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Whichever country captures the African Cup of Nations in Libreville, Gabon, this weekend, the human story will be remarkable, even by African standards.

If Zambia, the complete outsider for this tournament, were to win the final Sunday, it would feel like something supernatural, something that was meant to be. For it was the very coastline where, 19 years ago, Zambia lost almost its entire national team when the military plane in which they were traveling went down in the sea.

There were no survivors. Only Kalusha Bwalya, a Zambian employed in the Netherlands and thus making his own way to that intended match, was left of the Zambian stars of that day. Yet somehow, the country found replacements to go all the way to the next African Cup in 1994, though it lost 2-1 to Nigeria on the big night.

Taking the current players to Libreville, joining them on a...

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