Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:40:11.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Football is king

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2009

Phyllis Martin
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access

Summary

The title of this chapter comes from a comment by Fulbert Kimina-Makumbu, Congo's premier sports journalist, who said in an interview: ‘Football is everyone's sport, football is king.’ He was contrasting it with other sports such as basketball, athletics, cycling, volley-ball and boxing. All have their adherents but, since it was first played in Poto-Poto and Bacongo, football has retained its overwhelming popularity. The phrase ‘King Football’ is also used in the semi-autobiographical account of Jean-Claude Ganga, for many years Minister of Sport in the Republic of Congo. For a former star of the Bacongo team, Diables Noirs, football is ‘natural’ for a Congolese boy. It is fun, cheap, and easy to learn. It can be enjoyed at any level, for ‘it involves no special talent’. It is a game not just for players, but also for spectators, who can be fiercely partisan. A history of a top Poto-Poto club, Renaissance, recalls a heated controversy in the early 1950s which ended by splitting both the team and fans. As a result, ‘many households and families were involved in real dramas in Poto-Poto. Children and nephews were chased from their father's house, spouses torn from their spouses, relations wouldn't speak to each other.” While the hyperbole of a sports writer is probably present in the above statement, the intensity of emotions aroused by football is confirmed by other incidents described in this chapter. Football was also a socializing agency for young migrant workers, for through individual skills a boy or young man could achieve fame in the community and quickly pass from newcomer status to acceptance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Football is king
  • Phyllis Martin, Indiana University
  • Book: Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584756.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Football is king
  • Phyllis Martin, Indiana University
  • Book: Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584756.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Football is king
  • Phyllis Martin, Indiana University
  • Book: Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584756.005
Available formats
×