Not 'This Time for Africa' at the Women's World Cup?

The Women's World Cup kicked off Sunday, although most American attention will not focus on it until the USA team takes the field on Tuesday. The Cup, played in Germany, reminded me of the hype surrounding the 2010 (Men's) World Cup in South Africa. This event was hyped as a coming-out party for Africa, and the hope was that it would create a boon to African soccer(*), for both men and women. A year later, with the Women's World Cup receiving a lot of attention from ESPN, I was curious of African teams' chances and the overall feeling of Africa towards the Cup. I only did a brief bit of googling, so this is far from authoritative, but here is some of what I found:

Teams - The only two teams to qualify for the World Cup did so by reaching the final of the African Women's Cup (AWC). Nigeria, the winner, has been to all of the World Cup tournaments but has only once made it out of group play (in 1999). The runner-up was Equatorial Guinea, a tiny country with a big game (they surprisingly won the whole AWC in 2008). Equatorial Guinea is playing in their first World Cup. Nigeria lost its opener against France, 1-0, and Equatorial Guinea plays their first game Wednesday vs. Norway. Both African teams were involved in stories revolving around issues that seem to plague women's sports: gender and sexuality.

Gender - Nigeria and other teams have accused the star player for Equatorial Guinea, Genoveva Anonma, and two other players of being men. These teams claim the Equatorial Guinea players are too strong and talented to be women. Here are a few excerpts from a detailed ESPNW article:

Ghana defender Diana Amkomah was widely quoted as saying, "You only need to have physical contact with them on the pitch to know they are men."
Gender questions about Equatorial Guinea have floated around for years, most notably at the 2008 African Championships, when the women's team shocked Nigeria in the semifinals on its way to the title. Until then, Nigeria had won the tournament every year since its inception in 1998.
"I first heard these accusations back in 2006 and 2008," said Anonma, now 22. "I have already been [gender] tested, which I find offensive."
Marcus Etzel, the president of her club team, told Bild, "It's completely absurd. Of course Genoveva is a woman, and we are very happy she plays for us."

Sexuality - Homosexuality is a sensitive topic, but especially in women's African sports. This excellent article details the issue in regards to the Nigerian team and their coach (scroll down to In African Women's Soccer, Homophobia Remains an Obstacle) . Some quotes:

Shortly before she was hired in 2009 as the first female coach of Nigeria’s powerful women’s national soccer team, Eucharia Uche said at a seminar that she was troubled by the presence of lesbians on the squad, calling it a “worrisome experience.”Over the past two years, as Nigeria progressed toward the Women’s World Cup, which begins Sunday in Germany, Uche said that she has used religion in an attempt to rid her team of homosexual behavior, which she termed a “dirty issue,” and “spiritually, morally very wrong.”

...

Uche said she had never witnessed her own players participating in homosexual activity. Instead, she said that she had relied on rumors, speculation and news media accounts to form her belief that lesbian behavior had been common in the Nigerian team.

...

The treatment of lesbians in sport is not a matter restricted to women in Africa. Some women on previous United States national soccer teams have been reluctant to live openly gay lifestyles for fear of repercussions. And despite all the advances of gender equity in sport, lesbianism remains a sensitive matter in recruiting in college basketball.

But homosexuality remains a particularly taboo subject and carries a significant social stigma in many parts of Africa. Nigeria is divided between a Muslim north and Christian south. Homosexual acts are prohibited and those who are openly gay or lesbian risk harassment and blackmail, experts said. In Nigeria’s north, gay men can face death by stoning for sodomy. 

Read the whole article. As many American cities just finished celebrating Pride weekend, and as we continue to take steps as a society towards acceptance of different sexualities, it is a pretty good time to examine the obstacles others must face.

So, there are two teams representing Africa. Does Africa notice and/or care? Juliet Torome wrote a great piece last year entitled, "The World Cup and African Women." In it, she says, "That we, young African women, are talking more about the sport is a sign of hope for women’s soccer on the continent." She goes on to say:

But will the 2010 World Cup bring African women more than just fodder for gossip? Holding the 1994 World Cup in the United States increased soccer’s popularity there and led to the creation of Major League Soccer in 1996. And, in 1999, the US hosted and won its second women’s World Cup, leading to a women’s soccer revolution in the country. The label “soccer mom” has become common in the US, as more women enroll their children in soccer camps. Will holding the world’s greatest single sporting event in Africa spark similar interest for the continent’s women?

I too am curious if such interest has been sparked. Is anyone covering this? Well, in fact, there is a whole blog devoted to African Women's Soccer. Still, I would love to see a major follow-up to last year's World Cup in Africa and its effect on women's soccer there, in light of the Women's World Cup. After all, as Ms. Torome says, soccer could someday be a very positive outlet for African women: "As more African women continue to be educated, I dream of the day when we, too, will be able to decide for ourselves."


In my experience, girls often played soccer in Madagascar when they were young. As the kids grew into teenagers and twenty-somethings, it seemed to only be the boys/men out on the field, at least in the villages. I do believe there has been progress in larger cities in Madagascar in women's sports, and one travel writer thinks the sport's popularity is growing throughout Africa:

Personally I've seen many more girls kicking around a soccer ball on dusty pitches in Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania in the past few years, than I ever have before. I took a little video of some school girls playing at a school in Atsiekpoe, Ghana, have a look.

Finally, I came across an ESPNW documentary called Her-oics, telling 6 stories of young women and soccer, including one about t"the first female international soccer referee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite physical and verbal abuse from fans, she is determined to press on to gain respect for the women of her country." It is entitled L'Arbitre (click for interview with the filmmaker describing the project - also "L'Arbitre" is French for "Referee"). A trailer:



It seems I missed the June 24 premiere on ESPN, but it will be shown again on ABC on Saturday, July 2 at 4pm, so check it out if you like! Full details here


(*) - My apologies: I know it is called futbol/football in the rest of the world, but as an American it is hard to break the habit