‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe

Football is a crucial site of representation where nations and national identities are [re]imagined. Likewise, whenever the Warriors-Zimbabwe’s senior men national football team play, contestations over national identity often run under the surface. Readily-combustible virtual online platforms becom...

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Main Authors: Lyton Ncube, Jasper Maposa 
Other Authors: Midlands State University
Format: book part
Language:English
Published: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5231
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81969-9_14
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author Lyton Ncube
Jasper Maposa 
author2 Midlands State University
author_facet Midlands State University
Lyton Ncube
Jasper Maposa 
author_sort Lyton Ncube
collection DSpace
description Football is a crucial site of representation where nations and national identities are [re]imagined. Likewise, whenever the Warriors-Zimbabwe’s senior men national football team play, contestations over national identity often run under the surface. Readily-combustible virtual online platforms become carnivals where such discourses easily find their way. However, academic studies on mundane practices of nationalism such as football fandom in Zimbabwe are few and far between. This chapter explores the convergence of ethnicity, national identity and everyday nationalism discourses in Zimbabwe’s digital football fandom. In essence, the study examines how some Zimbabweans perceive and relate to Zimbabwe’s flagship national football team, nation and national identity at large. Focus is on purposively selected online comments and debates on Facebook fan pages- Dembare Dotcoms and Highlanders FC page during the Warriors’ poor performance at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) held in Gabon. Findings show that matches involving the Warriors are ritualised ethnic identity wars, always throwing up ontological, philosophical and metaphysical questions on ‘Who is a Zimbabwean? and What is Zimbabwe anyway?’ Wittingly or not, the Warriors are viewed through the polarising ‘Shona’/’Ndebele’, ethnic lens. Following the Warriors’ humiliation in Gabon, most of the comments presumably from the Ndebele speaking Zimbabweans expressed ‘disassociation’ from the ‘embarrassment’, arguing that the team was not representing the ‘nation’ but Mashonaland provinces, as reflected by its composition.
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spelling ir-11408-52312022-11-22T07:24:15Z ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe Lyton Ncube Jasper Maposa  Midlands State University Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe Warriors Everyday nationalism Fandom Shona Ndebele Football is a crucial site of representation where nations and national identities are [re]imagined. Likewise, whenever the Warriors-Zimbabwe’s senior men national football team play, contestations over national identity often run under the surface. Readily-combustible virtual online platforms become carnivals where such discourses easily find their way. However, academic studies on mundane practices of nationalism such as football fandom in Zimbabwe are few and far between. This chapter explores the convergence of ethnicity, national identity and everyday nationalism discourses in Zimbabwe’s digital football fandom. In essence, the study examines how some Zimbabweans perceive and relate to Zimbabwe’s flagship national football team, nation and national identity at large. Focus is on purposively selected online comments and debates on Facebook fan pages- Dembare Dotcoms and Highlanders FC page during the Warriors’ poor performance at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) held in Gabon. Findings show that matches involving the Warriors are ritualised ethnic identity wars, always throwing up ontological, philosophical and metaphysical questions on ‘Who is a Zimbabwean? and What is Zimbabwe anyway?’ Wittingly or not, the Warriors are viewed through the polarising ‘Shona’/’Ndebele’, ethnic lens. Following the Warriors’ humiliation in Gabon, most of the comments presumably from the Ndebele speaking Zimbabweans expressed ‘disassociation’ from the ‘embarrassment’, arguing that the team was not representing the ‘nation’ but Mashonaland provinces, as reflected by its composition. 267 290 2022-11-22T07:24:15Z 2022-11-22T07:24:15Z 2021-11-04 book part https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5231 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81969-9_14 en The Politics of Laughter in the Social Media Age 978-3-030-81969-9 open Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
spellingShingle Warriors
Everyday nationalism
Fandom
Shona
Ndebele
Lyton Ncube
Jasper Maposa 
‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title_full ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title_short ‘Those Boys Are Representing Mashonaland’: Digital Football Fandom, Ethnicity and National Identity Politics in Zimbabwe
title_sort ‘those boys are representing mashonaland’: digital football fandom, ethnicity and national identity politics in zimbabwe
topic Warriors
Everyday nationalism
Fandom
Shona
Ndebele
url https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5231
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81969-9_14
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