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“Grown-Ups on White Plastic Chairs:” Soccer and Separatism in Senegal, 1969–2012

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2015

Mark Deets
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Abstract:

I argue that the postcolonial Senegalese soccer stadium became a space for imagining and performing the nation for separatists from the Casamance region who tied their separatist discourse to the fortunes of Casa-Sports, a soccer club based in Ziguinchor. The twin histories of Casamançais soccer and separatism demonstrate the interplay of “space” and “place” in the stadium – constructed originally for defining and controlling the Senegalese nation but commandeered by separatists for subverting it. Non-elite Casa-Sports supporters, however, contested or ignored separatist assertions that supporting Casa-Sports meant supporting separatism, and vice versa. Thus, these non-elites revealed the stadium as a “space-place” for simultaneous, multiple national imaginings.

Résumé:

Cet article suggère que depuis l’indépendance, les stades de football sénégalais sont devenus un espace pour imaginer et mettre en scène la nation pour les séparatistes de la région de Casamance qui ont lié leur discours séparatiste aux fortunes de Casa-Sports, un club de football basé à Zinguichor. Les histoires jumelles du football et du séparatisme casamançais démontrent les relations entre “espace” et “lieu” dans le stade construit originellement pour définir et contrôler la nation sénégalaise mais approprié puis subverti par les séparatistes. Les supporters de Casa-Sports “non-élites,” cependant, contestaient ou ignoraient les assertions qui faisaient d’un supporter de Casa-Sports un séparatiste et vice-versa. Ainsi, les “non-élites” ont révélé le stade comme un “espace-lieu” pour des imaginations nationales multiples et simultanées.

Type
Sport and Society in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa
Information
History in Africa , Volume 43 , June 2016 , pp. 347 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

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