Description
Book SynopsisFrom Accra and Algiers to Zanzibar and Zululand, African football today reflects the history and culture of those who play the game and how they have shaped it in a distinctively African manner. Football may obey global rules, but the influence of magicians and healers, the nurturing of different tactics and styles of play, and local forms of spectatorship give football in the continent a cultural and sporting imprint all of its own . In African Soccerscapes Peter Alegi explores how football was influenced by colonialism, the growth of cities, independence, and global capitalism. Regional differences and the links between sport, culture and politics feature prominently in his book. In the independent era football offered a rare form of 'national culture' in ethnically diverse nations and symbolized pan-African unity and solidarity through the anti-apartheid struggle and the campaign for more guaranteed places for African teams in the World Cup finals. Huge numbers of Africans play overseas, disproportionately rewarding European leagues at Africa's expense, and this phenomenon is discussed, as are the recent privatization of the African game, football development programs and the growth of women's football.
Trade ReviewNobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi. This World Cup is his moment. His African Soccerscapes crams daunting erudition, gleaned over many years of study of African football, into under 200 pages of history. -- Financial Times
Peter Alegi's African Soccerscapes is simply the best available overview of the history. Concise and to the point, you'll be through it before the round of 16 begins, having covered all the basics without forgetting the pleasures and the passions that animate African football. -- The Guardian
A fascinating history of African football, from empire to the post-colony. -- Sunday Independent (South Africa)
Table of Contents1: The White Man's Burden: Football and Empire, 1860s-1919 2: The Africanization of Football, 1920s-1940s 3: Making Nations in Late Colonial Africa, 1940s-1964 4: Nationhood, Pan-Africanism, and Football after Independence 5: Football Migration to Europe Since the 1930s 6: The Privatization of Football, 1980s to Recent Times Epilogue: South Africa 2010: The World Cup Comes to Africa
