Africa United: How Football Explains Africa

Description

Football inspires competition and inflames passions nowhere as strongly as in Africa. Travelling across thirteen countries, from Cairo to the Cape, journalist Steve Bloomfield meets players and fans, politicians and rebel leaders, and discovers the role that football has played in shaping the continent. He recounts how football has helped to prop up an authoritarian regime in Egypt, end a conflict in Cote d'Ivoire and provide a tiny ray of light in war-torn Somalia. Africa United is a superb, modern-day portrait of Africa, told through the game that unites it.

Steve Bloomfield was based in Nairobi, Kenya from 2006 to 2010. A former Africa correspondent for The Independent, he reported from more than 25 countries across the continent. He is now the foreign editor for Monocle and lives in London.

* More than a sports book, Africa United tells how soccer keeps hope alive in across a troubled continent. It is an inspiring story of spirit, skill and doggedness in the face of hellish difficulties - in short it is the story of Africa itself Tim Butcher, author of Blood River * Reading this book makes you want to pack your bags and light out for the territory, however dangerous the territory may be ... required reading for anyone visiting Africa for the world cup next month. -- Giles Foden Conde Nast Traveller * [Bloomfield] carefully weaves an intricate web showing how national politics and football intertwine, and that the whole continent is brought together by its passion for the beautiful game ... the perfect balance of passionate prose and informed accounts of key moments both on and off the pitch. Waterstone's Books Quarter * A fascinating account of how football lies at the very heart of African consciousness. Waterstone's Books Quarterly * The ideal bluffer's guide to African football, history and culture. Waterstone's Books Quarterly * Precise, succinct and empathetic, this is a fine addition to football's internationalist canon. -- Jonathan Wilson Four Four Two * [Bloomfield] has the experience and anecdotes to make his first book stand alone, World Cup or not ... well researched, thought-provoking ... quite brilliant. -- Ben East Metro * The contradictions of Africa - the extremely in glitter and poverty, the violence, the dramatic weather cycles and the wonderful, unbreakable optimism of so many people - lift through this book. Irish Times * A journalist's continental odyssey ... a beautiful piece of writing. -- Simon Kuper Financial Times * A fascinating account of how football lies at the very heart of African consciousness...the ideal bluffers guide to African football, history and culture. Waterstone's Books Quarterly * Football, along with births, deaths and marriages, is a universal human rite. In Africa, it is also inescapable...Africa United goes off the beaten track to visit some of the continent's footballing minnows. -- Daniel Howden Independent * Well-researched, insightful and sometimes shocking ... this fascinating book stands as a fine snapshot of a turbulent sport in transition on the continent. -- Doug Johnstone The Scotsman * Peppering his account with amusing anecdotes, Bloomfield reveals how football has ended a civil war in Cote d'Ivoire, provided hope for war-torn Somalia, brought some normality to the chaos of Zimbabwe and, less inspirationally, propped up a despotic regime in Egypt ... this is a fascinating portrait of the political dimension to Africa's love affair with the beautiful game. Irish Times * Although this well-researched book deals with corruption, massacres and genocide, it also shows how football can offer hope. IP, Guardian