Africa Is a Country

Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland

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

Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland

By
Sean Jacobs

Late last month the English goalkeeper David James wrote in The Observer that he was surprised at the accusations of racism against his national teammate John Terry. The latter was accused of racially abusing an opponent, QPR player Anton Ferdinand. James also claimed racism has been rooted out of the game a long time ago.  James suggested that racism was now limited to a small number of fans.

 However, since James wrote that, fans tweeting have abused Newcastle striker Sammy Ameobi (“your hand is nearly the same colour. #nigger” as the black soccer cleats favored by Ameobi), Anton Ferdinand again (“RT this you fucking BLACK CUNT, 1 England captain” with reference to Terry) and Frazier Campbell of Sunderland (“big fucking nigger“). Police are investigating. Only in the Ameobi case has there been arrests. UPDATE: Sepp Blatter has also now weighed in.

Bulgarian fans are racist.

Further Reading

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.