Black Stars, to the cheers of all present.

And how right he was, because, in the semi-finals, the host nation did win.

They almost humiliated the four-times winners, Ghana, with an emphatic 3-0 score-line.

The next morning, I was dragged in front of millions of South Africans, on television, to explain why my national team, the Blacks Stars, had failed so dismally to shine against the Boys.

I offered the lame response that it was good for the tournament that the host nation was doing so well against the favourites. South Africa went on to win that tournament, beating Tunisia 2-0 in the final game.

Cup of Nations 2000 promises to be another delightful feast at the high table of African soccer, co-hosting experimentation notwithstanding.

And for the next few weeks, thousands will be treated to the best in African soccer in the stadiums, and millions will be enjoying it all, not just on the continent but also around the world. You can count on some surprises, both off and on the field of play.

Just enjoy the feast.