Soccer is the game that allows fans to forget their troubles and domestic differences and come together for a few hours, where their hopes and dreams, joy and despair, are shared as one.
This happens in every corner of the globe, but across vast swathes of Africa, where daily life can be so hard for hundreds of millions of people and where their international footprint in politics, economics and other sports is often limited, it can seem more amplified, more visceral, even more meaningful.
The Cup of Nations has long been the touchstone for all this emotion and now, expanded to 24 teams and moved to a new mid-year slot in the calendar, it has touched ever more people. Unlike the World Cup, which has been dominated by a small group and won by only eight countries, there have been 14 different Cup of Nations winners, and six countries to reach the final.
INCREDIBLE EGYPTIAN ADVENTURE
That means that players and fans from all over the continent approach it with high expectations - whatever their pedigree.
Five years ago Madagascar trailed 187th out of 211 in the Fifa rankings and had virtually no domestic soccer infrastructure. Yet not only did they qualify for this year's tournament, they advanced through the group phase, stunning Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo to reach the quarterfinals, where they lost to Tunisia.
"When we came here nobody took us seriously, but we believed in ourselves," midfielder Anicet Abel said. "Madagascar is not famous in football, I think Madagascar is only famous for the movie."
It is also worth remembering that Madagascar, "tiny" in football terms, has a population of more than 25million, who were united as one in watching their team's incredible Egyptian adventure.
OUTPOURING OF JOY
Mauritania and Burundi also played in the tournament for the first time, causing huge excitement as fans gathered together to huddle around TVs on the streets and in bars and mirroring the experience enjoyed in dozens of other African nations over the decades.
Reuters spent the past month capturing those unforgettable community moments when a goal goes in, the outpouring of joy for the scorers in one country and the concomitant agony, perhaps thousands of kilometres away, for those conceding.
The images above tell their own story of that moment in time, but the supporters have also been keen to explain why the goals and the game itself means so much to them.
l "Football is part of us - Algeria is a football nation. There is not a single day where we don't watch a football game at home; national or international ones." - Sarah, 20, Algeria fan.
l "When our national team plays, I support them all the way with all my strength. When we win we start singing and kissing. That's proof that football brings community together." - Abdul Latif, 23, Ghana fan.
l"It's a passion and for Senegal, having never won the cup and being in the final. I say thanks to Afcon for giving us the opportunity to come together because it's very rare to see such a mobilisation." Malick Sa, Senegal fan.
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