Nu Black News Introduction
Welcome to NuBlack News – a new regular programme on the AfricansArise YouTube channel where we analyse news and events around the Black diaspora. Every week on NuBlack News, I will bring your attention to ideas, events and people around the Black world. Make sure to subscribe to the AfricansArise channel on YouTube. And press the notification button so you always get notified of new videos and editions of NuBlack News. And please like the videos and share them with your friends and family. With that, let’s get started with NuBlack News episode 2!
https://youtu.be/vIcmcIh-SyA
NuBlack News #2:Notes
NuBlack News episode 2 is an AFCON Special. AFCON stands for the African Cup of Nations – which is Africa’s premier national soccer tournament. It’s been held every two years since the first tournament in 1957 and the current tournament is taking place right now in Cameroon in west Africa. The semi finals take place today and tomorrow, with the final on Sunday.
Like all other sports, football is about much more than just the sport itself. AFCON is a perfect microcosm of African politics, history, culture, technology and much more. So today we’ll be using AFCON as a springboard to discuss some hugely important issues on the continent and other parts of the Black world.
We’ll start with a discussion of African players as resources in the business of football. Millions of African boys across the continent dream of becoming the next Yaya Toure, Samuel Eto’o, Mo Salah or Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, but only a tiny fraction will get to those elite levels. We’ll look at how the football machine is driving the industrial-scale trafficking of African boys into Europe to be exploited by agents and clubs. Football as we know has become a global business, a Capitalistic machine in which multiple billions of dollars are made by a massive intricate web of corporations, agents and other entities. So we’ll have a look at Africa’s place in this international flow of money. At the centre is the players As to be expected, very little of the money floating around football ever goes to Africa, despite the fact that African players make up a significant portion of the players in elite football.
Then we’ll consider the question of nationality. Some of the teams in this year’s AFCON have featured large contingents of players who were born and raised outside the country they are represented, even outside of the continent. But this is nothing new, because African players have been playing for European countries for many decades now. We’ll discuss some of the political implications of these dynamics.
Finally, during AFCON 2022, sadly we’ve seen wars and rumours of wars in the continent. Burkina Faso who are playing in today’s semi final against Senegal. On the same day they qualified for the quarter final, their civil government was overthrown in a military coup, one of several coups and attempted coups in the continent in recent years. We’ll discuss this apparent resurgence of coups-de-tat in Africa, focusing on a neglected aspect that connects them. We’ll then look back at some of the most infamous coups in African history, including the one that brought the much loved Thomas Sankara to power in 1983. And we’ll reflect on the tragic case of Patrice Lumumba who was deposed as Prime Minister of Congo in a US-orchestrated coup in 1960. To this day, Lumumba’s descendants have still not been able to properly bury his remains, and we’ll cover that history.
Links:
African Footballers as resources in the Capitalist Business that is World Football
“How the search for football’s next big thing is fuelling a modern-day slave trade”
https://theconversation.com/how-the-search-for-footballs-next-big-thing-is-fuelling-a-modern-day-slave-trade-121350
“FIFA: African football clubs peripheral to global transfer market” Jan 2022:
https://african.business/2022/01/technology-information/fifa-african-football-clubs-peripheral-to-global-transfer-market/
“GLOBAL TRANSFER REPORT 2021 (FIFA)”:
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2b542d3b011270f/original/FIFA-Global-Transfer-Report-2021-2022-indd
AFCON 2022 and the question of nationality
“Sierra Leone’s English core underpinning historic AFCON campaign”:
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/africa-cup-of-nations/story/4573975/sierra-leones-english-core-underpinning-historic-afcon-campaign
“Parallel Universe: Kylian Mbappe, Bukayo Saka among 10 Stars that could be playing at the AFCON”:
https://www.pulse.ng/sports/other-sports/kylian-mbappe-bukayo-saka-among-top-10-stars-that-could-be-playing-at-the-afcon/wzxlr2f
The Return of Military Coups in Africa
ANOTHER U.S.-TRAINED SOLDIER STAGES A COUP IN WEST AFRICA:
https://theintercept.com/2022/01/26/burkina-faso-coup-us-military/
“Now there’s a chance of justice for Thomas Sankara, it’s useful to review what got him killed”:
https://theconversation.com/now-theres-a-chance-of-justice-for-thomas-sankara-its-useful-to-review-what-got-him-killed-159749
“DRC: Bring Patrice Lumumba Home”:https://www.theelephant.info/op-eds/2022/01/21/drc-bring-patrice-lumumba-home/
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