Joseph Owen
Net Losses
The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-First Century
By David Goldblatt
Macmillan 676pp £25
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was supposed to herald a fresh dawn for African football. When winger Siphiwe Tshabalala scored for the hosts against Mexico in the opening match, the commentator Peter Drury encapsulated the moment for a UK audience: ‘Goal Bafana Bafana! Goal for South Africa! Goal for all of Africa!’ The promise of a truly global game seemed fulfilled. ‘Rejoice,’ Drury exclaimed, as a line of yellow-shirted players danced by the corner flag in coordinated celebration.
Football appeared to be entering a meritocratic era in which traditionally weaker nations could compete with the established powers. South Africa had become a symbol for other developing countries, showing the benefits of economic expansion and national unity. Seen like this, the beautiful game seemed a force for good: colonial residue could be effaced, ethnic discrimination and segregation forgotten. The fact that Mexico subsequently equalised and South Africa exited at the group stage was a mere footnote.
Yet to consider the 2010 World Cup as evidence of African football’s burgeoning health and broader social capital would be a mistake. The spectacle – the cacophony of vuvuzelas, the stadium-based Pentecostal choirs – diverted viewers from the reality. African football was suffering – and it still is.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm