Over the course of the Cup of Nations, I will be covering events with this series of articles aimed at relative beginners to African football, from the perspective of someone who is also a relative beginner to African football – I’ve only been following a few years myself so a lot of this is new to me too. It won’t be too serious and hopefully I can provide some context for the tournament without going into masses of bewildering detail.
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So, the Africa Cup of Nations. Not the African Nations Cup. It’s important to acknowledge this frequent mistake Westerners make. And it’s not inconsequential, as they are two different things: the African Nations Cup would be a cup in the possession of African nations, whereas the Cup of Nations implies the nations are integral to the cup. It’s a subtly different slant.
Africa’s premier international football tournament has to deal with Western misconceptions on a regular basis. The overall portrayal of the tournament in the West, and perhaps African football generally, is often as “that cute little thing the backward countries do” – the football isn’t that good, as African football is “behind” in its development, but they make up for it in colour, personality and fun. I think this caricature does an enormous disservice to African football – yes, there are no Messis or Ronaldos, and the atmosphere is often lighter than in the Euros, but to cast it as “the party tournament” is classic orientalism.
