Book reviews

Young men’s will to suffer and the reproduction of global capitalism

March 24, 2023

Daniel Alsarve
Department of Health Sciences, Örebro University

*Uroš Kovač*
**The Precarity of Masculinity: Football, Pentecostalism, and Transnational Aspirations in Cameroon**
173 pages, hardcover, ill
New York, NY: Berghahn Books 2022
ISBN 978-1-78920-927-3

When the Swedish premier division club Mjällby AIF signed the Nigerian footballer Silas Nwanko last year, discussions immediately arose in social media about whether his young age was real. The track record was huge, and maybe it was all too good to be true. With some distance to these discussions and after reading this book, The Precarity of Masculinity, I see this episode as a prime example of postcolonialism in the present football world, which I will return to at the end of this review.

Uroš Kovač has written a book about African men’s football, specifically Cameroonian football at the intersection of two continents summarised as postcolonialism (or pentecostalism) with the moral economy, global capitalism, and masculine morale as areas of investigation. Overall, the book is a very exciting journey into one of the shadiest corners of the global football industry. The method is, in short, ethnographic with close conversations, interviews, photographs and participation in the footballers’ professional and social activities. The young players’ dreams of a better life, freedom from financial worries and, above all, being able to play football in the most prestigious European leagues are the ‘putty’ that lubricates and keeps the machinery running. Football capitalism is not an easy world to survive in. However, its appeal is extremely strong and makes young men sacrifice their bodies and put their entire lives on the line. Many are called – few are chosen.

The choice of intrigue and problem is thus very interesting and important. As a Swede, I find myself on the fringes of the European continent, but nevertheless, the text speaks to me through postcolonial figures of thought, and the view of ‘African’ football players in our context is altered and nuanced after the reading. That is, ethnic dimensions linked to power and economy are very much worth a continued critical examination from other and more diverse perspectives. Kovač has here contributed a very important book to the field.

The book is laid out in five main chapters with an introduction and a conclusion. The two introductory chapters launch the problem, anchor it in relation to the current state of research, create its theoretical framework and provide a historical contextualisation of football in Cameroon. Then four more empirically oriented chapters follow that begin with the political and economic structures. Kovač uses the concept of moral economy and the production of the suffering subject to show the driving forces behind the reproduction of football’s economic and political structures. Based on one of neoliberalism’s basic assumptions, ‘to prosper, one must engage with risk’ (page 49), Kovač develops his analysis of suffering, occultism, and ideals of masculinity. The winners are the wealthiest clubs in Europe trying to extract Africa’s talent and (football) labour. In the chapter, Kovač also shows how global capitalism (or the economy) affects local spiritual beliefs and Pentecostal Christianity. The possibilities of global football thus bring a threat that might shake the ancient principles of regional elites in its foundation (page 58).

The white man’s perspective of Africa as a continent of constant disorder, falsification, scam and humbug, but at the same time a place where ‘cheap’ talent can be found and thus a continent where big money can be made, is still present.

In chapter three, this willingness to suffer is linked to moral masculinities and the uncertainty of succeeding in a football career – the precarity of being a young man with high hopes and dreams. Here, Kovač describes some individuals’ negotiations around different ideals of masculinity on the field, their relationship with relatives off the field, and what is expected of them as adult men in the future. That is, if you fail in your football career, the fall may be big, and you may be considered a failure, insignificant and useless. However, Kovač dislikes the idea of seeing young men as victims of large-scale economic processes and instead focuses on the moral discourse. Alcohol and sex appear as threats to the football career, but most interesting in this chapter are the so-called ‘interquarter football competitions’ that young players must master – a kind of local neighbourhood matches of a very brutal nature. Anyone who has not participated in such a game is not considered tough enough and could hardly become a good football player in the future. The phenomenon echoes the idea that something must be broken before it can be built up and become significant and successful.

Chapter four deals with the spiritual elements in which Pentecostal Christianity is found to be intimately intertwined with other social and traditional forms of spiritualism. Anointed stickers and oil, jars and medicine, and practices of prophecy and spirituality are regarded as important engagements and in general, be carefully connected to the spiritual world. Matches can be won through proper spiritual preparation and conversely, shortcomings can be explained by spiritual attacks. As an example, the book cover depicts a player’s football shoe with a spiritual incantation intended to bring good luck and success (see cover above).

In chapter five, the analysis is further deepened and touches on anxiety, concerns, spirituality, sexuality and other relatively intimate processes. Kovač has undeniably earned the trust of the participants, and their openness impresses me as a reader. Here, too, the balance between interpretations of various signs and prophecies is treated with the young man’s body at the centre of the analysis. As Kovač also touches on and discusses in ethical terms, there is an obvious risk that the researcher exploits his ‘study object’ where, so to speak, the research itself becomes an example of a postcolonial process.

Gaël Junior Etock, F.C Barcelona Cameroonian youth team player aged 16, in a match against Girona at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper on January 31, 2010. (Shutterstock/Christian Bertrand)

In the concluding chapter, Kovač makes his point by placing the football industry in a larger postcolonial context between local spirituality and global industry:

It is this dual nature that is crucial in shaping young men as gendered subjects in the Southwest Region of Cameroon and arguably also elsewhere in post-structural-adjustment West Africa where young men are captivated by the attractive possibilities of globalized industries and the promises of contemporary spiritual movements (p. 145).

Overall, this book is an important analytical contribution to the fields of sports science, ethnography, and other disciplines focusing on contemporary postcolonialism, the global economy, and young masculinities. It contains an impressive breadth in its research overview as well as a clarifying depth in its analysis. Of these areas, the connection to the masculinity research field is a bit lacking. How Kovač uses the concept of hegemonic masculinity could be discussed, and I think, for example, that a further reading of Raewyn Connell, Richard Howson, or Jeff Hearn and others could deepen these parts of the analysis further. For example, Kovač makes a point of the economy of suffering and how the young players accept suffering for the sake of an uncertain future. The links to the basic principles of neoliberalism strengthen the argument, but at the same time this suffering is wrapped in humour, homosocial jargon between the players and, of which Kovač himself becomes a part, trust and confidence in some close friends and players in the same situation. What I mean is that the dual nature, or complexity, can be accommodated on multiple levels. And it is precisely this dynamic that is contained in the concept of hegemony and how the understanding of power can be unpacked. In recent years, research on hybridity and hybrid masculinities (see, for example, Demetriou 2001; Bridges and Pascoe 2014, 2018) has been developed, and these results could function in a similar way.

The reasoning above is an attempt to provide constructive criticism towards a very impressive work and it says more about how important this book will be for future researchers to relate to. Kovač’s work will be hard to circumvent, and the results will be important for researchers but hopefully also for organisations active in these fields. Structures of suspicion, and questioning of passports and birth data still exist, which of course says more about capitalism’s fetish for birth data and citizenship than it does about the young men exploited in this system. The white man’s perspective of Africa as a continent of constant disorder, falsification, scam and humbug, but at the same time a place where ‘cheap’ talent can be found and thus a continent where big money can be made, is still present, which I exemplified in this review’s introduction. In this context, Kovač’s book is an eye-opener for anyone prepared to see and understand. Football’s systematic exploitation of young men, a kind of trafficking, is going on at this very moment and the question is whether the majority of us wants to keep the current order or try to change it. After reading Kovač’s book, I am doubtful that this system is sustainable in the long run.