Football

The self-styled beautiful game is incredibly popular across the continent. Yet, on the eve of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations, football discussion in East African bars and clubs is almost exclusively focused on the English Premiership. Almost every man that I meet follows one of the English “big four”, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool, and, in my experience, they are for the most part better informed than most soccer fans in England.

The Premiership’s popularity is driven by a number of factors.

· Local leagues are not televised (and, even if they were, the quality on offer would be well below European standards). No supply translates into no demand.

· Courtesy of South Africa’s Multichoice satellite TV, available throughout the continent, at least four Premiership games are televised live each week, usually more. The time difference of three hours means that English games are screened from late afternoon to late evening, when the bars and clubs, crammed with young men wearing team shirts, do brisk business.

· African players are well represented in the Premiership – almost all the teams have at least one regular African player.

· Links between the UK and anglophone Africa, in particular, remain strong due to the ambivalent nature of the colonial legacy.

In East Africa, too, the massive interest in the Premiership also reflects the fact that this part of the continent consistently under-performs in continental competitions (which are dominated by North and West Africa). Certainly, the Africa Cup of Nations is eagerly anticipated in West Africa, as a prelude to next year’s World Cup in South Africa, where it will be a surprise if at least one African side does not make it to the final stages of the competition. In North Africa, too, passions run high. The recent diplomatic tension between Egypt and Algeria, fuelled by Algeria’s defeat of Egypt in their play-off in Khartoum, is reminiscent of the famous “soccer war” between Honduras and El Salvador in the late 1960s.

But Africa’s susceptibility to external cultural influence can be detrimental. I have just finished reading a long poem by Ugandan author, Okot p’Bitek, entitled The Defence of Lawino. This epic takes the form of a lament by an Acholi woman, Lawino, for her husband Ochol's abandonment of his indigenous culture and values in favour of the ways of the colonial power. Her lament is presented in thirteen separate submissions, including for the loss of traditional clothing, cosmetics, cooking, music and dance, language, child-rearing, medical treatment and, saddest of all, the rejection of ancestral names. No-one would argue that cultural paralysis is a positive thing, but the assault on African values and traditions is corrosive. It used to be driven by colonialism, but now it is accelerated by the instruments of mass global communication - so positive in many ways - but destructive of the fragile structures of indigenous culture.

Back to the football. In the Cup of Nations, Nigeria’s Super Eagles are overdue a win and probably have the greatest depth of talent available – but in the really important competition, I’m a strong supporter of Arsenal. Could this be their year, or will they once again flatter to deceive?