Bea Vidacs: Football and nation-building in postcolonial Cameroon
Similarly to other African countries the Cameroonian government has put great emphasis in its official rhetoric on nation-building and national unity. It has used sport and especially football to promote these ideals. Although the Cameroonian public is genuinely pleased with the exploits of the Indomitable Lions, the national team, they do not necessarily attribute the same meanings to the successes and failures of the team as the government does. While the government tries to co-opt the victories and distance itself from the failures the population often contests this claiming the successes for themselves and blaming the government for mismanagement in the case of defeat. The paper will examine the contradictions and paradoxes arising out of these different perceptions of football and will argue that in as much as football promotes the idea of the postcolonial nation this happens despite the government’s efforts rather than because of them. In broader theoretical terms the paper will throw light upon the dynamic between official and popular conceptions of the nation in the postcolonial context.