Soccer is one of the world’s most widely played and watched sports. From the Summer Olympic Games to the FIFA World Cup, citizens of every corner of the world gather to cheer for their team and favorite players. But for some players from Africa, soccer is more than a sport or a national pastime — it’s a life-changing career.
That’s the message Abubakar Muhammad wants his students to grasp the next time they watch the game. The skill and technique in the European league are more than a series of plays. They are evidence of the diversity and challenges of the game reflecting deep social injustices that continue to echo today.
“A lot of students didn’t know the connection between soccer and Africa, but almost everything that started with the West wasthen taken to Africa,” Muhammad, a graduate student in the Department of African Cultural Studies says. “There is this connection between colonialism and soccer, so we begin with the introduction of soccer to Africa and its arrival to the continent.”
The first theme introduced during the course is soccer’s origins and its spread during colonization. Soccer began as a working-class sport during the 19th century — rooted in industry and institutions of the Victorian Age — often enjoyed as a pickup game between players rather than an organized sport. But as England’s colonization efforts ramped up, so did the spread of soccer.
“Back in England, they [colonizers] were not attached to the game because they considered it to be a game of the working class. But when they moved, they wanted to keep in touch with the home culture, so they played the game,” Muhammad explains.
When English colonizers arrived on the continent of Africa, many of the Indigenous people were engaged in games such as horse racing, boxing, dancing and bullfighting.
“European people saw themselves as superior to the Africans,” Muhammad says. “So traditional African sporting activities were negated and considered ‘savage’ activities.”
Once soccer arrived on the African continent, it transitioned from a working-class leisure activity to an organized game with a hierarchical structure. Essentially, only African natives working for the English government participated in the game, and even then, rising African soccer teams were not funded equally to European teams.
Today, you can still see consequences of colonization playing out in the game of soccer, Muhammad says, including the looming issue of funding gaps. The unequal funding of African soccer teams compared to European teams has increased labor migration trends. Last year, Forbes reported European professional players are making upward of $50 million, while African league players are reportedly making less than $1 million annually.
Labor migration is the movement of individuals for employment. European soccer teams often scout trained African soccer players to recruit them for their teams at lower costs. While this benefits the players because they receive exposure playing in a premier soccer league, it drains Africa of skilled players, exacerbating funding and talent gaps.
Muhammad’s class examines how colonialism has impacted injustices seen today throughout national teams.
“At a point, the European and South American national teams were afraid of playing Black players, because that would somehow embarrass the country,” Muhammad says. “When you [the player] win, you are part of us [the country they represent]. But when you lose, you are one of those foreigners coming from Africa.”
Muhammad wants his students to understand and learn about these social aspects behind the game of soccer, including how its origins impact social structures in the game today.
Soccer in America is vastly different than soccer in Nigeria, Muhammad says. Therefore, Muhammad teaches his students the playing styles and techniques unique to each place. For example, former Nigerian soccer player Jay-Jay Okocha — regarded as one of the top African players — popularized the Okocha Stepover.
“African youth bring ingenuity, creativity and improvisation to the game,” Muhammad says. “Despite their lack of material items, they still manage to produce super talented players, and everybody loves the game on the street.”
During a summer spent in Nigeria, Muhammad witnessed and played several pick-up soccer games among friends and kids on the street, contrasting the Western world’s focus on organized sports.
Students in his course learn about this contrast through various mediums, including films and narrative books. For example, students are currently reading The Belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome. The novel examines the possibility soccer offers African-born soccer players, while also highlighting the painful situations for those who emigrate, including the lasting impacts of colonization.
“There are advantages, but there are disadvantages. When you move permanently, that’s a trauma that stays with you,” Muhammad says to his class while discussing Diome’s book. “We call it the ‘melancholia of no return.’”
Students discuss the true motives behind a player’s decision to move for soccer. During a recent class, a student raised the point that soccer alone may not motivate a player to seek opportunities in other countries.
“It was the opportunity of making it onto a club team in Europe,” the student says. “You’re [a player from Africa] not just doing it because you love soccer, you’re also doing it because you want to be recognized as the best.”
These conversations in Muhammad’s class force students to examine soccer not just as a sport, but as a symbol of the social implications colonialism left behind.
When students in his course participate in soccer or watch a game on TV, Muhammad says they’ll have a deeper understanding of the sacrifice and dedication it took for African players to get to where they are.
“They’ll get to realize so many things that happen off the field, beyond the pitch, to understand their struggle, to understand their situations and understand the context in which they play,” Muhammad says.
Read the full article at: https://ls.wisc.edu/news/cool-class-a-closer-look-at-soccer-in-africa