Nigeria Content Online

Football is in the
air. South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup has ensured that the
ball has landed firmly on the continent. Africa is still under the
spell of football-mania! A new book conceived in the run-up to the
World Cup is now out and, predictably it will be very relevant for
long. Titled ‘Africa United: The Road to Twenty Ten’, it is edited by
Stefan Verwer, Marc Broere and Chris de Bode and, it is a joint
initiative of World Press Photo, Free Voice, Africa Media Online and
lokaalmondiaal; Dutch personnel and agencies based in the Netherlands.

It’s all part of
the old legacy of colonisation that these editors and agencies based in
a small European country have comfortably journalistically pigeon-holed
an entire continent of over 50 countries into one homogenous entity.
The sub-aim of the book is “to enable African journalists make
themselves heard at a moment when the whole world is focussing its
attention on Africa.”

The assembled print
features and photographic documentaries in the book were independently
chosen by the media people assembled and ‘trained’ by the World Press
Photo, Free Voice and Africa Media Online, with the ultimate purpose of
“encouraging these media professionals to creatively produce reports
about football in Africa and to help sell their products throughout the
world.”

Eurocentric

Beautiful and
admirable intentions. The results are interesting and in some cases
quite predictable in that knowingly or unknowingly, a few of the
coverage were deliberating slanted towards perceived Eurocentric tastes
in stories and pictures. That a few of the participants were trapped in
the mindset of deliberating producing ‘sensational’ coverage for the
world media market is obvious! After all, ‘sensational and weird’
stories and photographs out of Africa are always guaranteed to sell
well.

Nonetheless, the
end-result is an innovative book that generally seeks to erase old
stereotypes and in place offer fresher, ‘cleaner’ and more modern media
examination of Africa, football and the ‘very special’ 2010 World Cup!

There are 25 items
in this attractively-produced 200-odd-page book, printed in Hungary.
The reproduction of the colour photographs is exceptionally good, with
true rich colours.

There are 13 features including the Foreword and Epilogue and 12 photographic documentaries on a diverse range of subjects.

Ghettorisation

The Foreword is
predictable in that the editors offer the naive hope that football and
the 2010 World might magically save Africa from its many problems and
provide “an excellent chance to show people a different Africa.”
Unfortunately, next comes a photo documentary ‘Soccer Worlds’ by
Nigerian Andrew Esiebo, in which he unfortunately seems stuck in
glamorising the ghettorisation of football in Nigeria. Is he
deliberately unaware of the academics and middleclass like Adokiye,
Odegbami, Oliseh, Owolabi (to name a few) who are also a valid face of
football development in Nigeria? He is in the uncomplimentary company
of Nikki Rixon of South Africa whose photo study Ghana’s Future Stars
is a grimy study of a village football academy. One wonders whether
Rixon is unaware of Abedi Pele’s successful academy and club in Ghana,
the Ivory Coast Academy that produced the Toure brothers or the Kwara
State Academy that are all world-standard and now rightly world-famous
as well?

Number 9 jersey

There is a
thematically inspired photo study Number 9 by Thierry Gouegnon which
weaves a visual story of the journey of the number 9 jersey of the
Burkina Faso national team. It traces the jersey from the laundry to
the ironing sequence to the owner/playing receiving it in the team
dressing room, adorning it and wearing it on the field of play during a
crucial Malawi-Burkina Faso 2010 World Cup qualifying match. It is no
surprise that the cover photograph of the book is of the owner of the
number 9 jersey, Dagano; after being interviewed by the press at the
end of the match and, then acknowledging fan support with his famed
jersey held over his head between his hands.

Other creative
photo studies show a re-enactment of the activities of one of Congo’s
early and famous female referees, Marie Agnes Makengi Kapinga /Mother
Malou, The Woman in Black and, a study of the official and social life
of Liberia’s Iron Lady, lawyer and current Chairwoman of the Liberian
Football Association since 2004 and Vice-President of the West African
Football Union, Sombo Izetta Wesley. These are by joseph Moura and
Ahmed Jallanzo respectively.

There are, for me,
four outstanding journalistic contributions. The Dream of Twenty Ten by
Thomas Kwenaite is a rollercoaster journey of the emotional journeys of
South Africans as they missed out on staging 2006 to the nail-biting
anxiety on May 15, 2004 as the nation waited with bated breath for the
announcement of the host for 2010. Tadele Assefa dissects the deep
passion of two of Ethiopia and the world’s greatest-ever long distance
runners and multiple Olympic gold medallists – Gebrselassie and Bekele
– for football and currently Chelsea football club. It also toruches on
their aversion and fear of attending live matches because of
‘suffocating’ crowds. Mark Namanya of Uganda writes about Rwanda
strongman and President Kagame’s total immersion while watching
football, his attention to detail, awareness of tactics and amazing
analysis; including his quip to his national team, “I won’t blame you
for losing. I blame you for losing having not tried.”

Jay Jay or juju

Nanama Keita of
Gambia confesses his unbound admiration for Nigeria’s Jay Jay Okocha.
“Okocha caresses the ball with effortless ease and leaves you wondering
whether he has a spiritual pact with the round leather object,” he
writes and then tells about how his long dream of meeting Jay Jay
finally materialised in Abuja in 2009.

Espera G.
Donouvossi of Benin Republic examines juju in African football as the
The Ultimate Challenge for African magicians. There are other brilliant
essays on Drogba’s healing powers through football for war-torn Ivory
Coast, how the dreaded dictator Idi Amin used a visit by Pele to win
favour and calm the Ugandan nation, how the death of members of
Zambian’s national team in an air crash put a ‘curse’ on national
football and the all-important reality of football migration from
Africa to Europe and beyond.

Esiebo redeems himself with beautiful portraits in a study of
Pool/Football betting in Ibadan. And Adolphus Opara’s photo study of
the impact of Mallam Wunti’s small but very productive
football-manufacturing factory in Bauchi rightly deserves the title
‘The People’s Hero’. For sure, the journalists and photographers who
have contributed to this book are in many ways Africa’s media heroes!