During my brief six months working in Angola between 2002 and 2003, a favorite pastime of mine
when driving around Luanda was to try to identify the replica team shirts worn by ubiquitous street
soccer teams playing in any available space. Brazil's canary yellow was the most popular, but the
range was impressive; I saw complete teams kitted out in the reds of Manchester United, the
burgundy of Portugal, the green stripes of Sporting Lisbon, the yellow/orange/black on white design
of Germany, even the all whites of Real Madrid—a hopelessly futile choice in the face of the
city's red dirt and grimy haze.
Sportswear manufacturer Puma continues its relationship with African soccer by launching the
"World's First Continental Football Kit" in support of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). Using a design seen in most of the Puma 2010 African kits, the Puma Africa Unity kit is
"designed to be worn by the 12 African football national teams that [.
With the African Nations Cup only days away and excitement building all over Africa, a terrible
incident has threatened to derail the competition altogether
Togo's national team bus was machine-gunned by Angolan rebels on the Congolese border ahead of
the African Cup of Nations. Reports on the extent of fatalities and injuries are still mixed, but
it seems that the bus driver was fatally wounded and several players have been left in in serious
condition.
Five months ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Togo team bus comes under machine
gun fire right after crossing the border into Cabinda, killing and injuring players and support
staff and leaving them all shaken.
This is really bad news for AFCON, tragic for Africa and such terrible planning by the FIFA and
the AFCON organising committee.
The "Unity kit" will carry PUMA's Yellow ‘life' Label
German sportswear giant Puma and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have unveiled a
"unified African kit" – that the continent's teams can use if their national colours clash during
the African Nations Cup and World Cup finals.
Amidst all the tragedy, politics, business, and even bits of sport that have made news from the
2010 Africa Cup of Nations, I've been intrigued by something conspicuous primarily in its absence:
there have been virtually no stories of the juju / muti / witchcraft commonly used to exoticize the
African game.
A "Football for Hope" Center Illustration from FIFA.com
We like soccer. They like soccer. There are huge, life-threatening socio-economic
inequalities in the world—occasionally highlighted by the playing of soccer in places such as
Angola and South Africa. Put it all together and you've got the basic logic driving the
exponential worldwide growth of hundreds of sports and development organizations trying to do some
good during this year of African soccer.
A "Football for Hope" Center Illustration from FIFA.com
We like soccer. They like soccer. There are huge, life-threatening socio-economic
inequalities in the world—occasionally highlighted by the playing of soccer in places such as
Angola and South Africa. Put it all together and you've got the basic logic driving the
exponential worldwide growth of hundreds of sports and development organizations trying to do some
good during this year of African soccer.
