The People’s Game

written by Manase Chiweshe

Football Fandom in Zimbabwe

This book weaves together a rich tapestry on football fandom in Zimbabwe. Based on empirical research focusing on the different dimensions of fan practices and experiences, the book is the result of multiple fieldwork processes with fans in Zimbabwe spanning a period of eight years including desk research, interviews, observation, focus group discussions and netnography. It demonstrates the nexus between social identities and supporting a sports team, highlighting that there are deeper underlying meanings and assumptions to one’s support of a sporting team. Manase Chiweshe highlights the various nuances of supporting football clubs.

This book provides an alternative way to understanding communities and how sport can be viewed as a serious lens into societal organisations. It offers important insights into how Zimbabweans are also engaged in leisure activities and that play is also part of their life worlds. Given the major focus on poverty, disease and conflict, African stories of intimate play and enjoyment tend to be sidelined. Soccer has the power to bring together or divide communities. In many an African context, just as in Zimbabwe, everyday ethnic and religious rivalries are played out through football matches. It is thus important to capture this space and use football as a way to heal historic and deep-seated conflicts.

Manase Chiweshe

Dr. Manase Chiweshe is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Lifelong Learning at Chinhoyi University of Technology and winner of the 2015 Gerti Hessling Award for the best paper in African studies. He is an African scholar with interest in African football, gender and youth studies. His other interests include agrarian studies, sport studies, urban and rural sociology. He is widely published and has presented at numerous international conferences. Dr Chiweshe's work revolves around the sociology of everyday life in African spaces with special focus on promoting African ways of knowing.