Ghetto defendants
If the French now have regular, public discussions about race, we have to thank black members of its men’s national football team.
6443 Article(s) by:
Ladan Osman
Ladan Osman is the author of Exiles of Eden (2019) and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015). She lives in Brooklyn.
That one time Zambia nearly qualified for the World Cup
In 1994, Zambia was on the cusp of qualifying for the World Cup. After a tragedy wiped out the national team it lost to bad refereeing.
Uganda—a culture that puts women at risk of great violence
A new film and how to change minds about who is at fault for Uganda’s endemic violence against women.
Soul Brother Krishna
Ishmael Reed explores the future of race in America in new work, focusing in on black-South Asian solidarities.
Living for the ball
Ndeye Debo Seck has lost interest in local club football in Senegal. It has a lot to do with how the local game is administered.
Being coloured and Indian in South Africa after apartheid
Where do these debates about the place of coloureds and Indians in South Africa come from?
‘Any way possible’
A Kenyan football fan reflects on a lifetime of World Cup finals.
It’s time to end the CFA franc
For France’s former colonies in Africa to enjoy true independence, they need to control over their own money and budgets.
When Cameroon’s players convinced themselves they could not win
The reason why African teams struggle in the World Cup has everything to do with colonialism.
Why hasn’t an African nation won the World Cup
When African football officials stop being corrupt and identify and develop young talent, an African nation would have a real chance of winning the World Cup.
Senegal’s jersey
The Senegalese football jersey is a powerful symbol of nationhood and independence.
Senegalese pitch dreams
Football in Senegal is magic. That the team has qualified for their second World Cup, heightens the joy.
Imagining the South African Indian
How do you tell a different story of Indians in South Africa, one that shatters long-held and reproduced stereotypes?
France ’98 and a genuine moment of Maghrebi solidarity
Tunisia played England in France ’98. English hooligans attacked Tunisians in the streets of Marseille. Algerians came to Tunisians’ rescue.
The descent of our fathers
A remembrance for Father’s Day.
Ghana didn’t qualify for the World Cup, so which African team do I support?
One Ghanaian football fan wrestles with which teams to support in this year’s World Cup after the Black Stars failed to qualify.
Giant Russian dolls in Egyptian national team jerseys
Reflections on World Cup fever from Cairo and my Canadian immigrant father’s Egyptian football nationalism.
Game of Chicken
Reliving the epic quarterfinal match between reigning European football champions, France, and 1983 Copa America runners-up, Brazil, at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
The beautiful month
We are exploring the culture and history of the World Cup for the next month while the tournament goes on.
Reconsidering France’s role in the Rwandan genocide
It is worth revisiting the context for the mass killings, how historians have studied it since and casting a revisionist eye.