Football historian Chris Bolsmann just sent me a note:

“… If you want to buy the Bafana [Bafana replica shirt] at a ‘reasonable’ price [in the UK; 35 British pounds it is] you get the replica without the team’s Protea logo. Or you pay an extortionate price for the one with the logo.

But even more infuriating, according to Chris, is that Uhlsport, the German goalkeeper equipment manufacturer and sponsor of Bafana keeper Itumeleng Khune, has just released a new range of keeper equipment–with the Springbok logo plastered all over it.

Further Reading

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.

Empire’s middlemen

From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.

À qui s’adresse la CAN ?

Entre le coût du transport aérien, les régimes de visas, la culture télévisuelle et l’exclusion de classe, le problème de l’affluence à la CAN est structurel — et non le signe d’un manque de passion des supporters.

Lions in the rain

The 2025 AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco was a dramatic spectacle that tested the limits of the match and the crowd, until a defining moment held everything together.