Chuka Onwumechili

Transnational communications, attitudes and fan identity: studying Nigeria post-media reform

This paper is a report of a quantitative survey of 312 Nigerian football fans to ascertain the relationship between their consumption of transnational media and attitudes towards foreign football and identification with foreign football. Thomas McPhail’s Electronic Colonialism Theory is used as a framework for the study, and thus several claims of the theory are tested in the process. Results of the study show that Nigerian fans have a positive attitude towards foreign football and express significant identification with European football teams and football players. However, there was low identification with European football artefacts leading to questions whether previous studies overstate identification with such artefacts. Importantly, the study also found some demographic correlations with fan attitude and/or identification with foreign football. These important demographic variables are frequency of transnational media usage and gender of the football fan.

Analysis of FIFA’s Attempt at Image Repair:

This study analyzes the response by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) after its top officials were arrested for corruption early in 2015. FIFA’s response included President Sepp Blatter’s brief address to FIFA Congress. In the days that followed, Mr. Blatter also gave a television interview and appeared in other media events where he attempted to repair the organization’s image. The analysis focuses on the effectiveness of FIFA’s attempt at image repair. First, it uses Benoit’s image repair theory (IRT) to analyze FIFA’s rhetoric. Second, it conducts a thematic analysis of content from 215 publications in eight newspapers selected from four continents during three crises stages. The results indicate that FIFA failed in its attempt to repair its image following the corruption crisis.

Dynamism: N’digbo and Communication in Post-modernism

This chapter explores Igbo communication as an aspect of Black communication. It is recognition that Black communication is varied and not unitary. It is also recognition that theorizing Igbo communication as an aspect of African communication is recognition of the dynamism of such communication. It is a recognition that such communication is not static but one that is indeed enduring and impacts communication of N’digbo (Igbo people). The chapter locates the source of Igbo theory of communication as traditional religion (Odinani), a religion that defined the way of live for N’digbo in a community where it was impossible to exist as a non-religious person because life itself was religion and thus the theory of communication is inevitably an outcome of the religion of the people. The chapter identifies key principles of Igbo communication and uses autoethnographic method to bring to life examples of this communication in different contexts that include conflict, bride price ceremony, family life, and sport.

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Barack Hussein Obama Presidency

OnNovember 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected America’s 44th president and sworn in the next January 20. He was re-elected in 2012 and his 8 years in office ended January 20, 2017. It was a historic presidential tenure for various reasons. His wife, Michelle, summed her husband’s tenure in the White House best when she spoke these words at the 2016 Democratic Party convention: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.” Those words spoke volumes by highlighting themonumental fact that a Black man, Barack Obama, served as America’s president, which marked a long journey of Blacks in America from slavery. As several of the articles in this special issue confirm, Obama’s tenure is historic for other reasons as well. History will show that there remains a long way to go in the journey of African Americans in America. In fact, the 8-year presidential tenure of President Barack Obama reminds all of us there are challenges that are yet to be overcome. Foremost among them is that racial issues largely remain and there is the feeling that President Obama may not have done enough on Black issues. Of course, it is not surprising that some of President Obama’s achievements will be vigorously contested.However, his achievementswill stand the test of time.Waldman (2016) concurs by writing,

Nigerian football: a case of social media and sport insider information

The increasing use of information and communication technology, particularly social media, has extended the reach of football discourse beyond traditional boundaries determined by in-groups of administrators, other football stakeholders and legacy media gatekeepers. Privileged football information refers to football information that would otherwise be restricted to insiders and may include ongoing, real-time or proposed decisions or events by football administrators, players, and other key football stakeholders. The relative anonymity of social media provides football administrators, insider journalists, player agents and others who have access to privileged information, with a communication channel to clandestinely disseminate the information. The paper explores possible motivation of an insider, Muyiwalawal, who posted insider information on Eagles Nest, a discussion board for Nigerian football fans, before and during the 2014 World Cup. We also report on the impact of the information on members of Eagles Nest. We find that the insider in this case is motivated by identity as an insider, prestige and member appreciation. Additionally, we find that persuasive impact of the information narrative is dependent on recipients interpretation of narrative fidelity.

CAF: Perennial Struggle in Crises of Identity

Today, the centrality of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to football in Africa is immense. CAF organizes and administers African football and it is through its activities, visibly and invisibly, that the rest of the world understands African football. The founding of CAF, of course, does not precede football on the continent. Instead, founded in 1957, CAF appeared on the scene long after football transversed Africa through colonialism and evangelism. However, formal continent-wide organization of football and competition only arrived after CAF was established.

Oh Lord, You Are the Lord who Remembered John Obi Mikel

Studies of footballer migration have been associated with increased globalization of the game (Darby, 2008, 2000; Darby et al, 2007; Bale, 2004, 1994; Lanfranchi and Taylor, 2001; Arbena, 1994). These studies have taken varying perspectives, with some investigating the phenomenon from an economic point of view (Onwumechili, 2010; Lanfranchi and Taylor, 2001) and others in the context of the process of de-skilling and exploitation (Bale, 2004; Darby, 2002; Kidd and Donnalley, 2000; Henly, 1998; Arbena, 1994). Many of these studies focus on migration of African football labor, as would be expected since a significant proportion of the modern migration of footballers has been from the poorer regions of Africa (and South America) to leagues in Europe and Asia. While several of these studies investigate the reasons for increased migration via a range of perspectives, it remains surprising that some other reasons, such as aspirational identity, have not been widely investigated.

Nigeria: Rangers, Igbo Identity, and the Imagination of War

Several scholars and essayists have written on the Nigerian civil war that took place between 1967 and 1970. The war involved mostly Igbo-speaking people in the East of Nigeria who sought to break away from the country and form an independent nation of Biafra. Most of the war literature focused on antecedents to the war, and on the war itself including military coups, political crises, military victories, refugee problems, and similar stories. The war officially ended after an estimated 30,000 Igbos were killed in a prewar pogrom, a further 100,000 military casualties died in the military war, and 500,000 to two million civilians died from starvation. While there is an abundance of literature on these war facts, there is far less literature on postwar issues such as latent war situations that may have continued to exist years after the war was declared over. As one can imagine, the stress of a civil war that began with an extensive pogrom cannot end overnight based on an arbitrarily declared date for the end of the conflict. Instead, there is always a trace, albeit psychological, that follows an official end to such conflicts. Traces after crises are marked in postwar relationships, sport, social behavior, and other everyday life events. The Nigerian civil war was not free of such traces in spite of the fact that there is very little literature that has sought to record them.

Strategic Health Communication for Cancer Prevention

Increased urbanization in South Africa, like elsewhere, has led to sedentary living, obesity, chemical hazards, and increased consumption of processed foods among other issues that lead to increased cancer rates. Cancers are often preventable and treatable with early-stage diagnoses. However, South Africa’s Health Department reports only 6 % screening rate for cancer in the country meaning that such cancers are discovered late leading to high mortality, particularly among low income South African women. This chapter sought to investigate the impact of sociocultural constructs on health communication for cancer in South Africa. It applies the ecological model to address the issue of breast cancer screening. The chapter concludes that inclusion of culturally relevant interventions to promote increased breast cancer screening is necessary to improve early-stage diagnoses of the disease among South African women. In addition, the chapter recommends that an effective and comprehensive cancer prevention intervention requires multilayered culturally relevant activities across all ecological levels.

Africa, Fandom, and Shifting Identities: An Introduction to Football and Identity

Identity in football takes a variety of forms, ranging from fan, team, organization, community, nation, to a transnational one. Hundley and Billings argue that identity involves humans seeking membership in groups and then acting in support of their group against others perceived as members of out groups. They further point out that ‘identity is an extensive negotiation that is always changing, always being interpreted and reinterpreted, and always contested by various entities’ (2010: 5). In essence, identity is never stable even though studies of the concept presume its stability across time. Hundley and Billings were referring to media interpretation of identity, but researcher or participant interpretation of identity is not simple, it is just as complex and is always in flux. Each shape of identity is critical to understanding football, its essence, and its popularity. Of course, this book attempts to cover as many of those as possible. However, it is important in this introductory chapter that we clearly understand what we mean by identity, using several theories relevant to African football. Subsequently, we discuss critical shifts in football identity on the continent and preview the book’s chapters.