This edited volume addresses key debates around African football, identity construction, fan cultures, and both African and global media narratives. Using the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as a lens, it explores how football in Africa is intimately bound up with deeper social, cultural and political currents.

Introduction: Towards an Epistemology of African Football - the Symbolic Significance of 2010 FIFA World Cup; Nhamo A. Mhiripiri and Tendai Chari 1. Nation-Building and the FIFA World Cup, South Africa 2010; Nathalie Hyde-Clarke, Rune Ottosen and Toby Miller 2. To the Cape and Back: A World Cup Diary - Football Tourism, Narratives of South Africa and the FIFA 2010 World Cup; Luke Jones 3. The 2010 World Cup Celebrations in a Non-Hosting Location: Voices from the Periphery; Kiran Odhav 4. South African FIFA World Cup 2010: African Players Global Labor Distribution and Impact on the Domestic Game; Njororai Wycliffe 5. New-Found Fan Culture; Emma Durden 6. Zimbabwean Female Audiences: Negotiating (En)Gendered Spaces in the 2010 FIFA World Cup; Rosemary Chikafa 7. Noisemaker or Cultural Symbol: The Vuvuzela Controversy and Expressions of Football Fandom; Jeffrey W Kassing 8. Nigeria: Media Narratives and Reports of Football from Within; Chuka Onwumechili 9. Unmaking the Dark Continent: South Africa, Africa and the Image Make-Over Narrative in the South African Press; Tendai Chari 10. Imploding or Perpetuating African Myths through Reporting South Africa 2010 World Cup Stories on Economic Opportunity; Joyce Tsitsi Mhiripiri and Nhamo Anthony Mhiripiri 11. The FIFA World Cup 2010 in the German Media: Presentation and Construction of a Large Sports Event; Thomas Horky and Christoph G. Grimmer 12. A Unique Period? An Analysis of the Coverage of Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Selected Western Media; Teke Ngomba 13. Of Sunsets, Savagery, and Soccer: Framing Africa during the Final Days of the 2010 World Cup; Bernadine Jones 14. Afro-Pessimism in the French and British Press Coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; Toussaint Nothias