In this dossier, a series of football enthusiasts (who also happen to be social and cultural critics), offer their reflections upon the meaning and significance of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Much commentary and controversy has already been generated by this global event, the first World Cup, and indeed the first global sporting event of any significance to be held in "Africa". The specific importance of South Africa as a relatively privileged outpost, what some would describe as an "exceptional" civil and political space on the African continent--lends additional weight and distinctiveness to these reflections. World history from the vantage point of South Africa has been represented as a triumph over the legacies of modern white supremacy and...>>
World Cup 2010
In this dossier, a series of football enthusiasts (who also happen to be social and cultural critics), offer their reflections upon the meaning and significance of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Commentators include Jennifer Doyle, Sean Jacobs, Nikhil Singh, Andrew Ross, Patrick Bond, Kwame Nyong'o, Ron Krabill, Mark Sawyer, Paul Silverstein, Karam Singh, Imani Perry and Eli Jelly-Schapiro.
Edited by Nikhil Singh.
Image: Moses Mabhida Stadium Fans, Brazil vs Portugal Game, June 25th, 2010.
Soweto, South Africa - Fans on a train in Soccer City. Korogwe, Tanzania - Watching the Game. Maputo, Mozambique - City Streets. Lusaka, Zambia - Street Dancer. Johannesburg, South Africa - Standton City Mall Marionettes Quissico, Mozambique - Footballers and Fans....>>
In the run-up to the World Cup, countless advertisements from around the globe began to build the hype for the 2010 tournament in South Africa. The vast majority of these ads - including some mentioned elsewhere in this dossier - displayed a striking consistency in their reliance on tired stereotypes and discourses barely modified from the colonial roots from which they sprang in their portrayal of "Africa's World Cup." One ad, however, deserves a second look for the way it both surfaced and dismissed the broader social and cultural issues underlying the World Cup: titled "United," it features U2's song "Magnificent" with a voice-over by Bono promoting ESPN's coverage of the event. "It's not about politics," Bono tells us, "or...>>
"...I can see that you are here in the millions and my last warning to you is that you are to stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance he can show the world that he is somebody." - Kwame Nkrumah, 1957.There are a myriad of amazing stories surrounding the 2010 World Cup. While the tactical set ups, the weather and lax refereeing stifled beautiful play, the World Cup was not without tremendous drama. Some of that drama surrounded the Ghanaian team that I argue carried the banner of the flag of Pan-Africanism. As the tournament progressed it became apparent that only the "Black Stars" from Ghana were going...>>
There is something utterly farcical about the social drama that accompanied the French national soccer team's decided under-performance at the World Cup in South Africa -- what American soccer journalists comically dubbed le meltdown and French media, the "fiasco" or "debacle." A farce not simply because a team of prodigious talent failed to win a game or mark more than a single goal. Nor because of the circus of scandal surrounding the campaign: from revelations about players consorting with underage prostitutes; to the junior sports minister Rama Yade questioning the team's expensive hotel while herself being scheduled to stay in one even more posh; to accusations that retired star Zinedine Zidane encouraged players to mutiny against lame-duck coach Raymond Domenech;...>>
There have been numerous milestones in South Africa's journey from a pariah state characterized by the most brutal form of settler colonialism and white supremacy to a young democracy struggling to find its rightful place in a the post new world order. The release of Nelson Mandela from Victor Verster prison twenty years ago marked the first chapter in South Africa's new beginning. As the tide turned against apartheid and power was transferred to a democratic majority through elections in 1994 and the adoption of new egalitarian rights based constitution in 1996, South Africa has laid claim to distinguish itself amongst the community of nations as an exceptional nation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that followed, to examine atrocities...>>
Let me begin with this: I am a Bama: literally, from Alabama. Before I am an intellectual, a diasporic subject, a celebrator of transatlantic blacknesses who carefully sidesteps essentialism and embraces all of humanity, I am a Bama. Granted, these other more academia friendly aspects of myself have been nurtured since birth by the leftist intellectual communities of my parents. But I was a Grandma's (or better yet my Mudeah's) girl, and that means I know who my folk are and what they expect. It is for them I do what I do.
So I watched the World Cup as an American of a very particular sort. And as such, when it comes to sports, I have always rooted for...>>
Locals who had hoped that the rest of the world would take away some useful knowledge about South Africa's current affairs could hardly be faulted for cursing the existence of the vuvuzela. Zealous opinion about the ubiquitous plastic horns has nearly dominated the portion of the World Cup's global media coverage which is reserved for "African content." Not only that, at the rate they are selling abroad, the trumpets may turn out to be South Africa's most distinctive export, and its most enduring contribution to football culture. Move over, songmakers of the Spion Kop, the storied Liverpool fan foundry that originated crowd chants! The low B flat drone of the vuvuzela seems destined to turn your rhymes to sonic dust.Before...>>
With ESPN's broadcast of the World Cup's opening match, my fellow tweeters began to crack jokes about The Lion King. We imagined Rafiki calling the matches, or Mufasa, and half expected the referees to lift up the Jabulani to announce the arrival of the New Ball. Most folks simply observed, "I feel like I am watching The Lion King."There is a good reason for this. The score used by ESPN to frame its coverage was written by Lisle Moore. The Utah composer gave us muscular music for a sporting event, upbeat music for a media event organized around putting us all in the mood to buy a shirt, a ball, or a Coke. Layered over the orchestral swells are the...>>
Football fans can be divided, somewhat crudely, into two categories: those attracted to the game for aesthetic gratification, and those whose fandom is rather driven by feelings of group solidarity. These categories are not mutually exclusive. A beautiful move acquires even greater beauty when performed by a player or team with whom one identifies; feelings of solidarity are emboldened when joined to rare artistry.In my own life as a football supporter, my principal affinity is to the London club Arsenal. I am drawn to the club's commitment, in recent times, to playing attractive passing soccer, and to the cosmopolitan makeup and bearing of the team. But the depth of my identification is more the result of a year spent living...>>
On the eve of Ghana's fateful loss to Uruguay in the quarterfinals, South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, declared them the Black Stars of Africa. Locals joined their compatriots across the continent in willing the Black Stars on. When Uruguayan gamesmanship prevailed in the end, the disappointment seemed genuine. Even Nelson Mandela sent "a message of condolence" to Asamoah Gyan, the Ghana forward, who missed the dramatic penalty at the end of extra time. (Ghana eventually lost on penalties.)
But that momentary continental unity masks more sinister developments at play in South Africa.
I was in South Africa for the first week or so of the tournament and one thing that struck me, apart from the fickleness of South African...>>
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