Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 498

What’s With The Empty Seats At The African Nations Cup

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Guest Post by Marc Fletcher*

One of the key sights of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations has been emptiness. Aside from the opener between South Africa and Cape Verde, the television cameras have picked up images of large swathes of empty seats. Whether it was Burkina Faso’s last gasp equaliser against Nigeria in Nelspruit or Tunisia’s equally late winner versus Algeria in Rustenburg, the empty seats appeared to outnumber the fans that had made the trip. Coverage from previous editions of the tournament in Ghana, Angola and Equatorial Guinea picked up similar images. This is clearly not a South African-only problem.

I had earlier hoped that the more reasonable pricing structure for this tournament as opposed to the 2010 World Cup would have made the games more accessible to majority of poorer, working class football fans; those who make up the vast majority of the support base of South Africa’s domestic clubs. The empty seats suggest that it’s reaching few people in general.

So what are the issues behind this?

Firstly, there aren’t many players in this tournament that can be described as superstars. In the World Cup, there was Messi, Ronaldo and the entire Spanish squad. This time around, there’s Didier Drogba, whose career is winding down in China but few others. Yes, there are players such as Yaya Toure and Asamoah Gyan but they simply do not have the same star status. Why spend hard-earned money to watch two teams that you have little or no interest in?

Secondly, the 5 pm kick off times are hardly conducive to getting bums on seats. As I write this, I have one eye on the Bafana v Angola match. While attendance seems to be significantly greater than in most of the other matches, there are still many empty seats. Traffic at this time in the major cities can be nightmarish and some fans will be unwilling to put themselves through the gridlock and confusion. To make sure that you get to the stadium in plenty of time means taking the afternoon off work.

A big contributory factor is that that there are few, if any African countries that have a large fan base with a large enough disposable income to fly out to the southern tip of the continent for the tournament. Unlike the vast hoards of travelling football tourists at the Euros or at the World Cup, the support of visiting teams is usually restricted to a small rump of die-hard regular fans who are sometimes subsided by the state or political parties. While the commitment on the part of these fans is impressive, this is not going to fill these former World Cup venue. This is a problem that is not going to go away anytime soon.

But the thing that strikes me most as I write from Johannesburg is the absence of evidence that the tournament is taking place. In 2010, there were numerous posters around the city, large fan parks with big screens and people blowing vuvuzelas on street corners. Thousands crammed onto the streets in the north of the city when Bafana went on an open-top bus tour while a giant photo of Cristiano Ronaldo was emblazoned on Nelson Mandela Bridge. This time, it is severely underwhelming. There is no party atmosphere, no fan parks, little hype on local television or radio. Bafana shirts are far less apparent on the street in contrast to 2010. It’s not totally absent though. Staff at my local Spar were wearing their Bafana shirts today, while bar staff on Soweto’s tourist strip on Vilikazi Street were doing the same.

Still, it’s as if the tournament has passed Jo’burg by and I wouldn’t be surprised if it passes most of South Africa by with little more than a passing awareness that Africa’s biggest football tournament is in their country. The slogan of the tournament is “The beat at Africa’s feet,” but this beat is strangely subdued.

Maybe people realise that they have more important things to do than watch football?

N.B. During the South Africa vs Angola match, Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban seemed to be fuller in the second half. The commentator on Supersport (the local channel which dominates football broadcasting on the continent) has suggested that there is an excessive number of security cordons, which has delayed many fans from getting into the ground until the latter part of the first half.

* Marc Fletcher, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Johannesburg, blogs at One Man and His Football: Tales of the Global Game. 

What We Learn From Day Six Of Afcon 2013

Referees are known to ruin games waving red cards. An early red card in the game between Ghana and Mali may have made this a classic. Instead the match competed with the empty rafters for attention. Both teams played nervous, uninspiring football. Futbologists may describe this as “Democratic Republic of Congo effect” or “Dieumerci dizziness.” Black Star goalie Duade who plays his club football for Ashanti Gold in Obuasi (though you would never know this if you were watching various Euro broadcasts) blatantly clawed the ball off the toe of a Mali attacker, who was outside the box, and rolled it into his midriff, which was inside the box. What was Duade thinking? Penalty! A clear goal scoring opportunity. The last man. All that. At which point Noumandiez Doué the Ivorian referee probably remembered the memo he received last week about exuberant, early red cards. Yellow. Seydou Keita flashed the resulting free kick inches wides. That was about as close as Mali got. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu went close for Ghana heading against a post in the 32nd minute and was upended in the box minutes later. Penalty. Badu may have taken it if he had not been winded. So up stepped Wakaso. The winning goal curled into the net despite a swan like dive from Mamadou Samassa. Wakaso was mobbed as he celebrated in front of the “Die Hard” Ghana support and revealed from a message from Mecca under his shirt. ALLAH IS GREAT. The Second Half was not.

In the second game of the day, Niger showed some Vorsprung durch Technik. The Leopards from the DRC were lackadaisical. It was not a poor game, but rather a match that did not meet expectations. DR Congo were expected to win in style tonight. They did not. Perhaps they were looking ahead. Regardless of tonight’s result, DR Congo were always going to have to beat Mali in Durban next. Niger were more than just organized and determined, however. Niger got game and could easily have won. When the Menas’ Issa Sidibé curled a shot on to the post in the opening minutes, it was a signal of Niger’s intent. They were serious about staying in the tournament. Minutes later Niger overwhelmed the Leopards in a break away. Mohamed Soumaïla shot when he should have passed. The Leopards survived. Lomana LuaLua slipped a shot wide when it was easier to score. Kassaly made two super saves from Dieumerci Mbokani. Claude Le Roy made three substitutions in the second half, but DR Congo were far too cautious and constrained by an opponent that covered the ground with more efficiency. Dieumerci Mbokani though relatively quiet was always a threat and could have scored had the advance exchanges been sharper. Niger could have clinched it at the end but Muteba Kidiaba was alert and agile. Ghana will know enough now to respect Niger. Group B’s final games promise to be fascinating.

David Goldblatt is interviewed (by African Lookbook)

David Goldblatt (Photo by David Southwood)

Aaron Kohn’s African Lookbook interview with David Goldblatt covers a wide swath of subject matter—from childhood experiences, how he began working as a photographer after his father’s death, and why he was never cut out to be a “political” photographer (because “I am a coward,” he says, and because “I’m interested in the underbelly” of things, rather than surface tensions). We learn, also, about the details of how the influential Market Photo Workshop came into being—through a mixture of informal networks between friends, fundraising, idealism, and actual work, making the ideals an ongoing reality. His deep, respectful collaborations with writers like Nadine Gordimer are borne of his belief that “writers in this country came to grips with this society and tried to unravel it and pierce it and ponder it and sum it up and look for relationships in ways that other people weren’t doing,” and that writers were doing this difficult work in ways that “photographers weren’t.”

And we learn that despite accolades, awards, shows all over the world, he regrets travelling as much as he does. It is the light in winter—working with the way it spreads out on the Highveld in June and July—that he wishes to spend time with.

We hear some things we’ve probably heard before from other interviews, but many of the anecdotes Goldblatt provides to Kohn’s prompts include details that I’ve never heard: Goldblatt’s work was never banned, and he generally skirted trouble, though once, afraid of an arrest and confiscation of his rolls of film, he misinformed his hotel clerk about catching a flight in the morning, and drove all night in a rental car, accompanied by his beloved rolls of film. Although he “never hid his views”, or his “associations with people”, the apartheid regime was apparently rather confused by his subject matter (loving portrayals of rural Afrikaners doesn’t exactly speak firebrand). But fear was always there. What did happen was that he self-censored: “You do become afraid…You don’t want to be detained. So you don’t do it, or you do it in a modified way.” Though he was never arrested or harassed too much by the police, he was always aware that his colleagues lived far more troubled lives as photographers. Omar Badsha, Peter Magubane, and Alf Khumalo “were often in trouble with the security police, and much more seriously. You know Magubane was shot, imprisoned.” He also remembers his failings: Peter Magubane, who had recently been imprisoned, wanted a darkroom to work in. But at the time, people on the Left “felt that he had become a sellout and wasn’t to be trusted.” Goldblatt was worried; he didn’t allow Magubane to use his darkroom. “I’ve been ashamed of that ever since.”

Years ago, when I was first interviewing David Goldblatt in his modest flat on Cape Town’s Long Street, he told me an anecdote about a series of close-ups of people he photographed outdoors. Many of the photographs focused on the men’s and women’s thighs and midsections, not shying away from bulges and protrusions. On the women, his attention focused on the fat that spreads out from the back of the thighs when they sat on park benches. He pointed to the spread of fat (which usually mortifies women I know) with obvious relish, and spoke of its allure—it was attractive, he said gently. This intimation came along with dozens of other detailed anecdotes about the circumstances surrounding each of his photographs: Glodblatt has a razor-sharp memory. Somehow, I felt that this particular detail was not one he repeats at every interview—perhaps it was his way of slowing down his speech, the small smile that overtook his lips, and the clichéd twinkly eye; perhaps it was his way of wording the beauty of desire for a thing that the object of desire often does not like about herself. In any case, I later heard him speak about those photographs at a Cape Town book festival on the occasion of the re-launch of his Some Afrikaners. I admit to being surprised when he used the same word arrangements, the same syntactical strategy to point the audience’s attention towards the fat on women thighs as he had done during one of my first interviews with him. Again, I heard the same gentleness, dissociated from the violence usually attached to desire, the same admiration usually reserved for a finely turned breast or bottom. The room was packed with older women, perfumed and wearing their Sunday best: they were mostly Afrikaners, and here to see themselves “revisited” and revived. They took his words with the delight of schoolgirls, tittering naughtily. Then I realized what all interviewers must: Goldblatt, like all writers, artists, performers, gives hundreds of interviews. He has to repeat stuff. And because he has a superb memory, he literally reproduces, like a litany, what he says about each photograph. But more than that: he re-performs the same emotional communiqué with his audience, be it an audience of one, or a roomful. And he is very savvy about intended effects, about controlling the frame of his images, and his narratives about them. (His stipulation for reproducing his photographs is that they are not cropped in any way; he will read over your article/interview and ask that parts of it be slightly amended, not just for factual inaccuracies, but also for ensuring that the particular story he wants comes through, just so.)

Here, in Kohn’s interview, too, we see evidence of that same gentle shaping: Goldblatt tells Kohn, when asked about his views of the enormous protests surrounding Brett Murray’s painting of an exposed President Zuma: “So I initially phoned Brett Murray and suggested the painting should be taken down,” because of the furore it was causing: the anger was not worth the trouble. But later, writes Kohn, DG “added on the phone that despite thinking the painting should have been taken down originally, he was also unhappy with the way that Jacob Zuma handled the situation.”

The full transcript of African Lookbook’s interview with David Goldblatt is available here.

Would Susan Rice have been a good choice for US Secretary of State?

Remember Susan Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State who wasn’t? It might seem old news now, as Senator John Kerry sits in front of his colleagues seeking their constitutionally-mandated “consent” to his appointment to become the next U.S. Secretary of State, replacing Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election in November, knowing that Clinton would not serve during his second term, the media and the blogosphere were abuzz with the idea that Obama would pick U.N. Ambassador Rice to succeed her boss. In the face of relentless critiques from both right and left, that nomination went down in flames before Obama had even officially made it. Let’s remember how noxious a moment that was, while asking whether it matters for U.S. policy in Africa.

Although she was at one point arguably its most influential member, Rice is not loved by the U.S. Africanist community (for what it’s worth). Apparently, she’s not loved by her colleagues and subordinates at State, either, and there are real critiques of the positions she’s taken on African issues over the years. But Republican senators and their allies did not spike her potential nomination because she wasn’t progressive enough, because she had not taken the high road in U.S. African policy, or because she is too close to unsavory characters like Rwandan President Paul Kagame. And they didn’t spike it because they thought she had misled the nation on the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens; that was a pretext, demonstrably false, not a reason. They spiked it because they knew that forcing Obama to fall back on his likely second choice, Kerry, would open up a senate seat in his home state of Massachusetts, in which they had just lost a hard-fought senatorial campaign (along with the presidential one). They also spiked it out of spite, and simply because they could. It’s no surprise that Republican senators represent a contemptible politics, or that their tactics are cynical and obstructionist. In this case, they had a lot of help, even mean-spirited and tendentious covering fire, from other quarters.

The ambush was also a cross fire. Whatever it was Susan Rice did to the New York Times, I hope it was worth it. On December 12th, the paper of record ran a piece arguing that Secretary of State had become too obvious an appointment for a “woman or minority member.” Of the last four secretaries, three are women (Albright, Susan Rice, Clinton), and two are African-American (Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice). There had not been a White guy since Bill Clinton’s first term ended in 1997. The implication was that appointing a White male senator—a virtually redundant phrase, since the Senate is overwhelmingly White and male—would be a step towards diversity in the Cabinet. Go figure. This piece followed a series of others, some of them aggressive, running the fine line between reporting a story and generating a meme—in this case that Rice’s nomination was ill-advised and her confirmation impossible. I hope for his sake that they like John Kerry.

You can hardly read a story on Rice without encountering Samantha Power. I’m not the first to say that Power’s A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2003) is an excellent book; it won the Pulitzer Prize. Stronger testimony to its force, Bosnian friends told me its account of American passivity in the face of that country’s genocide made them weep and vomit, literally. On Rwanda, too, the book is stomach-turning. In recounting debates within the Clinton White House over what to do in the face of that horror—and more precisely, whether or not to identify it as a genocide, thereby triggering a treaty obligation to act to protect civilians—Power attributes Rice with a damning line that she’s never lived down: “If we use the word genocide and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?” (2003: 359). Rice was thirty years old at the time, “a rising star,” in Power’s words. Now, you can spin this in different ways. In my reading, it’s hardly more than hearsay. Some people say she said it, but there’s no citation or other evidence (Power’s source on it is the same military advisor who discounted the warnings of Romeo Dallaire, the commander of the U.N. contingent on the ground). Rice doesn’t remember having said it, only commenting that “if she did, it was completely inappropriate.” This is Bob Woodward style reporting—aka, unattributed insider gossip—but the nearly twenty-year old comment is one that hovers constantly over Rice’s reputation. One indirect effect of it—and the remorseful recognition that Bill Clinton was too timid in Rwanda—is that Rice spoke forcefully in favor of NATO intervention to protect Benghazi in Spring 2011. Irony of ironies, she and Power agreed on that. Along with liberal interventionist John Prendergast, Power was one of Rice’s strongest recent supporters, telling The New Republic that “on the issues that are documented in [Problem from Hell], I can’t imagine someone that is better at these issues than the person that I now work with.”

All that said, a well-grounded and persuasive critique of Rice’s suitability as a Secretary of State has been made, notably by Howard French and Jason Stearns, who have laid it out very well in relation to Central Africa. In short, Rice built her career around African affairs during a crucial post-Cold War moment in which an old guard was on its way out and the United States was investing in a new crop of tough guys. Rice was in the midst of that transition, and over the years she developed strong relationships with the new U.S.-backed strongmen. So has Rice been in the corner of more than one repressive, not to say cold blooded, African leader—from Paul Kagame to the late Meles Zenawi? Yes. She’s been an ambitious political appointee at the U.S. State Department; we’re not talking about the next Secretary of Peace, Love, and Understanding. As a wise man along the train line at Kidira once told me, “you can’t walk through shit without getting some of it on your shoes,” and Rice is accused of turning a blind eye to some particularly nasty episodes of political violence, even mass killing.

I don’t hold out high hopes that Senator Kerry will inaugurate a new, more just policy towards Africa—he’s been a champion of South Sudan, but seems particularly enchanted by possibilities for U.S. oil companies there. And although his record is more nuanced than hers, he has taken positions every bit as unappealing as Rice’s on Israel and Iraq. One thing is for sure: Kerry’s not sitting at the confirmation table because of his right-minded policies towards African states. And it’s not clear that Rice’s ongoing influence over U.S. policy has come to an end simply because she withdrew her name from consideration for the nomination. Many think she’ll be made National Security Advisor, a position that needs no Senate confirmation.

Would Susan Rice have been a good choice for Secretary of State? Looks like we’ll never know. There’s no reason to imagine that her arrival would have heralded a progressive American policy in Africa, to the contrary. And by all accounts she’s hardly diplomatic. Yet neither is she single-handedly responsible for American policy in Rwanda in 1994, or the fact that the African renaissance did not arrive on time. There were very good reasons for smart, well-informed people to oppose Rice’s nomination; hats off to them. But the shit storm kicked up by the mere possibility of Rice’s nomination was a particularly nasty one, and it’s worth remembering that little of it was about what’s best for American policy in Africa.

What we learned from day five of Afcon 2013

South Africa’s form has been dismal for a while now. Elliot concluded here that “they’re rubbish” in only the second post on Football is a Country. Johannesburg-based football writer Njabulo Ngidi basically confirmed as much in a preview for us of Bafana Bafana’s chances.

After the aimless goalless draw against Cape Verde on opening day, that football sage Jonathan Wilson wrote (in Sports Illustrated, not as usual in The Guardian)* that South Africans were living on past glories, just like England, that nation our footballers and fans so admire: “South Africa fans remember 1996 (the last and only time it won the African Cup of Nations) and see no reason their team can’t reach those heights again, but repeated failure has made them disinclined to be forgiving, unable quite to believe things will work themselves out. A lack of coaches may be the major practical problem, but there is also the psychological aspect of yearning for past glories.”

It also seems their fans hardly cared as the half empty stadium suggested and as Braden Ruddy discovered during a visit to an empty Madiba Restaurant in Brooklyn on Saturday morning to watch the opener. Some people suggested they needed a good sangoma. (For a while, they had forgotten to pay one, so it seems they were cursed for goals.) As for me, I went on Facebook this morning to make a solemn vow: “If Bafana Bafana beats Angola I’ll eat my hat with pepper soup.”

Then coach Gordon Igesund made 5 changes–most crucially he brought Dean Furman, who plays in the English League One (basically the 3rd division), along with the 2012 Swedish footballer of the Year, May Mahlangu, to partner in midfield. Simphiwe Tshabalala (whose reputation is undeserved; he’s largely in the squad because of the memories of his glorious  2010 World Cup goal) was left on the bench. Up front, Igesund started with Katlego Mphela (from local super club Mamelodi Sundowns) and Tokelo Rantsie (who also plays in Sweden, for little known Allsvenskan).

From the get-go it was clear. South Africa came to play.  Igesund went with four defenders, one holding midfielder and “the other five players committed to attacking.”

The Angolans looked harried and harassed. Before we knew it, it was 1-0. Goal from centre-back Siyabonga Sangweni. It was also the first goal scored in Group A in three matches. It looked as though I might be tucking into my hat with pepper soup after all.

It stayed that way until Lehlohonolo Majoro scored a second from an acute angle in the 62nd minute: 2-0. I was now seriously dreading social network ridicule (Facebook can be an unforgiving place on matchday) and my likely fate of having to eat not one but two hats with pepper soup.

Angola hardly threatened the South African goalkeeper Ithumeleng Khune. This was South Africa’s first victory in an actual Afcon tournament match in a while (the country plays and wins lots of friendlies since they’re always hosting). Furman, the only white guy in the team (you couldn’t miss him), was named man of the match. Will I eat my hat? Like any good South African I have been spinning myself out of that one, by now offering myself as motivation for team.

In the second game of the afternoon, Cape Verde was on the way to a historic first win, courtesy of a goal by Luis Soares, also known as Platini, who sprinted onto a clever through-ball that split the Moroccan centre halves and gingerly clipped his shot over the goalkeeper. It was the first goal Cape Verde had ever scored at the Nations Cup and joy was unconfined. Until Morocco’s  Youssef El Arabi scored with about 12 minutes to go. Still, the tiny nation of 500,000 people is turning out to be the surprise package of the tournament, and who’d bet against them making the quarter-finals by overcoming Angola in the big Lusophone derby next week? Not us. We that Cape Verde would make the quarter finals. You heard it here first.

*It’s interesting that within international media, perhaps the most insightful writing on the actual football at Afcon is published by betting websites, who commission respected experts like Jonathan Wilson to write for them throughout the tournament. Check out the preview he wrote for Zambia vs Nigeria here. It contains such nuggets as:

Nigeria are prone to panic and self-destruction – partly because, like England, they are tormented by the twin evils of expectant entitlement and a sense of the inevitability of their own demise. One in six Africans is Nigerian, they have produced as many top-class players as any other African nation and yet they have won the Cup of Nations only twice – half as often as the Egypt midfielder Ahmed Hassan.

Lesotho Hip-Hop: The New Breed

I am based in-between Maseru, Lesotho and Cape Town, South Africa throughout the year. Recently, when in Lesotho, I decided to see how far the Hip-Hop scene had progressed, seeing that I have been involved directly in it for more than ten years. Some things impressed me, but most things did not. So I decided to give you an idea of what’s going down there in the form of a list of emcees whom I think will be making a considerable amount of noise in 2013.

L-Tore is reported to be the leader of a crew called Royalty Clique, which has, if my source is correct, names such as Nirex and Lynor in its midst. While he has been rapping for a while, building his name through the rank-and-file in street cyphers, it is only in the past two years that he has decided to stand on his own two feet. On stage he displays a confidence not unbecoming for an artist of his nature, both in build and personality. His mixtape, “The commercial mix”, will be out anytime soon.

I lived in Leribe at a place called Mankoaneng, Lisemeng during my secondary high school years. Big Bar’s song by the same name evokes memories of what the place used to look and feel like:

America was Mankoaneng’s nick-name, but far-removed in any sense of the word from the actual country, save for the LHDA Houses which accommodated workers during the early phases of  the project; workers from different nationalities, all holed-up in a compound of approximately 2 square kilometers. In as much as the mini-America was far-removed from its multiply-more successful big brother, so were these LHDA inhabitants from the surrounding community. Big Bar’s flow is stupendously-simply structured to place emphasis on the message. His story-telling ability makes him impossible to ignore, as he spits lines such as: “Ka leba Pelican, ke batla motho ke baba / nonyana li lutse batho holimo ba hlanya / joaloka bo-ntate ba mine TEBA ba khafa” [I went to Pelican looking for someone / exciting things were happening, people were excited / like men from TEBA paying tax]. Note: Pelican is a well-known restaurant in the district of Leribe. TEBA is the organisation which used to help Lesotho migrants find work in South African mines.

I saw T.U.R.K rap at Kommanda Obbs’s album launch towards the end of 2011. Apparently, a rapper called Z-Digi, once big on the scene but now temporarily disengaged, tweeted early on that Lesotho should be on the lookout for him. In a way, he mentored T.U.R.K. Does he agree? “You’d have to ask him that I guess. I just saw a kid with a skill ahead of his years coupled with mad passion,” is his considered response. He caves in and half-admits that he “tried [his] best to put him on and offered up all [his] connects.” T.U.R.K’s confidence and exquisite flow on the stage is bespoke, cocky, and er, dripping with swagga (his abandoned moniker). Does he agree: “No, not in the conventional sense… but he gave me a platform and I look(ed) up to him,” T.U.R.K answers. He might sound a tad bit American (okay, maybe a lot more than a tad bit, or maybe I’m still hung up about accents). However you interpret his style, the fact is that he is likable. (Note: he was the winner of a 50,000 Maloti competition sponsored by a cellphone company.)

I once battled Tieho in a park somewhere in the middle of Maseru. I don’t usually battle; I thought my style was dope that day. His brother was one of the judges. I lost. He got the free t-shirt. Like L-Tore, Tieho has slowly been building his skillset. He has the illest off-the-top moments; I have visual  evidence somewhere in my archives. The last time I had heard him, he was on my good friend Anonymous’s other songs. I wasn’t impressed; I preferred him in ciphers. He gained prominence around Maseru after joining the D2amajoe movement towards the end of 2011. I don’t know what to think of him yet, but judge for yourself with the video below:

Honourable mentions:

Isosceles and Future: rap tag-team intent on saving Hip-Hop from its own soul. Their release, “Olive Branch”, is available as a free download.

Charles Alvin: ubiquitous rap names aside, his live performances (as part of the duo Broken Record) are off the roof. Check out this video if you need convincing, over a beat produced by Nyambz (NB: muptee recorded on the beat in 2006).

* This is part 1 of my two-part reportage on Lesotho Hip-Hop. For an introductory piece to the scene, see here.

Trying to Watch the African Cup of Nations in Brooklyn

By Braden Ruddy

In the Fall, I (along with two other New School students Rob Navarro and Owen Dodd) created a blog Global Soccer, Global NYC, to document watching world football in bars and restaurants all over New York City. We plan to do some of that with Afcon 2013. The tournament’s opening match kicked off on Saturday between tournament hosts South Africa and Cup debutants Cape Verde in a partly empty Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg and resulted in a largely uninspired and forgettable 0-0 draw. Meanwhile in Fort Greene, where Madiba, New York City’s most popular South African restaurant is located, we were sadly the only two fans present with hopes of watching the match early Saturday morning.

The outing also suffered from technical difficulties from the get go. After giving us assurances over the phone that the game would be shown, when we arrived NBA highlights were on a small television screen and a waitress claimed to not be aware of any South African soccer being played. Following a bit of back and forth with the friendly staff, they said they would try to get an internet stream of the action up on a projector screen that was pulled down over a wall of various South African imported groceries.

Despite the sustained, yet-not-particularly-troubled, efforts of two waitresses, a manager, and a cook, the audio/video issues ultimately rendered viewing the game on the projector moot. We accepted projector defeat and were then handed a laptop with an unfortunate glare problem and a slow internet connection to catch the last twenty minutes of the first half as we finished our tasty egg and boerewors sausage breakfasts.

On the pitch, South Africa looked flat throughout the game and was unable to keep possession in front of the omnipresent vuvuzela drone of the home fans. Bafana Bafana’s attempt to win their first Africa Cup of Nations match since 2004 was also visibly affected by the “retirement” of their best player, Steven Pienaar, “at home in Liverpool.”

Cape Verde, on the other hand, looked energetic, skilful, and dangerous down the flanks despite only having a population of 500,000 people to draw their national side from. They even posses a diminutive striker named Platini who showed flashes of self-assured brilliance.

After having enough with the ongoing technical difficulties and lack of South African fans at Madiba, we ended up relocating to the private residence of a local South African to catch most of the second half in a livelier environment. We are confident, however, that watching Afcon in New York City alongside interested fans will get more dynamic as the tournament goes on and we explore different neighborhoods around the city.

Afcon 2013 Preview: Angola’s Palancas Negras and the Curse of the Quarterfinals

Angola has never made it past the quarterfinals at the African Cup of Nations. This year’s competition in South Africa marks the seventh time the Palancas Negras have been to the Afcon. Coincidentally, it was also in South Africa where the Angolans debuted in the competition, back in 1996. Although they put in some brave performances, the Palancas were marginally outclassed by the better organized Egyptians, losing 2-1 in the opening match, before losing again to hosts South Africa by 1-0 in their next fixture. For their last group game against a Cameroonian side that included 19 year-old Rigobert Song, the Palancas were winning 3-1 with eight minutes to spare after goals by Joni, Paulão and 21 year-old Quinzinho. Cameroon came back and tied the match in the 90th minute through an own goal by Helder Vicente.

Since then, Angola has had decidedly mixed fortunes in the African Nations Cup. Following their debut they had another brief appearance in Burkina Faso 1998, again being paired with South Africa and again failing to reach the quarterfinals. The Palancas would not make it to the cup again until 8 years later.

Then came the heady days of October 2005 and Akwá’s goal against Rwanda that took the country to its first ever World Cup appearance (you can hear the original Angolan radio broadcast of that moment here). Sadly the Palancas were again eliminated in the first round of Afcon 2006 in Egypt, but Ghana 2008 saw their fortunes change. Manucho Gonçalves burst into the fore and helped Angola to an emphatic win against Senegal. A spirited tie against eternal rivals South Africa and a dour 0-0 draw against Tunisia saw Angola make it to the quarterfinals, where they were then promptly eliminated by Egypt. The Pharaohs went on to win the Championship.

In 2010 Angola hosted Afcon; I was in the brand new Estádio 11 de Novembro to watch their opening match nightmare against Mali, where, leading 4-0 in the 74th minute, the Palancas allowed Les Aigles to score 4 goals in about 18 minutes to tie the game (here’s a link to video of the opening ceremony and the goals). They then beat Malawi 2-0 and played to a goalless drew with Tunisia. They made it to the quarterfinals again, only to fall to eventual silver medalists Ghana. 2012 saw perhaps one of the most abject performances by our boys and despite fielding a relatively experienced side they were unable to progress from a group featuring Burkina Faso, shock quarterfinalists Sudan and the mighty Les Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire.

So it’s with those performances in mind that Angola began their preparations for the 2013 Afcon, after barely squeaking by Zimbabwe during qualifiers. They sacked former national team player Lito Vidigal after he lost 2-0 against The Warriors and appointed Gustavo Ferrín, a Uruguay virtually unknown outside of South America and certainly a complete stranger in Luanda. Growing murmurs of discontent were heard among the Palancas faithful and many feared another AFCON absence, especially since Angola had also failed to make it to World Cup 2010 right next door.

But alas, that man Manucho struck two in quick succession after a corner and a cross from Angola’s current second biggest star Djalma Campos and the Palancas were saved. People slowly began to offer Ferrín a little more respect and perhaps even the benefit of the doubt. His stock continued to increase during Angola’s preparations for the Cup. The Palancas have had arguably the best preparation amongst teams in the competition, having started training well before the other contestants and played five friendlies, losing none and beating African champions Zambia 2-0 along the way.

Unlike his predecessors, Ferrín has selected a team comprised of a sizeable contingent of Girabola players (Angola’s national football league) and fewer ‘Europeans’. He has also selected a youthful team – 15 of the 23 selected players are 25 and under and the oldest player is 31 year-old veteran Lamá. What many Angolans and I do not understand however is how Ferrín could have left Mabiná at home, who despite a recent injury was his skilful self during Angola’s warm-up games.

That aside, I was particularly impressed with his calling up of gifted and resourceful Geraldo (21), who many in Angola contend isn’t regularly picked because of his family’s and mentor’s political leanings. Geraldo plays in Brazil’s Paraná, on loan from Séria A’s Coritiba where he was a fan favorite after helping them win the Paranaense championship. He showed what he’s capable of when he played against Morocco and was voted Man of the Match, but I’ve seen him do better and he is certainly a player to watch in the Angolan side.

19 year-old Pirolito, who plays for Luanda’s Interclube, was another inspired choice and was very impressive as a holding midfielder during the Morocco match. Another face I’m happy to see among the call-ups is Yano, Girabola’s best scorer last season, and Guilherme, a forward from unheralded Lichtenstein’s FC Vaduz who has put in some solid performances for the national side whenever he’s been called and even scored a few goals during the warm-up friendlies. At the back, central defenders Dani Massunguna and Bastos seemed to have developed a decent understanding and have only let in 3 goals in their last 6 matches.

It is a well-known fact however that Angolans are depositing their hopes on Manucho. The big man has grown in confidence at Real Valladolid and put in some genuine hard work – in the beginning of the season he was deemed surplus to requirements but through sheer determination managed to claw his way back into the starting lineup. He’s enjoying the best form of his career and when he feels like playing to the best of his ability he is a menace to central defenders (just ask Sergio Ramos).

Djalma Campos is another fan-favorite and expected to provide that creative spark in Angola’s otherwise unimpressive midfield. His linkup play with Manucho has proved particularly effective. If Mateus can for once in his life replicate the same form he does at Portuguese side Nacional and if veteran Gilberto’s left foot still retains that magic touch that he evidenced for serial African champions Al Ahly, Angola can certainly progress through to the quarterfinals, especially after the Bafana Bafana demonstrated through their match against Cape Verde that they’ve decided not to show up for this tournament.

Angolan fans are no fools – we’re used to football failure and understand the limitations of our dear Palancas. I’ll admit it: I get excited when we string 5 decent passes together. But we have a love-hate relationship with our team and inexplicably we are always there shouting our lungs out for them and wearing the red, black and yellow. The team Ferrín selected is decidedly playing better football than Lito Vidigal’s outfit last year. It’s a well known fact that sometimes oil makes a country arrogant and lately Angola has developed a few lunatic fans that think we will bring home the cup or at least make it to the finals. But the majority of our fans is humble and understands that first we should concentrate on making it out of our group.

Our showing against Morocco and the “game” between our brothers from Cape Verde and hosts South Africa have showed us that the group is up for grabs.

The question is … can we finally make it past the quarterfinals?

* Claudio Silva blogs about “Beautiful Music in Portuguese” over at Caipirinha Lounge. He is also a regular contributor to Central 7311.

What will Netanyahu’s re-election mean for Africans in Israel?

Guest Post By Talya Swissa*

A bloody-nosed Binyamin Netanyahu has won a third term as Israel’s prime minister in this week’s election. In the run-up to the vote, many column inches were devoted to the demise of the Israeli left and explanations for the impending lurch to the right. Those predictions look to have been (slightly) overcooked, but as the above video footage shot in Tel Aviv last month shows, right wing extremism is alive and well in Israel, and more and more the target is not just Palestinians, but Africans too. (In September, Olufemi Terry wrote on the Israeli interior minister’s claim that the country “belongs to the white man,” and earlier Ashley Cunningham wrote about the home of Eritrean assylum seekers being firebombed.)

The video above shows the extent to which Israeli politicians have succeeded in criminalizing African asylum seekers. The demonstration took place in Levinsky Park, Tel-Aviv, home to many homeless refugees and was led by Michael Ben-Ari along with another ultra-right wing Knesset member, Aryeh Eldad of Otzma LeYisrael. Both are known for inciting xenophobia among the already vulnerable population by grafting resentful anti-African, anti-Arab and anti-leftists sentiments onto one another.

The residents of the poorer neighborhoods of south Tel-Aviv have been neglected long before the arrival of Eritreans and Sudanese to these neighborhoods. Yet years of government and municipal negligence can now be overlooked due to the mobilization of anti-African sentiment and the shifting of blame on African asylum seekers. Israel is systematically worsening the situation in the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv by denying asylum seekers a minimum standard of living. The lack of sufficient mechanisms for processing asylum claims leaves a growing number of asylum seekers undocumented, workless, and in many cases homeless in the already impoverished parts of Tel Aviv. Their lack of legal status leaves both the residents of south Tel Aviv and asylum seekers in a state of limbo and sparks tensions among these populations that could have otherwise been avoided with proper government intervention.

But it took more than just denying Africans an asylum mechanism to get to this point. Michael Ben Ari and Aryeh Eldad are far from being the only politicians shouting racist rants and calling for the deportation of Sudanese and Eritreans. Last July, Miri Regev, Knesset member of the Likud party, compared Sudanese people to “cancer” and called for their deportation, and Knesset member Yulia Shamalov Berkovitich of the centrist-liberal Kadima party called for the imprisonment of human rights activists assisting asylum seekers. ”These phonies,” she said, “first of all I would jail them all for incitement of Jews against Jews. This is Solution Number One: to jail all human rights [activists]. We can transport them afterwards to those same places that we’re building, the camps. Let them work there.”

I used to work with refugees and asylum seekers in Israel, before coming to the United States in 2010 to pursue my studies. I feel deeply saddened by every visit home since then: Asylum seekers are scared, Israelis develop hyper-nationalist Jewish sentiments encouraged by politicians and grow less and less tolerant as the country’s immigration policies shift further to the right. There have always been extreme right-wing groups in Israel, what is different today is that they have managed to infiltrate mainstream political discourse and mobilize latent racism among the population. With every visit I feel the normalization of racism in all levels of discourse. Today, the term “Sudanese” refers to all Africans in Israel, regardless of their origin, and is also used as a synonym for criminal, infiltrator, but never a refugee.

Israel abandoned any formal and clear process of defining asylum seekers and granting them status. Instead, politicians choose to manipulate public opinion and stoke xenophobic fears, labeling all asylum seekers “infiltrators” for electoral gain. The combination of denying asylum seekers accommodating measures, their high concentration in the poorer neighborhoods of south Tel-Aviv, along with political incitement and ethno-nationalist claims, generates considerable tensions and heightens the anxiety of Israelis.

Since 2006 Israel has seen an influx of African asylum seekers crossing into the country via the Israel-Egypt border, the vast majority reside in Tel-Aviv, Eilat, Ashdod and other major cities in the country. The number of asylum seekers is estimated to be roughly about 60,000. The majority of individuals originate from Sudan and Eritrea, two countries to which Israel, subject to international legal principles, cannot return asylum seekers, despite false claims made by politicians such as Michael Ben Ari of the ultra right-wing party Otzma LeYisrael in an attempt to gain public support. Although Sudanese and Eritreans have high refugee recognition rates globally, they are denied an asylum process in Israel and are instead given group-based protection. Yet this group-protection does not provide them a stable legal status. Their rights are severely limited and their wellbeing is threatened by the country’s changing immigration policies.

The situation severely deteriorated in the last few years. While a few rape cases committed by asylum seekers have been reported, they caused media waves quite unlike rapes committed by Israelis, fueling the misconception that most rapes are committed by Africans.

The media manipulation, alongside racist statements by politicians, sparked waves of violent attacks on Africans. 2012 saw a high number of violent incidents against Africans, including molotov cocktails thrown into houses of asylum seekers as well as an Eritrean kindergarten in the Shapira neighborhood of south Tel-Aviv.

“Ismail”, one of the first Sudanese refugees to arrive in Israel in 2006 and reside in south Tel Aviv, describes the change of atmosphere he has witnessed in his neighborhood. “I feel unwelcomed, we feel unwelcomed.” Ismail, a father of four says that he is “not certain of what is happening, people demonstrate against Sudanese, like we’ve all committed crimes, when the demonstrations take place in the neighborhood I don’t send my children to school, it is too dangerous.” Ismail, who left Egypt due to the deterioration of conditions for asylum seekers, is saddened to be reminded of the reasons that made him leave Egypt and seek asylum in Israel in the first place.

The manipulation has worked. Politicians have successfully managed to create a state of hysteria, demonising anyone who tries to defend the rights of asylum seekers in the country as a “traitor”. In today’s political atmosphere, it is not only Africans who are criminalized, it is anyone who dares to stand up for their rights. In one of the race riots in May 2012, human rights activists as well as journalists were threatened and attacked by demonstrators.

African refugees are the latest populist cause mobilized by politicians to score electoral points. The high concentration of asylum seekers in the poor neighborhoods of Tel Aviv provides fertile ground for further political incitement against these populations. Instead of decreasing the burden on the poorer neighborhoods by adopting asylum legislation, politicians label asylum seekers infiltrators, deny them a minimum standard of living and increase racist fanaticism among Israelis.

* Talya Swissa is a student at Columbia University.

What we learned from day four of Afcon 2013

In the first match at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg. Côte d’Ivoire 2 v 1 Togo. Don’t believe the hype about Gervinho’s late winner. It was the much maligned Boubacar Barry who won this for Les Éléphants saving two certain goals in the opening and closing seconds of this intriguing match. In between Yaya Touré did his thing and Didier Drogba didn’t do his thing. The rest of the herd seem somewhat long in the tusk, with the exception of Max Gradel. Didier Six brought the best out of Team Togo. Goalscorer Jonathan Ayité and Serge Gakpé were prominent for much for match, but when each was substituted in the second half, it was a show of intent from the Les Eperviers. This was turning into a game the Sparrow Hawks could win. Yaya Touré’s second half shot rebounding off the post may make the highlight reels and suggest he was unlucky not to score more, but that would unfair on the Togolese and especially defender Daré Nibombé who kept an herd of Elephants in his pocket for the most of the match. Sparrow Hawk keeper Kossi Agassa had been a safe pair of hands for 88 minutes. He deserved better than to misjudge a lopping cross. I expect Didier Six give him extra crosses for breakfast.

In the second game at Rustenburg (Tunisia 1 v 0 Algeria), Djamel Mesbah and Adlène Guedioura both impressed for Algeria. Mesbah was prolific down the left flank. Guedioura was the General in the midfield. It only seemed a matter of time before Les Fennecs would score, but the Crossbar Gods favored Tunisia. Algeria pressed in the second half, but it was Tunisia’s Youssef Msakni who screamed in the winner for the Carthage Eagles in the 90th minute. Incidentally, Msakni likes to be paid in Qatari rials. On this performance, Tunisia will not trouble Les Éléphants next. Algeria versus Togo promises to be a tight encounter.