Gerard Akindes

Football Academies and the Migration of African Football Labor to Europe

This article analyzes one of the key features of the increased trading in African football labor since the 1990s, the establishment of football “academies” in Africa. The article begins by setting out a broad explanatory framework that articulates the transit of African footballers to Europe and the role of football academies in this process as a form of neocolonial exploitation and impoverishment of the developing world by the developed world. A brief account of the history, geography, economics, and consequences of African football talent migration to Europe follows. The main focus of the article is the construction of a typology of football academies in Africa and an analysis of their role in the export of African football labor. The article concludes by analyzing the key challenges that the growth of football academies has posed for the African game and outlines ways that these challenges might be addressed.

Football bars: urban sub-Saharan Africa's trans-local ‘stadiums’

The sub-Saharan African television landscape has significantly changed since the 1990s under the influence of technological, economic and political factors. Transnational television broadcasting blossomed in Africa and paved the way for the import of overseas football content. Live broadcasting of football flourished due to deregulation and political factors, allowing European football games to become accessible to fans across sub-Saharan Africa. Trans-local ‘stadiums’, football bars, specialised football video theatres and households with cable or satellite subscriptions mediate these processes of trans-localisation. This article argues that football transnational television broadcasting is generating a new form of fandom in sub-Saharan Africa. For many young football fans, transnational football broadcasting is becoming the main or almost only experience of live football. The discussion in this article analyses the emergence and shaping of the trans-local ‘stadiums’, and their attendees.

Sport as International Aid: Assisting Development or Promoting Under-Development in Sub-Saharan Africa?

The use of sports as an instrument of development in Africa has gained considerable popularity in the last ten years. Ex-child soldiers in Liberia, children in the slums of Nairobi, marginalized girls in deeply Islamic societies and disabled victims of polio are segments of African society where sport-in-development initiatives have been used in an attempt to empower marginalized groups and enhance general quality of life. Sports and development NGOs have come into vogue, much in the same way that the number of civic NGOs rapidly expanded in the 1990s with the push for ‘multipartism’ on the African continent.2

South Asia and South-East Asia: new paths of African footballer migration

Today, playing football can be considered a global practice, a universal reference that transcends cultures and nations. Football players’ global mobility exhibits some aspects of the worldwide dimension of the culture of the game. Quantitative data (along with academic analysis and studies of the contemporary migration) rank Africa as the third-largest exporter of footballers. Such data explain the magnitude of the exodus and the migratory routes in light of Africa’s colonial history and world economic disparities. Although the colonial and neocolonial approaches to analysing the migration of African footballers remain valid, Asian trajectories of the African players’ migrations have emerged and suggest different frames of analysis. This article (after reviewing African football migration factors, such as the colonial connections and the ‘push and pull’ factor) examines the particularities and the impact that the Asian paths of migration have had on the emergence of the semi-peripheral football economy located in South Asia and South-East Asia.

It’s All About the Beautiful Game of Football, or Is It? On Television and Football in North Africa

Whether it is Aziz Bouderbala in Morocco, Rabah Madjer in Algeria, or Captain Choubir in Egypt, footballers continue to be the most popular sporting identities in North Africa, and football the most popular sport. Some critics view it as a deliberate political strategy to dupe and distract the masses. Others consider it a corporate entity that brings in billions of dirhams, dinars, and/or dollars and where the cultural practice of playing and admiring the sport has given way to the reproduction of a valuable and popular commodity that is consumed by the lowest social strata in North Africa.

From Stadium to Bars: Transnational Media and African Fan Identity

The history of African football begins with Europe. As Paul Darby (2002) points out, football in Africa is undeniably a legacy of colonialism. When football was initially introduced in Africa, the sport was played only by the colonists. Slowly, the game diffused among the local populations. From a historical perspective, Alegi (2010: 3) states that football in Africa started in 1862, and that the first recorded football game was played in South Africa between whites in the Cape and Natal provinces. By the early twentieth century, football was played in Algeria, Egypt, and the Belgian Congo (Leopoldville).

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.

From Leopoldville to Liège: A Conversation with Paul Bonga Bonga

Gerard Akindes met Paul Bonga Bonga Gailly in Brussels on December 15, 2011. When the latter mentioned that his father was a former footballer from Congo, it immediately became clear that he was the son of Paul Bonga Bonga. A defensive midfielder from Kinshasa, Bonga Bonga was probably the most accomplished of the first generation of African footballers who played in Belgium (Alegi, 2010: 92). Since his remarkable experiences in football have largely been overlooked or forgotten, a request to meet with the elderly Bonga Bonga became obligatory. Following a telephone conversation, he graciously agreed to meet; a couple of days later, his son introduced Akindes to Paul Bonga Bonga in his Brussels apartment.