AfricaIs aCountry

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

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.