Obrigado, Pelé
A short film imagines what if Pele, who can claim to be the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time), scored his final international goal against Argentina, Brazil's greatest rival.
Blog
El Negrito
Eduardo Galeano once described Diego Maradona: "... a short-legged bull, [who] carries the ball sewn to his foot and he’s got eyes all over his body."
Just add some Africa
An ad for multinational Orange to grab customers in a Middle Eastern country for some strange reason features a weird narrative of Africans happy that their homes get flooded. What does this have to do with the Middle East? (Or with Africa, for that matter?) Perhaps all the commercials around the World Cup in South […]
Hold On To Your Hat
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL3tRBZv7QA&w=500&h=307&rel=0] South African football fans (well, boosted by corporates) have brought the world the plastic vuvuzelas. There’s one other invention of local football that might catch on: Makarapas, the elaborately decorated construction hard hats that now come in national colors. There’s an interesting history about the origins of makarapas and the man who invented it, […]
Who will play George Weah?
The blog Liberia and Friends reports the American actor/director Dermot Mulroney will develop and probably direct a biopic on the life of Liberian football legend George Weah. (What does Mulroney know about football? Turns out he starred in a film about a young soccer player, “Gracie;” as for Africa, Reuters reports that he produced a film about […]
The Daily Show takes on the World Cup
[vodpod id=Video.3900482&w=450&h=370&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse] The Daily Show with Jon Stewart sends “correspondent” John Oliver to Johannesburg to learn “… about the rich African culture at the World Cup.” Brilliant piece. It strikes the right balance between on the one hand, the disdain most fans feel about FIFA, and, on the other, the passion associated with the World […]
South African music is more than Graceland
What often gets lost within the narratives of oppression and exile is that the 1960s and 1970s also proved to be an exceptionally vibrant and creative period.
(S)hell in the Niger Delta
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/11804108 w=500&h=281] Powerful Amnesty International spot for its campaign around conditions in Nigeria’s Niger Delta where the oil spills make the Gulf of Mexico look like a picnic. It also points to the complicity of oil giant Shell in destroying people’s livelihoods. — Sean Jacobs
The World Cup and Pan-Africanism
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observes that international soccer allows for “a kind of nationalism that expands as your country loses.”
South America's World Cup
All five of the South American representatives in the 2010 World Cup have made it to the second round. (Add to that the 2 North and Central American representatives–Mexico and the USA, and that makes for a very successful tournament thus far for the Americas). My money is still on either Brazil or Argentina to […]
Alicia Keys fails Brenda Fassie
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9H1Rgx5VVU&w=600&h=373&rel=0] I am catching up over the next few days. Lots to blog. (Too much football means I stop thinking about anything else, but I’ll try.) I know there’s some love for Alicia Keys on this blog: But was it only me or did she sound out of tune and out of sorts when covering […]
Organize
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBlDiObxWA&w=500&h=307&rel=0] BLK JKS representing at the official pre-World Cup concert in Soweto. Remember Tutu dancing in the stands? Mzabalazo. This is for Japan. For organizing on the field, and shutting out the Danes 3-1. — Sean Jacobs