By Peter Alegi | July 1st, 2010 | No Comments
I shared my reflections on the 2010 World Cup (thru June 27) with Alan Minsky, host of The People’s Game — a KPFK/Pacifica Radio project that provides some of the best on-the-field analysis combined with discussions of the political, economic, and cultural subtexts of the 2010 World Cup.
Click here to listen to the interview.
By Peter Alegi | June 9th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Melissa Block of NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ interviewed me about soccer’s long history in Africa. Soccer was brought to Africa by British colonials in the mid-1800s. The first documented game on the continent was played in South Africa in 1862, a year before soccer’s official rules were codified. As I argue in African Soccerscapes, soccer has been an important sport in Africa for as long as it was played in Europe.
Click here to listen to the interview and read a transcript.
Was also interviewed by and quoted in this New York Times article: Soccer Returns to its Roots in Africa
By Peter Alegi | May 30th, 2010 | No Comments
This weekend football authors Simon Kuper and David Goldblatt published the kind of book reviews that warm an author’s heart.
“Nobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi,” writes Kuper in the Financial Times. “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.” Click here to read Kuper’s review.
In The Observer, Goldblatt wrote: “Peter Alegi’s African Soccerscapes is simply the best available overview of the history” of the game on the continent. Click here to read Goldblatt’s review.
Given the good news, today seemed like a perfect day to go to Durban, pick up our World Cup tix and spend the afternoon playing beach football.
By Peter Alegi | May 29th, 2010 | No Comments
What a great ride! Launched my book African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game in Joburg, Cape Town (in photo), and Durban over the past week and a half. Met so many amazing people from all walks of life and broke bread with old friends. The quality of the discussions was very high, with deep engagement on history, culture, politics and everything in between. Was extraordinarily privileged to have Sedick Isaacs of the Robben Island Makana Football Association as a guest of honor in Cape Town and the US Consul General, Jill Derderian, in attendance in Durban.
Been doing lots of press interviews, including one with the New York Times. Made TV appearances on SABC 2’s Weekend Live (thanks Lebo!) and CBC News too. Now that the blog is back up (finally!), I look forward to more thinking with my feet from African soil. Phambili!
By Peter Alegi | April 22nd, 2010 | 8 Comments
Released ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, my new book African Soccerscapes tells the little-known story of football in Africa. Published by Ohio University Press in North America and Hurst & Co. in Europe and Africa, the book is both a history and an examination of the connections between sport and society. Using case studies from around the continent, I show how Africans appropriated soccer from Europeans and turned it into a distinctively African activity during the twentieth century.
African players, fans, and officials challenged colonial power and expressed a commitment to racial equality and self-determination. In postcolonial times, new nations staged matches in national stadiums as part of their independence celebrations and joined FIFA. The Confédération Africaine de Football democratized the global game through antiapartheid sanctions and increased the number of African teams in the World Cup finals.
African Soccerscapes analyzes the causes and effects of the departure of huge numbers of African players to overseas clubs and the dominance of commercial interests in local leagues. Finally, a consideration of the growth of women’s soccer and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup challenges the one-dimensional notion of Africa as a backward, “tribal” continent populated by victims of war, corruption, famine, and disease.
Look for stories from African Soccerscapes on this blog, as well as news and updates about book events, talks, media coverage and more.
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