Africa Is a Country

Bafana Bafana

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Bafana Bafana

By
Sean Jacobs

Football historian Chris Bolsmann just sent me a note:

“… If you want to buy the Bafana [Bafana replica shirt] at a ‘reasonable’ price [in the UK; 35 British pounds it is] you get the replica without the team’s Protea logo. Or you pay an extortionate price for the one with the logo.”

But even more infuriating, according to Chris, is that Uhlsport, the German goalkeeper equipment manufacturer and sponsor of Bafana keeper Itumeleng Khune, has just released a new range of keeper equipment–with the Springbok logo plastered all over it.

Further Reading

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Détenue en Italie puis en Belgique pendant prèsde sept mois, la chanteuse malienne est engagée depuis 2019 dans une bataille judiciaire avec son ex-conjoint belge pour la garde de leur fille. Entre accusations d’abus et mandats d’arrêt, le feuilleton semble approcher de sa conclusion.

Requiem for a revolution

A sweeping, jazz-scored exploration of Cold War intrigue and African liberation, Johan Gimonprez’s ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ lays bare the cultural and political battlegrounds where empires, artists, and freedom fighters clashed.

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Ibaaku’s space race

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An allegiance to abusers

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.