AfricaIs aCountry

Have another Coke and smile Roger Milla

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Have another Coke and smile Roger Milla

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3Q54rPjQw&w=480&h=295]

Having stripped the Somalian singer K’Naan’s protest song, “Waving Flag” of any meaning, Coco Cola now sets about to trivialize African football history. As reported by Steve Bloomfield on his blog, Africa United, Coke’s new commercial, “History of Celebration,” reduces the legacy of Cameroon’s historical run in the 1990 tournament in Italy to striker Roger Milla’s hip wiggle at the corner flag rather than the goals he and the rest of the team scored.” (In that tournament, Cameroon went to the quarterfinals–the first for an African team–beating Argentina, Romania and Columbia on the way before 2 dubious penalties awarded to the English knocked them out. Bloomfield correctly captures what Cameroon achieved in 1990:

“Cameroon’s success changed everything for African football. No longer would Africans be seen as also-rans making up the numbers. Fifa, which by 1990 had grudgingly allowed two African teams to compete, increased the allocation to three in 1994, four in 1998 and five in 2002. This year, the first time the tournament will be held in Africa, the continent has six teams. A line can be traced from Cameroon’s performance in Italia ‘90 to Fifa’s decision to award the World Cup to South Africa in 2010. It was the moment that African football could no longer be ignored.”

[Steve Bloomfield]

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.