Call for Chapter Contributions in Upcoming Book on African Soccer (Football)

While there is an increasing academic interest to study the political economy of soccer worldwide, research in African soccer has also developed to a point where it is now possible to rethink the aesthetics and politics of African soccer beyond the 2010 FIFA World Cup, hosted by South Africa. Two of the important studies on African soccer, Darby's Africa, Football, and Fifa: Politics, Colonialism, and Resistance (2002) and Alegi's African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game, have provided much needed fundamental scholarship, but there are still aspects of African football that are yet to be studied, narrated, and chronicled. Several of those aspects are nascent and emerging.

A continuing and yet, in some ways, emerging interest area is the study of identity in football. Identity may be embedded in the representations of the national teams or the symbolisms of the local clubs or further the identity with Europe-based teams brought to Africa via transnational media. Identity is vast, sustaining, and yet harbinger of the sport's passions. Football in Africa has enjoyed a huge following, particularly for the national team but also among youth in smaller African communities.

This call is for contributions to a proposed book on Identity in African Football: Fans, Communities, Clubs, Nation, and Trans-nation. The proposed edited book will focus squarely on football identity in Africa. The perspective is varied. One may choose to investigate identity with foreign football as broadcast to African audience, identity with local clubs and African national teams, identity at the local and community levels, identity with female football. The identity interest may intersect with other areas such as psychology, communication, and culture, among others. Importantly, country and community cases are critical.

We ask that if you are interested in contributing a chapter to this proposed edited book, that you submit an abstract of 500 words, no later than Wednesday, October 31, 2012. You may also wish to turn in a full article of no longer than 18 pages plus references by December 31, 2012. If you choose to submit an abstract, please note that a turnaround time for the full article is a few weeks later, so be prepared to meet this timeline. Submissions should be sent as a Microsoft Word attachment, via email, to either COnwumechili@howard.edu or akindesg@Ohio.edu