AFRICAN SOCCERSCAPES: HOW A CONTINENT CHANGED THE WORLD’S GAME

Book ID/图书代码： 12873516B89017

English Summary/英文概要： A Choice Significant University Press Title for Undergraduates, 2010–11.

From Accra and Algiers to Zanzibar and Zululand, Africans have wrested control of soccer from the hands of Europeans, and through the rise of different playing styles, the rituals of spectatorship, and the presence of magicians and healers, have turned soccer into a distinctively African activity.

African Soccerscapes explores how Africans adopted soccer for their own reasons and on their own terms. Soccer was a rare form of “national culture” in postcolonial Africa, where stadiums and clubhouses became arenas in which Africans challenged colonial power and expressed a commitment to racial equality and self-determination. New nations staged matches as part of their independence cele-brations and joined the world body, FIFA. The Confédération africaine de football democratized the global game through antiapartheid sanctions and increased the number of African teams in the World Cup finals.

In this compact, highly readable book Alegi shows that the result of this success has been the departure of huge numbers of players to overseas clubs and the growing influence of private commercial interests on the African game. But the growth of women’s soccer and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup also challenge the one-dimensional notion of Africa as a backward, “tribal” continent populated by victims of war, corruption, famine, and disease.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《Choice》杰出大学出版社大学生图书，2010-11

从阿克拉、阿尔及尔到桑给巴尔、祖鲁兰，非洲人从欧洲人手中夺取了足球的控制权，而随着不同打法风格的兴起，观众的各种仪式、到场的魔术师和治疗师们已经将足球变成了一项具有鲜明非洲特色的活动。

本书探索了非洲人是如何出于自身原因并通过特有方式接受足球运动的。足球在后殖民时期的非洲是一种非常少见的“国家文化”，体育场和俱乐部是非洲人挑战殖民权力，表达对种族平等的信念和自我决心的竞技场。新国家将比赛作为其独立庆祝活动的一部分，并加入了国际足联。非洲足球协会通过反种族隔离的制裁将这一全球赛事民主化，并增加了非洲球队在世界杯决赛中的名额。

在这部内容充实、极具可读性的作品中，作者认为，这一成功导致了大量球员前往海外俱乐部，同时，也吸引了越来越多私有商业企业对非洲赛事表现出兴趣。而女子足球的发展以及南非2010年主办的世界杯也正在改变人们对非洲的单一化认识，即认为非洲是一个“部落式”的大洲，饱受战争、腐败、饥饿和疾病的摧残。（LYR）

Awards/获奖情况："鉴于人们对2010年世界杯的强烈兴趣，许多人都在期待能够在大背景下理解非洲足球现状。而本书就是这样一部优秀的作品，框架清晰，层层递进，同时讲述了许多有趣的故事。"——Martha Saavedra，加州大学伯克利分校非洲研究中心副主任

“本书是目前为止有关非洲足球历史最出色的作品。本书内容简明扼要，通俗易读，读者通过阅读本书能够了解最基本的知识，同时享受非洲足球带来的乐趣和热情。”——《观察家报》

“没有人比意大利裔美国历史学家Peter Alegi更了解非洲足球的北京了。本届世界杯便是他的时代。他的这部作品内容广播，将多年有关非洲足球历史的研究浓缩成一本200页的历史书。”——《金融时报》

“Given the huge interest in the 2010 World Cup, many will be looking for something to contextualize the African soccer scene. African Soccerscapes is excellent, with a clear framework and progression, and lots of interesting stories.”
— Martha Saavedra, associate director of the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley

“Peter Alegi’s African Soccerscapes is simply the best available overview of the history (of African soccer). Concise and to the point, you’ll be through it before the round of 16 begins, having covered all the basics without forgetting the pleasures and the passions that animate African football.”
— The Observer

“Nobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi. This World Cup is his moment. His African Soccerscapes crams daunting erudition, gleaned over many years of study of African football, into under 200 pages of history.”
— Financial Times

“Peter Alegi’s brilliant and rich exploration of the history of football in Africa is long overdue and fills an enormous gap. His fluid and absorbing narration is a testimony to the centrality of the ‘beautiful game’ in everyday life on the continent. Soccerscapes is an academically rigorous book that vividly reverberates with Alegi’s passion for Africa and for football, a game to which he has devoted so much of his life.”
— Gerard Akindes, cofounder of Impumelelo, an interdisciplinary journal of African sports

“By putting the game in Africa in social, political, and historical context African Soccerscapes serves as a valuable reminder to be skeptical of simple narratives about South Africa 2010. . . . It is all much more complicated, and much more interesting, than that.”
— Pitch Invasion: Exploring the Global Game

“In this wonderfully researched and richly textured narrative, Alegi tells the vital story of how football transformed Africa and Africa transformed football during the 20th century. The book is a must-read for all those wishing to gain a greater understanding of the past, and future, of the global game.”
— Laurent Dubois, Duke University

“Via these outstanding works (Laduma! and African Soccerscapes), Alegi has placed African soccer on firm historiographical footing, while also popularizing a subject about which little was previously known beyond Africa’s borders.”
— African Studies Review

“Alegi’s concise and ingenious book is a timely reminder about the impact African players have had on global football and an affirmation of Africa’s mounting stature as a football powerhouse…. Alegi writes in a language that is accessible to non-specialists and casual readers…. For academia, instructors teaching undergraduate courses about global sports or sports in Africa could assign the book or selected chapters to students, who most likely will appreciate the material for its informative strength, brevity, and lucidity.”
— African Studies Quarterly

About the Author/作者介绍： Peter Alegi，密歇根州立大学历史系副教授，著有《Laduma！南非的足球、政治和社会》。他是《非洲历史研究国际期刊》的编辑委员会成员，《足球与社会》的书评编辑。

Peter Alegi is an associate professor of history at Michigan State University and the author of Laduma! Soccer, Politics, and Society in South Africa. He is an editorial board member of the International Journal of African Historical Studies and book review editor of Soccer and Society.

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

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