Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 495

Heroes of Afcon 2013: from DR Congo’s “bum shuffling” goalie to Ouwo Moussa Maâzou, the Nigerien striking sensation

The quarter finals are upon us, and this is where things get serious. The group stages were a joyous affair, and introduced all manner of characters (and hairstyles) to a global audience. We asked our team of contributors to choose their heroes of Afcon 2013 so far, the only rule being that they couldn’t pick a player from their own country. Enjoy, and post your own in the comments.  First up is Cheta Nwanze, who picked Cape Verde’s Heldon.

Cheta Nwanze: 

The player who has caught my eye in this tournament so far has been Cape Verde’s Heldon (image above). The attacking midfielder apparently plays his club footie for Maritimo in Portugal, hence his staying under the radar. I loved his performance from the bench against Angola despite having been dropped after the first game, and his reward, shooting Cape Verde into the quarters. How’s that for dedication?

Davy Lane: 

Football formations are increasingly the preserve of black-book-carrying high-priest-like technicians, overly encouraged by a chorus of statistical and zonal apostles.  It represents a shift in the strategic approach to football, from adventure to pre-emption. This is not intended to be dismissive of the tactical approaches prevalent in the modern game; there are plenty of interesting new paradigms for the neo purist, but for me the game was more fun when old school wingers danced down the line, teased their opponents and whipped crosses into the box like comets.  This is why Les Etalons (Stallions) Jonathan Pitroipa is the player of the tournament for me.  The upright man remains an old school, dyed in the wool, yellow dog winger.

Pitroipa is willowy, wiry and wispy, everything a winger should be.  It is a shame so few remain in modern football.  Many have no doubt had their instincts coached out of them, others have probably been deemed not physical enough.  The plaudits for Burkina Faso’s progression to the Quarter Finals have so far gone to Pitroipa’s very capable team mate, Alain Traoré, but behind every Traoré goal or much every significant attack by the Stallions, Pitroipa has been racing down the lines, cutting into the box, often releasing the near perfect pass or cross and generally making himself a nuisance, impossible to mark or hold down.  Pitroipa never gave up when Burkina Faso needed an injury time equalizer against Nigeria; he turned the disadvantage of his team being a man down against Ethiopia somehow to his team’s advantage running the Walya ragged, creating two goals and capping off the performance with a goal of his own; and he knew enough to translate his experience in the final first round group match against Zambia to run through the central channels and lead the line.  Do Togo have an old school full back who will know how to deal with him?  I doubt it.

Charles Mafa:   

Tresor Mputu (image above) from Democratic Republic of Congo is my man. A player who plies his trade for TP Mazembe back in Congo has great dribbling skills, he is a very good passer of the ball and his precision when shooting at goal is undoubted. He is also captain, chosen among all the great Congolese players who play in Europe.

Njabulo Ngidi: 

Asamoah Gyan and his teammates in Ghana always come up with some of the most creative goal celebrations in the Africa Cup of Nations. But this time around they were trumped by Muteba Kidiaba’s bum-shuffling celebration that has made the Democratic Republic of Congo’s goalkeeper an internet sensation. It’s not just the celebration that draws the attention to the keeper but his hairstyle or is it hairstyles all crammed into one. It’s a mohawk-come-dreadlocks that makes him standout.

When DRC scored the opening goal against Mali, in the group’s decider, in Durban the attention shifted quickly from the goal scorer to Kidiaba. He didn’t disappoint with a more refined bum-shuffling celebration than in the match against Ghana. It was sad when the Leopards were eliminated as they left with Kidiaba, his dance and hairstyle.

Sean Jacobs:

I would’ve gone for my homeboy Siyabonga Sangweni, defender at Orlando Pirates (“Once a Pirate …”), representing for Kwazulu Natal and two goal hero of Bafana. But the player I admire the most is Nigerian forward, Emmanuel Emeneke. Built like a bus and trailed by a match-fixing scandal at his previous club, Fenerbache, in Turkey (police ruled he he has nothing to answer for now, but he may still go to prison for it), and with a remarkable back story (his career took off after moving to South Africa’s second division), he has been the one constant in an otherwise lukewarm Nigerian team at Afcon 2013 (who may still surprise us). More recently he’s been on loan at Spartak Moscow where he scores a goal every other game, so much that it annoys the referees. He scored Nigeria’s first goal in the tournament (against Burkina Faso), then again in their second match against Zambia and may prove the difference when they play Cote d’Ivoire in a quarterfinal match Sunday.

Braden Ruddy: 

Appropriating the name of a legend is always risky business. Somehow, in the case of Luís Carlos Almada Soares, Cape Verde’s diminutive winger who plies his trade in the Portuguese 2nd Division and calls himself Platini, it works. He’s quick, skillful, a bit arrogant, and has been dangerous since the opener– even scoring the Blue Shark’s historic first Afcon goal.

With three goals to his name in the group stage, no one has struck the ball in a more aesthetically pleasing way than Alain Traoré. Possessing Thor’s hammer of a left foot, the Lorient attacking midfielder has been a constant threat and will surely see his stock surge after the tournament. You heard it hear first: Francophilic Newcastle’s next signing.

Jesse Shipley: 

My favorite live player — and I write this as I watch Algeria-Cote d’Ivoire play — has beenDidier Drogba, who I like for his confident, cool on-field leadership, the way he talks with players on his team, the other team, and the referees makes it seem that he is everyone’s respected older brother and future President of Cote D’Ivoire and head of the United Nations.

But my three favorite players who dont get enough attention are Steady Cam, Slo Mo, and Extreme Closeup. Keep your eyes on the two Steady cam operators, one on each end of the pitch and see their focus and attention; always ready on goal and for corner kicks. Slo Mo changes how we see every shot, foul, and acting job as an out-of-time masterpiece of control. Extreme Closeup is perhaps sometimes too exuberant with shots revealing badly trimmed sideburns but the amazing shots of the concentrating eyes of a player about to take a penalty with sweat dripping down quickly cut with extreme longshots of the field certainly shape how we see the personal energy and the big picture.

Elliot Ross: 



I was delighted when Niger qualified for their second Afcon finals because it meant seeing more of Ouwo Moussa Maâzou. This was our official farewell when the great man’s tournament came to an end, “Ode to Ouwo Moussa Maâzou, Nigerien striking sensation”:

So farewell then Ouwo Moussa Maâzou, Nigerien striking sensation.

Long of leg, short of sock, burly of chest and furious of face,

You wore Niger’s Number 2 and borrowed your socks from a small child.

Let nobody say that you were afraid to have a shot at goal.

Ouwo Moussa Maâzou, Nigerien striking sensation, you were born Offside and never left.

But now you must leave Afcon2013.

North African teams came up short at the African Cup of Nations

Writing in The Guardian, football journalist Jonathan Wilson noted that “… for the first time since 1992, there will be no north African presence in the quarter-finals.” He speculated as to whether this pointed to a “a significant trend of decline in the north African game.” Egypt, “the most successful team in Cup of Nations history, has fallen victim to the political upheaval there,” and did not even make the tournament. (Incidentally, their premier league is restarting this weekend.)  Tunisia failed to qualify in a tough group that included Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Algeria.  Wilson described Algeria’s fate as “staggering unlucky,”  for outplaying both Tunisia and Togo, yet losing to both. As for Morocco, Wilson described their form as “self-destructive as ever” despite that the fact that they never lost a match at Afcon 2013.  Is Wilson right about a decline in north African football? Let’s take my team, Morocco.

In their first two matches against Angola and Cape Verde, the Atlas Lions played a mediocre game. During the Cape Verde match, it was especially frustrating to watch the Moroccan team. Each time they managed to cross the half way line into Cape Verde’s territory, the players appeared confused. They did not know what to do, and passed the ball amongst each other until they lost possession.

In the team’s final Afcon 2013 match against South Africa, the quality performance that we (their fans) were hoping to see up to then, finally emerged. For much of the match, the Atlas Lions were in the lead and managed to score two goals. Yet, in spite of Morocco’s fiery performance, South Africa came back twice and equalized to make it a final score of 2-2. To add insult to injury, the players soon learned of Cape Verde’s last minute winning goal against Angola in a simultaneous match happening in Port Elizabeth. Cape Verde’s extra goal placed Morocco in third place in Group A, thereby eliminating them from the tournament.

The best spin on Morocco’s performance in the tournament is that we may have gotten the boot, but at least we got to see the team’s potential. The question now is whether the Moroccan squad can maintain and build upon this momentum, to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Also the team played better than it did during last year’s tournament. At the Afcon 2012 tournament, Morocco lost its first two matches (1-2 against Tunisia and 2-3 against Gabon) and won the third game against Niger (1-0).They failed to advance to the quarterfinals. During Afcon 2013, however, Morocco did not lose any of its matches, it drew three times (0-0, 1-1, and 2-2), and nearly qualified for the second round.

The team started slow, but ended strong.  The star players were midfielder Abdelaziz Barrada (who plays for Getafe, Spain), goalie Nadir Lamyaghri (Wydad, Morocco), and striker Youssef El-Arabi (Granada, Spain). Thanks to his well-executed assists, Barrada helped Morocco score two of its goals: one against Cape Verde, and the other against South Africa. This young player demonstrated his versatility and discipline as a midfielder and striker, and almost scored himself against South Africa. The goalie, Lamyaghri, made many impressive saves, and were it not for his skill it is likely that several more goals would have been scored against Morocco. However, he must focus on blocking curl shots, which proved to be his kryptonite against the South Africans. Al-Arabi deserves recognition for his stamina and resilience. He put in a lot of effort during the last two matches, and nearly scored several times himself.

The final match did not include Morocco’s pre-tournament star, midfielder Younes Belhanda (Montpelier, France), who was suspended after receiving two yellow cards in the Cape Verde match. My sense is that if both Belhanda and Barrada played in the last match on Sunday, it is possible that we might have witnessed a Moroccan victory over South Africa.

The team’s performance leaves us with a newfound confidence, and a hunger to see more of what the team can achieve. Taoussi, who became the team’s coach in September 2012, has received the blessing from the Royal Moroccan Football Federation to continue coaching the team. Now it all depends on whether he can steer the squad through the world cup qualifiers against Tanzania, Gambia, and Ivory Coast.

So, what should I do now that Morocco has been eliminated? Ignore the rest of the Afcon tournament and live my days in seclusion and disillusionment? Of course not. Since it was Cape Verde’s last minute goal against Angola that caused our elimination, you will find me firmly planted in Ghana’s corner (one of my favorites) when they play against the Blue Sharks later today in Port Elizabeth. Go Ghana Black Stars!

*Youssef Benlamlih blogs and tweets about International Affairs.

Wanlov the Kubolor’s Playlist for Ghana’s Black Stars (Afcon 2013 Playlist N°6)

Guest Post by Wanlov the Kubolor*

The first track below is a message to Ghana’s Black Stars (they play Cape Verde in the first of Afcon 2013′s quarterfinal matches in about 9 hours) that there is no shortcut somewhere worth going to. Hard work will pay off. This should ginger them out of the locker room if the coach has eaten too much kenkey and is being dull.

I want the Black Stars to think of all the African Ladies they can receive like antenna signals when they win this cup.

If the Black Stars won’t do it for their mothers or mother Ghana, at least they should do it for the Azonto girls.

Kaalu means “don’t fcuk around”. Black Stars you better fcukus! Nanduruwa!

I hope our opponents know the madness we have eaten (literal translation):

Attention opponents! Everytime Black Stars score or after we win, please sing this song replacing “Vera” with the name of the goal scorer or Black Stars. You will feel better sooner…

…because this is what we will sing each time we score…

…then we’ll just keep dancing…

…then we’ll switch briefly from Azonto to Simigwado dancing to confuse the opponent’s coach before they can steal some of the azonto moves…

…and as the opponents cry leaving the field too angry to shake hands well or look into the eyes of the Black Stars, this song will remind them that all is part of life…

* Download “African Gypsy feeling frisky getting tipsy living risky” Wanlov the Kubolor’s FREE soccer themed Yellow Card – Stomach Direction album here.

Meet photographer and photoblogger … Karabo Maine

Welcome to the inaugural post of our new weekly feature profiling the people behind are blogs and/or tumblrs curated by Africans, whether operating on the continent as well as in the diaspora. It takes a question-and-answer format. The posts will highlight influences, genres, and point to the kinds of work being produced by young African photographers/curators. Most of those featured are at the start of their careers. We hope to introduce you to artists you either have not heard about or whose work does not saturate the mainstream (yet). First up is Karabo Maine  (that’s him in the pic just below), a photographer based in the Botswana capital, Gaborone. Maine works for a newspaper based there, the Botswana Gazette. A recent Fine Art Photography graduate from the University of Cape Town, Karabo has worked in various other mediums such as sculpture, painting and drawing, in both Swaziland and South Africa. He maintains a Tumblr page – BRKFST where he shares his recent photography and illustration work.  The images shared here are all his own. 

What make you decide to setup a Tumblr page?

The main attraction of having a Tumblr page is the fact that you can share your images, instantly with friends and people with similar interests. And it’s free. It’s as if everyone has their own mini galleries and can exhibit on this platform. One can exhibit other people’s work, as well as your own. The way I see it, a photograph of one of my drawings, even with the edges of my carpet, or whatever surface I’m photographing on, it can and does exist as a work on it’s own within the realm of Tumblr. Sure it’s a sometimes slightly cropped still of a drawing, but it’s lack of tangibility does not mean it isn’t an object in its own right.

What exactly is for BRKST?

BRKFST came out of the need for me to show people what I can do as artist. I can’t afford a domain name, and I’m not ready for one, and a Tumblr page provided me with the perfect forum to show content created exclusively by me. I wanted my Tumblr page to be nothing but images, and text will only be present when it’s absolutely necessary. I’ve always followed Tumblr blogs, and its amazing seeing people from around the world swap and share images, and essentially ‘curate.’ You don’t actually have to have taken that photograph or drawn that face, it’s how you order and archive your collection. It also depends on what theme you use, but i would like to confidently assume that people consider how their images are ordered.

What is your creative process like? Is there a means by which you determine what subjects or events you want to shoot with a camera versus illustrate with pens?

I’ve always thought of myself as an illustrator first and photographer second. The action of drawing (in my case) seems to be an almost masturbatory and self indulgent one, as I can spend hours drawing one face, exploring its details. At this point in my fledgling creative ‘career,’ I have an intense fascination with facial forms. I see a face in a magazine, or possibly on the street, and use that face as a template for a drawing. Then I add my own unrealistic and stylized shadows and highlights. It’s only recently (last 6 years) that I’ve begun to appreciate this lengthy process of mark making, on paper, with a felt tipped pen, ball point pen, pencil, and or a finger. This process contrasts with my photography, as the medium is an immediate one. I, along with many people, (I think) still find the immediacy of photography amazing. You can photograph almost anything in the world. That’s awesome. That’s a powerful thing to do. ‘Taking’ a picture. You own that image (depending on your copyright laws). You can press the shutter release button, and all these processes happen within the camera body and lens that seems so removed from you. And they happen so fast! It’s also a violent act, as you’re still taking an image. I was reprimanded for taking a picture of an airport bar. “Why are you taking pictures of the facilities sir?” Imagine. That’s how powerful image taking is. Once I’m gone, the airport staff has no power over the image. I’m ranting. Working as a press photographer I’m given assignments, and I have to photograph specific actions. I must get that minister shaking hands with some guy, the child receiving glasses or that one shot at the soccer match. my own private photography process is seemingly random, but I do return to similar themes, or signifiers; faces, myself, detail shots, people photographing. At this point i can’t say there is that one thing I’m photographing. No series just yet.

Any pages that you visit regularly for great content and inspiration?

I’m following quite a lot of photographers at the moment, but the two that stand out for me right now, are South African, Kent Andreason, who lives and works in Cape Town, and 13th Witness, a New York based photographer. Their work is very different. Where Andreason provides an intense intimacy in his images, 13th Witness’s work is epic in its scale, even in it’s most intimate moments. They are very varied and skilled photographers but these are things I’ve personally noticed about their work. I’m a big fan of both them.

Do you feel that your page adds to/changes the perception people have of Botswana?

I have yet to include images and drawings that are informed by my current residency in Botswana. In terms of changing or adding to perceptions of Botswana, I’m not too sure if I’m doing that yet. I would like to be part of a creative force that gets Botswana some play on the international design scene. That would be dope. Since I’ve started working it’s been a bit harder trying to create more content, but I just need to keep pushing my own practice.

One question we’re posing to our featured photo-blogger  is to comment on something we’ve recently blogged about. I wanted to ask you your take on the launch of a new Dutch TV show The African Dream, in which two young Dutch men, two brothers travel “to Africa … to look for answers for their Western questions and African solutions for their problems.”

I’m not too sure if I’m sold on the Dutch show The African Dream. Seems way too familiar. I’d rather see two Zulu guys exploring their continent. I’m good.

And, finally, your predictions for who’ll win the African Cup of Nations 2013? 

Haha! I don’t really watch soccer. But I am cheering for South Africa, since I see myself there in the next two years.

* Karabo resides in Gaborone, Botswana. His website is here.  Feel free to message us candidates for this series to our Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Yes, we’re discussing Danny Brown’s “Black Brad Pitt” music video

So Detroit rapper, Danny Brown (remember his breakout mixtape “XXX,” his video for “Grown Up“ and a darling of music blogs) has new video for his song, “Black Brad Pitt.”  The first things that strike any viewer of the video is the clear disconnect between the video and Brown’s lyrics for “Black Brad Pitt.” Brown’s rap–over a beat by British DJs, Evil Nine–is basically a familiar mix of profane bragging about his sexual prowess and drug use with some misogyny thrown in; essentially NSFW (don’t play it loudly in the office). Meanwhile, series of disconnected images–common to music videos nowadays–play out on screen. These include a black male in army fatigues (a soldier?) crumping through lush vegetation (a jungle?), a black (African?) “dictator” at a lectern mouthing off (though we can’t hear what he says,Tom suspects he is speaking French) and a half-clad woman. In-between we see images of a smoking, crocodile head, a gold pineapple (!) and diamonds flashing on the screen. Then it ends.  Here’s the video:

Unfortunately, with these things, the internets usual aren’t very helpful and full of vague praise. Here’s a representative sample: “an interesting set of visuals” (Stupiddope), ”The visual is pretty out there as the main concept is a soldier break-dancing in the jungle” (Complex), and “some weird dancing-in-the-jungle fantasy involving dictators and diamonds” (Do Androids Dance). From Youtube, here’s some sample comments: “so i guess they found kony crumpin in the jungle;” “i get it… kony is the black brad pitt… cause he “adopted” a lot of children;” and “Dammit Danny rap about something different.”

As is the custom around Africa is a Country, I asked around “the office” to hear what we made of this:

Boima Tucker:

“Black Brad Pitt” means that Danny Brown’s a really good actor…”

Dylan Valley:

If he was really the Black Brad Pitt the video would be about him adopting African and Asian kids … BTW, from a technical perspective the video is really well shot.

Greg Mann:

Doesnt really bear thinking about, but maybe he is trying to win that bounty down in Florida. And if he does, he should buy something nice for his mother, who must be ashamed of his mouth.

But call me old-fashioned.

Zachary Rosen:

This video superbly captures an Africa of make-believe. Danny gives us a jungle of soldiers, dictators, women, diamonds and fetishes. With its mystical visuals and unapologetically depraved lyrics, the video’s African representations are completely devoid of context or relevance, aligning them quite comfortably with many other pop culture allusions to Africa. The Africa of Danny Brown is wholly manufactured. It has been constructed on a set, with an exotic landscape and elaborate costumes. These images have been force-fed into our subconscious before, thousands of times. They are designed to bewilder us, scare us and entrance us, but never to challenge us. And yet because SPIN magazine decided Danny’s XXX mixtape was rap album of the year in 2011, hipsters everywhere will continue to eat it up regardless, salivating over how Danny’s music “breaks new ground“.

Neelika Jayawardane:

I think that I’d be less annoyed if it wasn’t just another heavy dose of bitches, bitches, bitches: sucking N****s off, being busy on my dick, etc. Oh, yeah, and lines of coke stretching out to the horizon. What’s new? It’s like we stepped back to 1999, “rappin’ ’bout money, hoes, and rims again” again. If these morons are clever enough to be “meta-rap” (ie. rap with lyrics that critique the tired game while playing it – as did Kanye West, in his better days), I’d think it interesting. But Kanye did that already in “Breathe in Breathe Out” back in two-thousand-oh-what? Long ago enough that I can’t remember.

So if there any new ground being broken here, it’s that two annoying has-been genres are mixed together: the ho/my cock rap genre and the Afro-dystopia genre. Is he saying that uniforms are nice? and make men look powerful? Wow. So innovative. but I thought Leni already did that with Nazi porn.

Justin Scott:

Danny Brown is someone I enjoy (especially his mixtape XXX). That said I agree the schtick is getting tiresome. But Danny has been toiling away trying to “make it” for years. He finally broke thru with his cocaine-laced high-excitement flow, mostly because it’s what the white hipster blogosphere wants to see. Basically, there are market forces at work here putting a premium on the kind of rhyming we’re calling out so easily in this forum. There’s been some interesting writing on the fetishization of the ghetto by white rap listeners; see for example this New Republic piece.

‘kola:

I am amazed at uncanny resemblance between the dictator in the video and Charles Taylor, who btw was a democratically elected “autocrat.”  That said, I really feel like I have been transported back to the 1990s with all this talk about rap, selling out, rap white market forces, hoes, bitches and niggas … Wasn’t all of this over-analyzed then?

So what do you think, dear readers?

Why do most African countries hire non-African football coaches for their national teams?

Post By Jimmy Kainja* 

It seemed strange when in the run-up to Afcon 2013, Nigeria’s coach Stephen Keshi forcefully criticised African football associations for their preference for white coaches. That when Zambia, until this week the great success story of African football, had Hervé Renard to thank for masterminding their unlikely triumph last year in Libreville. Yet Keshi has a point.

The success of Zambia under Renard should not obscure the fact that African football administrators have always failed to appreciate and make use of its own resources and talent. This is true of football as it is of Africa’s national economies. (As it’s turned out, the split between local- and European-coached teams in the quarter finals is even, four of each, but the stand-out coach, Cape Verde’s press-conference-crooner Lucio Antunes, is decidedly homegrown).

Keshi told BBC Sport that white coaches are not doing anything that African coaches cannot do. “I am not a racist but that’s just the way it is.” Keshi added that African FAs favour European coaches over African: “You tell a white person they need a year to adapt, to know the country and the players–they are told ‘don’t worry, take your time.’ That is unprofessional and is one thing that is killing African football,” Keshi argued.

This is a perennial debate in Africa; it is always there when a football tournament is on in Africa. Prior to 2010 Fifa World Cup, former Malawi national football team coach Kinnah Phiri also told BBC World Service that “it’s not fair for us African coaches not to be given a chance to run our own national teams because in the first place most of us are well trained, I trained in Britain; so to me, I think it’s just because of our own mentality as Africans that we do not believe in our people.”

As it happens, Keshi is currently in-charge of Nigeria and Phiri has just lost his job, after a string of bad results at the end of a lengthy tenure, suggesting that these two have been given a fair chance by their respective countries. Yet they paint a bigger picture than this.

For instance, Malawi has had a fair share of expatriate coaches that have not brought any success (take your pick from the itinerant German Burkhard Ziese, the Dane Kim Splidsboel and Englishmen Alan Gillett, Michael Hennigan and Stephen Constantine) . Malawi has never qualified for the World Cup. It has twice qualified for Afcon, in 1984 and 2010. Local coaches had been in charge on both occasions: the late Henry Moyo in 1984 and Phiri in 2010.

Egypt is the most successful football team in the Afcon history; it has won the trophy seven times, mainly with local coaches–take the recent three successive victories (2006, 2008 and 2010) when Hassan Shehata was in charge. These days they’re coached by an American, Bob Bradley, and they no longer qualify for international tournaments, most recently beaten by the mighty Central African Republic. Ghana has won the tournament four times, with a local coach guiding the team on all the four occasions. (Recently, in a brilliant BBC interview, Black Stars legend Osei Kofi, lamented the “mismanagement” that had seen so many Black Stars sides coached by Europeans.) A foreign coach has never won the World Cup on any of the 18 occasions it has been held.

The pandemonium that gripped African football prior to the 2010 World Cup is very telling. Of the six African countries present at that tournament, only Algeria had a local coach, Rabah Saadane, Ivory Coast had the Swede Sven-Goran “not-here-for-the-money” Eriksson. Another Swede, Lars Lagerback was in charge of Nigeria. Cameroon had a Frenchman, Paul Le Guen, while South Africa had a former World Cup wining coach, Carlos Alberto Perreira from Brazil. Ghana had a Serb, Milovan Rajevac.

All these were experienced coaches, in various degrees. Yet their appointments (not so much for Ghana and South Africa) vindicate Keshi and Phiri. Eriksson was hired less than four months before the tournament. In fact, Eriksson after he had just been sacked by Mexico, as the Mexicans were in danger of failing to qualify for the same tournament.

Nigeria sacked a local coach, Shaibu Amodu, who qualified the team to the tournament, in favour of Lagerback. Lagerback had just failed to qualify his own country, Sweden to the same tournament. Cameroon went for Le Guen who had no experience of coaching in Africa (he’d just been hounded out of Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers) and he had an unrealistically short time to organise the team, which had also achieved qualification under a different coach. South Africa’s appointment had some logic, as Perreira is a World Cup winning coach (1994) and had the luck of not having to qualify the team, as South Africa were hosts. Ghana was the only team that maintained a coach from the qualifying rounds. Ghana was the only African team that made it past the group stages and it was by far the most convincing of the African teams at the tournament, only knocked out by the dastardly Luis Suarez on that unforgettable night at Soccer City.

African football seems to be following the path of its national economies: so much resources and human talent but always looking to the West for help. Yet Africa has a massive pool of footballers playing in the top leagues in Europe and elsewhere. (The Economist suggested that in Ivory Coast footballers may yet overtake cocoa as the country’s main export product.) This speaks volumes of the available talent, and Ivory Coast is just one of many similar examples. (The Ivorians made the extraordinary decision of firing the popular François Zahoui, and choosing former Parma midfielder Sabri Lamouchi, a man with no managerial experience whatsoever, to lead the team at this Afcon. Les Elephants are looking good, but then don’t forget they didn’t concede a single goal at the last tournament under Zahoui.)

European coaches are products of the same leagues that most Africans play for. As Phiri pointed out, Africans and Europeans attend the same coaching courses yet African FAs still see expatriate coaches above African coaches, and are happy to pay them a far higher salary. Familiarity breeds contempt; this is particularly true of Africa. It is the only continent that fails to recognise and exploit its vast footballing expertise for its own benefit.

Africa’s national football teams have failed to improve under foreign coaches and there is nothing to suggest that it will ever improve. Let’s face it, a coach that is useful in Europe would never leave for Africa (where is Sven now?). Why would they? It is the same way that aid dependency continues to fail Africa, only its own resources and talent can bring its national teams success on the biggest stages.

The best death metal band in Botswana

Botswana’s heavy metal scene has been covered before on photography blogs (mostly posts on the work of South African photographer Frank Marshall) and there’s a few music videos (like this one) floating around on Youtube. But there’s little actual video reports/profiles of the scene, until now. (I stand corrected, of course.) Now Dutch TV channel VPRO made this video report (for its weekly program Metropolis, whose local correspondents report from around the world) on some of the characters in that scene.  The report mostly profiles 35 year-old metalhead Gunsmoke, whose mix of bravado, posing and sense of humor might still make him a star. We see the, by now, famous styles and influences associated with that scene: Mad Max, lots of leather, WWE, and cowboy films. But we also learn that Gunsmoke for all his mean mugging, lives with his parents and wants to farm with rabbits.

Some locals are confused by all this; accusing the metal fans of being Satanists. Others are just practical: “Here in Africa it is extremely hot, you can’t wear that kinds of clothes. It goes to 39 degrees, 37, so you when you wear leather … the heat.” About 8 minutes in we also get to meet the best heavy metal band in Botswana.

Watch it here.

Watching the African Nations Cup in Astoria, Queens

Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens is home to the largest Moroccan population in New York City and Casa Lounge, a Moroccan-owned hookah spot, has been the undisputed destination in the neighborhood to catch Morocco’s Africa Cup of Nations matches this year.

Needing a win to progress out of a surprisingly competitive Group A, the Atlas Lions came out strong against a South African side needing at least a draw. Morocco opened the scoring after Issam El Adoua’s header capitalized on some sloppy South African defending in the 10th minute.

As it bounced over the line, the early goal seemed to catch the awestruck Moroccan fans in Queens, at least 75 strong, a bit off guard. Their joy was palpable immediately however, with national team kit-bedecked fans unfurling large red Morocco flags, chanting “wal Maghrib, wal Maghrib” and kissing each other while pointing to the heavens in gratitude.

Unfortunately, a bit of the celebratory momentum was lost when Casa Lounge’s Arabic satellite TV feed went down half way through the first half. A frustrating “channel error connection failed” message hovered ominously over the proceedings as concerned Moroccan fans took to their cell phones in hopes of not missing any of the action in between sips of extortionist-priced $5 mint teas.

Thankfully, the satellite feed came back a few minutes into the second half shortly before May Mahlangu’s composed curling finish from the top of the box in the 71st minute leveled the proceedings in Durban and scaled-up the blood pressure of the Moroccan fans in Queens.

Fate’s cruel twists continued for the Moroccans as they first went back ahead 2-1 after substitute Abdelilah Hafid’s late 82nd minute strike sent the fans on Steinway Street into a rapturous celebration just as the feeble Arabic satellite feed went out once again.

Only four minutes later, however, with many fans nervously pushed into the back of Casa Lounge hoping to catch a glimpse of the reserve internet feed, only available on one of the TVs by this point, South Africa tied the match with Siyabonga Sangweni’s clutch 86th minute bending effort.

The goal effectively sent South Africa through and broke Moroccan hearts. One man at Casa Lounge spiked his mint tea in disgust, and profanity-lanced Arabic diatribes filled the air in Queens as teary knocked-out Moroccan players collapsed on the pitch in Durban.

* The post is co-written with Owen Dodd and Rob Navarro, who between the 3 of them took the photos. A project started in a graduate class on global soccer taught by Sean Jacobs at The New School, we attempt to watch football across New York City and to blog about it at our tumblr, Global Soccer, Global NYC, too

Another new book argues Zimbabwe land reform is a success

This evening in London, researchers Joseph Hanlon, Jeanette Manjengwa, and Teresa Smart will be launching their new book, “Zimbabwe takes back its land”, a book that reportedly argues that Zimbabwe’s land reform has been a success, resulting in new farmers being increasingly productive and improving their lives. The London-based SW Radio Africa, started by opposition activists, reports that a protest is being planned over the book (SW Radio Africa refers to it dramatically as a “contentious land-grab book“). Tonight’s launch is the second in London. This has elicited much excitement, particularly among Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

Now, the authors’ conclusions won’t be new to those who follow Zimbabwe closely. After all, several others, including New York Times Johannesburg correspondent Lydia Polgreen (on a reporting trip to Johannesburg) as well as separately, the researchers Ian Scoones and Blasio Mavedzenge have come to similar conclusions in the aftermath of fast track land reform in the country. These journalists and researchers all assert that it is unfair to condemn the fast-track land redistribution in Zimbabwe given that agricultural production has increased substantially over the course of the past decade. A few weeks ago, The Guardian’s Jonathan Steele argues that Mugabe-phobia has obscured the good news from Zimbabwe and that the outside world has been reluctant to give credit where credit is due despite evidence of success in rural areas throughout the country. Nevertheless, even if it is true that agricultural production in Zimbabwe has increased substantially, this alleged success still begs the question, “at what cost?”

I am not suggesting that land reform was unnecessary in the Zimbabwean context. No one can credibly make that argument. And we hope to interview the authors of the new book. However, what this book and some of these articles achieve (whether they want to or not), is to sanitize and trivialize a decade of mayhem. Mugabe the “champion of mass justice” asserted that the redistribution of land in Zimbabwe would serve to redress the wrongs of colonial injustice. Yet, it was conducted in a way that appears to make a mockery of the very notions it supposedly espoused–those of justice, equity and freedom.

While agricultural production may very well have increased in the aftermath of land reform, there have been many problems borne of that chaotic process. Increased agricultural production has not equaled food security in the country and millions continue to rely on food aid from the World Food Program, nor has it resulted in a return to any semblance of rule of law. While the authors mentioned above may think it is enough to credit the Mugabe regime for what they consider to be its agricultural success, it is perhaps more important to think deeply about the processes by which that “success” has been achieved. One can only hope that the authors of the book being launched today have paid due diligence to the fact that the journey to that perceived success has been one fraught with terrible injustice, a lack of equity and close to no freedom for many who remain in the country.

The bigger question is not why France decided to intervene in Mali, but why America has held off

Stephen W Smith in The London Review of Books:

The bigger question is not why France decided to intervene but why America has held off. Is it simply imperial overstretch and war-weariness? That seems a little thin, given the hue and cry in Washington about ‘ungoverned spaces’ and ‘terrorist safe havens’. After all, the Sahara is six times as big as Afghanistan and Pakistan combined. And why sink money into the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership – more than $1 billion since 2005 – or foot the bill for Operation Enduring Freedom Trans-Sahara, if at the end of it all al-Qaida is allowed to march on Bamako? Why would Obama order more drone strikes than his predecessor against the leaders of Somalia’s al-Shabaab, a group with relatively weak links to international terrorism, but not lift a finger to stop AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Maghreb) from taking over Mali? Unless, of course, in addition to a division of labour with the French, the point is to ‘disaggregate’ the multiple terrorist threats in Africa, tackling each individually rather than addressing any common denominator, and so deny jihadism a chance to coalesce. In this regard, even if the French were drawn into the quicksand in Mali, Nigeria would most likely remain the region’s focal point for the US: with 150 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state as well as the biggest oil producer south of the Sahara, and has an active homegrown salafist-jihadist group, Boko Haram (‘Westernisation Is Sinful’). When I put these thoughts to a US military staffer involved in anti-terrorism in Africa, he replied tersely: ‘What we’re doing in Africa is a sort of Whac-A-Mole’ – a reference to an arcade game in which players force moles back into their burrows by hitting them on the head with a mallet. He went on to quote the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams: ‘America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.’ Well, not any longer perhaps. But France has done precisely that.

Source.