The Respectable French
The 2010 World Cup was tumultuous for France; both an athletic failure and a site of social conflict. The French Football Federation doesn't want to repeat it.
Blog
Karim Benzema vs France
Fascists love Kylian Mbappé and hate Karim Benzema. Between these two lies the problem of romanticizing the French team as an African team.
What Would a World Cup Win for France Mean in the French Caribbean?
A possible French victory hovers like a thin layer of hope that barely veils the simmering anger at France’s neglect of the islands and pessimism about the future.
Nigeria’s World Cup Adventure is Over: Do We Still Love Her?
Focusing on sports allegiance to Nigeria, offered a break from pondering over all of its social ills.
The new anti-migrant national consensus
Italian politics has taken a sharp turn to the right. Migrants, especially African ones, bear the brunt of their rhetoric. Its ground zero for a new rightwing politics.
The masters of the improbable
In 1982, Reinaldo, a striker prone to making black power salutes, was left out out of Brazil's World Cup squad.
Ibrahim Usman’s road to Qatar
Watching the World Cup with a young Nigerian professional footballer in Seattle, U.S.
Dambisa Moyo is wrong about the global economy – here’s why
Western media can’t seem to get enough of Moyo: her ideas stray little from old neoliberal mantras so endlessly recycled by establishment elites in the US and Europe.
The Coming-Out of the African Same-Sex Novel
Uzodinma Iweala’s new novel about a closeted gay Nigerian comes out as we're witnessing a burgeoning African—and specifically Nigerian—literary attention to same-sex sexuality.
#TousEnsemble
The success of Belgium's national football team as a key site for political struggles over identity, race and immigration.
Cette équipe tue les fascistes
en ce moment, le plus français de tous les français est un gamin noir d’origine algérienne et camerounaise nommé Kylian Mbappé.
The Pan-Africanist roots of football in Ghana
Soccer came to Ghana with “a Jamaican educationist." That's the popular version. It's not entirely correct.