African soccerscapes

Peter Alegi

"From Accra and Algiers to Zanzibar and Zululand, Africans have wrested control of soccer from the hands of Europeans, and through the rise of different playing styles, the rituals of spectatorship, and the presence of magicians and healers, have turned soccer into a distinctively African activity." "African Soccerscapes explores how Africans adopted soccer for their own reasons and on their own terms. Soccer was a rare form of "national culture" in postcolonial Africa, where soccer stadiums and clubhouses became arenas in which Africans challenged colonial power and expressed a commitment to racial equality and self-determination. New nations staged matches as part of their independence celebrations and joined the world body, FIFA. The Confederation africaine de football democratized the global game through antiapartheid sanctions and increased the number of African teams in the...