Categories
Fútbology

Football and Politics in Africa: A Not-To-Be-Missed BBC Radio Documentary

“Beyond the Pitch” is a riveting BBC World Service radio documentary that explores the close links between the “beautiful game” of football and the “dirty game” of politics in multiple African countries. Produced by Farayi Mungazi and Penny Dale, the 50-minute feature aired on the eve of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in […]

Categories
Fútbology

The AmaXhosa Maradona

  The story of Abongile Elton Qobisa, also known as the “Xhosa Maradona,” has not been covered by ESPN, SKY, SABC, or FIFA media. But Tarminder Kaur, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa, is determined not to allow us to forget him.   On October 27, the moving […]

Categories
Fútbology

Mining for Goals on the Zambian Copperbelt

[View the story “Zambian Futbology” on Storify]     Zambia won the African Nations Cup in 2012. It is a recognized regional football powerhouse. As in most African countries, Zambians are fiercely passionate and knowledgeable about the game.   Yet to this day no academic history of soccer in Zambia exists. Hikabwa Decius Chipande, a […]

Categories
Fútbology

Scholars Discuss New Book on Fútbol in Latin America

How does football shape national narratives in Latin America? Why is the game so closely tied to masculinity and femininity? How can studying fútbol advance our understanding of Latin American history? These and other questions were part of the Football Scholars Forum recent discussion of Joshua Nadel’s Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America. The […]

Categories
Video

Film Review: “E18hteam” — Zambia, From Tragedy to Glory

I settled into my seat at Fresh View Cinemas, Levy Park, in Lusaka, for the premiere of “e18hteam”—the first feature film about the history of football in Zambia—with more than a passing interest in the subject. With generous funding from the FIFA João Havelange Research Scholarship, I have spent the past several years researching and […]

Categories
Fútbology

Zambian Fútbology

Guest Post by *Hikabwa Chipande LUSAKA—On June 4, 2014, I was invited by Dr. Walima Kalusa, the University of Zambia’s History Department head, to present a fútbological paper based on my current doctoral research on the political and social history of football in Zambia (1940s-1993). The seminar on “Football and Social Change on the Northern […]

Categories
Hosting

Dennis Liwewe, Zambia’s Football Voice, Dies at 78

Guest Post by Hikabwa Chipande (@HikabwaChipande) LUSAKA—Zambia is mourning football radio commentator Dennis Liwewe, who died on April 22, 2014, at the age of 78. Liwewe caught the soccer fever on the Copperbelt in the late 1950s and 1960s, an era that led to the emergence of great players such as Samuel “Zoom” Ndlovu, John […]