Africa’s Premier League
The story of Africa's long-distance love affair with English football, told by fans in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya & DR Congo.
A still from the teaser for "Africa's Premier League."
Africa is a Country is excited to present to you, loyal reader, the Kickstarter campaign for our very first full-length documentary film project.
It’s called “Africa’s Premier League,” it’s going to be a blast, and we’d love to have you on board.
Here’s the lowdown:
Africa is obsessed with the English Premier League. The continent may be divided by old colonial borders, thousands of different languages, and major cultural, political and economic differences. But Africa is united every weekend around the spectacle of English football. Love it or hate it, it’s one of the things that brings people together.
The everyday lives of Africa’s football fans are all different. Yet they share a long-distance love affair, with all the hopes, fears, joys and sadness that comes with it.
If it’s not Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame taking time out to tweet his views on his beloved Arsenal (or TB Joshua making “prophecies” about upcoming matches), then it’s the millions of ordinary Africans across the continent who are glued to TV sets in bars and bespoke viewing centres, from tiny villages to heaving mega-cities like Lagos or Kinshasa.
We want to show, in depth and detail, exactly how English football fits into the ordinary lives of African supporters.
Our film will tell the story of Africa’s passion for the English Premier League, through the eyes of the fans themselves.
If you love what we’ve been doing at Africa is a Country all these years — bringing you that fresh, incisive analysis of African politics and culture — you’ll love AFRICA’S PREMIER LEAGUE. We’ve never asked our readers for money before, but we need your support in getting this project off the ground.
AFRICA’S PREMIER LEAGUE follows four fans – in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Congo – as they live through the highs and lows of a football season, and explores the overwhelming attraction of English football in Africa.
AFRICA’S PREMIER LEAGUE will be a feature-length documentary film, a web series & a TV series.
With your help, we will take our crucial first step: making a high quality short teaser film on the life of an EPL fanatic in Cape Town, South Africa. We’ll use that to win big backers and distribution for the full-length project.
To help us, go donate here.
- Update: We raised £4,340, then the project went silent.
