Soccer the Opiate

Writing for ModernGhana.com, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. (Associate Professor of English and Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City) says:

"Ultimately, though, the joy of sports can best be savored when African leaders have been able to help their people to eke a decent quality of life. As it stands now, cross-continental tournaments like CAN 2008 can only be savored as proverbial opiates (or opium), in Marxian parlance; as a temporary relief from the grinding pressures of avoidable poverty and destitution. And it may well be this sorry situation that in the past prompted many an unruly aficionado – or sports fan – to criminally resort to violence and mayhem, notwithstanding the fact of Africans not being peculiarly vulnerable and/or susceptible to sport-associated violence."

And here is my response:

"Well written. Well reasoned. I'm a soccer fan and run a soccer site ( http://www.beautifulgame.com/ ) but I can only agree with you about Africa: life should come first and then soccer. In this order, soccer would then be less an opiate and more like a desert or a pleasant past-time. As you well know the South African World Cup will occur in 2010 and we will all be hearing more about how soccer will help the continent but if what you say is true about the real benefits of soccer to society then perhaps Africa already needs to be thinking Beyond 2010."

And Beyond2010.com is a blog that will over the next number of years focus on what will become of Africa AFTER the World Cup has left the continent...

Source > 31.01.2008