African soccerscapes: how a continent changed the world's game

Abstract

African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game By Peter Alegi Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010. xviii + 179. 4 Figures, 3 Maps, 2 Tables. The book has endnotes for each chapter and a bibliography. $22.95, (paper), ISBN: 978-0-89680-278-0.African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game by Peter Alegi descriptively details soccer's regional morphology. Broadly considered, this book breaks down into two parts. The first four chapters assess soccer's contested history within the continent. The final two chapters then address transnational issues of the game as they have evolved through globalization and neo-liberalism. Alegi's account, which utilizes archival research and interviews, narrates soccer's place visa-vis popular and political discourse, by providing examples locally in urban realms, regionally, and internationally. Throughout the text, emerging themes discussed include: colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, neo-liberalism, globalization, and gender related issues. The author dissects how soccer's central role in each theme, relative to how Africa has historically been perceived. Furthermore, this timely book challenges readers to engage with such pertinent socio-political issues, written just prior to South Africa hosting the continent's first World Cup. In addition, this book offers readers the chance to reflect upon communications presented during the 2010 World Cup.Alegi begins Chapter 1 with soccer's emergence into the African landscape. By first acknowledging colonialism, the author details the forging of the sport's cultural diffusion. Therefore, readers initially become aware of how soccer became an intermediary to further implement Western values such as Christianity, capitalism, and work ethic. Moreover, he discusses the semblance of power structures enacted through sport by describing how Africa's first club teams were initiated by Europe's colonizing elites. Chapter 2 takes these grounded legacies further by exploring alterations in the urban landscape between 1920 and 1940. During this time period, Alegi describes how Africans began to reclaim urban spaces. Using soccer, collective assemblies promoted socio-political transformations that became manifest in the landscape. By materializing urban social spaces through sport, African peoples assimilated their sense of local cultural identity. Alegi engages these interplays of associated struggles over identity by discussing differences between spaces within race. Readers are engaged with the struggles over separate spaces, racially; moreover, African peoples claimed soccer and urban soccer pitches as significant black places in the landscape, whilst rugby grounds symbolized spaces for white Europeans. Throughout Chapter 2, the author provides several examples of how Africans reasserted local senses of identity, further structuring contestations of hegemony during periods of colonialism. Africans used soccer fields and stadia to situate their place in the landscape; Alegi mentions how spectators incorporated local rituals, including displays of witch doctors, magic, song, and dance among the crowd, in addition to unique styles of play during matches.Moving through history, Chapters 3 and 4 discuss anti-colonial movements and post-colonial Africa, respectively. Both chapters place a strong emphasis on nationalism. Again, Alegi remarks how the landscape became significant, because during anti-colonial movements, African political leaders made use of soccer stadia to intensify anti-colonial sentiment. The author acknowledges the lack of recognition given by other academics regarding soccer's role in African nationalist movements. He seeks to reverse this deficiency by highlighting examples from Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa, where nationalist leaders gathered around popular soccer clubs to promote a sense of common ethnic nationalism to challenge colonial authoritarian rule. Chapter 4 then highlights soccer's importance to nation and state building during the independence era. …