New book about sports as a potential force in political struggles for independence and sovereignty

Matti Goksøyr
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

If somebody should feel tempted to think that the notion of sport as an arena for various cultural and political perspectives has had its fair share of academic studies, and even that it has become an over-published field, they should think again. Here comes yet another book which demonstrates that struggles around sport and national identity is an apparently inexhaustible and rewarding source to exploit.

The book, with the title and the particular perspective on Sport and Secessionism is a collection of articles on the subject, edited by anthropologist Mariann Vaczi, at the Centre for Basque Studies at Reno, Nevada and the sports sociologist Alan Bairner, both merited and well qualified for the task.,

Secessionism is a not so commonly used expression for what is otherwise termed as separatism, the struggle for independence, often in the shape of nationalism when applied in the wider socio-historical sciences. Secessionism can imply broad political and cultural currents of which sport can be a natural part. The strive for secession, to break loose or away, through the ideas and goals of secessionism and its relationship to sport is the basis for this book.

Secessionism, the editors state, ‘arises as a contested terrain in the process of constant flux’ described by complexity and paradoxes’. After a short introduction, they move on to present 14 cases of secessionism where complexity and paradoxes seem to exist in abundance. Common for them all is that secession is a more or less unfinished business. So, is it the process itself, of the actual secession, that defines secessionism in this book, or is it the idea that secession is possible? And, in that case, what separates this from a book on sport and nationalism or sport and the struggle for independence?

These centrifugal and centripetal forces create idiosyncratic power relations displaying themselves through risks and opportunities.

Hence, it could be tempting to ask what is the difference between this book and other books focusing on struggles for independence and sovereignty? Some of the cases presented in this book could arguably be presented in a collection on sport and nationalism. However, in their introduction, the editors have an answer to this, claiming that secessionist contexts are unique in the sense that they consist of two different and simultaneous processes; on the one hand a sub-national identity construction and on the other a deconstruction of state sovereignty. These centrifugal and centripetal forces create idiosyncratic power relations displaying themselves through risks and opportunities. Few readers of this web site will disagree with the editors when they claim that ‘sports are uniquely positioned to shed light on these processes’, although perhaps not only, as the editors state, because of sport’s ‘paradigmatically binary, agonic logic of contest’ on which state-region antagonism may be projected. It could be added that certain sport’s symbolic meanings could also play a part here.

Vaczi and Bairner emphasize that they use secessionism as a broad term: From loosely organized and unreflected aspirations of some cultural autonomy to the organized struggle for full political self-determination. Secessionist subjects are however clear about their adversary; the suppressing state from which they aim to separate.

The role of sport in secession processes is an interesting question to raise in order to problematize and hopefully clarify the concept itself. Is it a cultural process of neighbours and associates growing apart from each other? Or is it a more technical term illuminating the physical and concrete process of seceding from a human, social and political company (of all sorts) where one no longer wishes to take part – as the classic secession example from American history goes, citing the break-away southern states before the Civil War? One of sport’s roles in such situations is demonstrated during the more recent Spanish Civil War when the Basque president Aguirre decided to convoke a Basque national team and send it on a world tour to raise money for the fight against Fascism, but also with the more basic intention of putting the Basques ‘on the map’ – and in due course make the idea of an actual secession more conceivable. The tour of Team Euskadi took them through amongst others the Nordic countries, the Soviet Union and Poland, but also to Mexico, Cuba and Chile.

When the Super Eagles recently played against neighbouring Algeria, northern football fans threatened to instead support the (Muslim) opponents. Ogbah takes this as a sign of modern sport’s, i.e., football’s decreasing influence as a national unifier.

Secession can be a result of growing historical awareness around the question of the political or cultural self. However, it can also appear as a break-away among already existing partners. Often, also in the last case, the actors, ‘the angry and unhappy bedfellows’, will seek historical justification for their political strategies. Whether reliant on fresh political events or long-term history, various sorts of secessionism are matters which this book aims to illuminate. The policies around a possible break-away, to put it roughly, stands out as the common ground for the present articles, although presented and approached by the contributors in different ways, in itself a demonstration of the various ways in which secessionism has operated.

In a book whose introduction stresses the European Union’s challenges with separatism – arguing that ‘secessionist politics has become somewhat of a spectre to be avoided rather than tackled’ (by the European Union) – it is redemptive that the actual empirical chapters from non-European cases numbers five (six if you count French-speaking Canada).

The 14 cases are a mix of familiar areas when talking about emerging national identities: the Irish and British, and the Basque and Catalonian histories. These are mainly, and brilliantly, covered by the editors themselves, as they are experts on these topics. However, and this is perhaps the main contribution from this collection, we are also being presented with new and I assume for most readers more or less unknown and fresh examples from e.g., Corsica, Kabylia, Biafra, and the Sindh province in Pakistan, as well as studies of Kurdish football in Turkey and Szekler hockey in Hungary and Romania, and new perspectives on the Montreal hockey nation in Canada, making this more of a genuine international overview than most collections of its kind, even if European cases are still relatively dominating as they constitute eight out of fourteen chapters.

It would be impossible to try to give a fair account of each contribution, however the broad international representation is in itself a benefit for this kind of research, providing new and for most, hitherto unknown examples of the way sport and the interest in sports from practice to fandom and politics, works. The ways a similar sport like ‘hockey’ (ice hockey) is represented in eastern Europe and French-speaking Canada is one example of this. The Szekler ice hockey teams represent the Hungarian minority in Romania, a supposedly inferior position. However, at the same time they constitute the economically and sportive superior part in Romanian hockey. The Montreal Canadiens on the other hand operates in a landscape where there has been a gap between image and reality. In southern Europe, the cases of Catalonia and the Basque regions, giving sports prominent places and roles in their secession struggles, are relatively well-known. However, as analysed and portrayed by Mariann Vaczi, building on amongst others her own studies and classic perspectives from Caillois and Levi-Strauss, we are given new insights. The Corsican story is perhaps less familiar. The Corsicans seem to have been more sceptical to the role sports could possibly play in an aspiration for sovereignty and hence gave it a modest role. When sports and secessionism did after all come into serious contact, it was on the football stands. Anti-French markers have been held and no French flags have been visible on the Corsican football terraces for the last forty years, according to Didier Rey. Different as the examples are, they still contribute to an understanding of how sports may operate in environments of political separatism.

Biafra, as represented in a fascinating piece by Johnny Precious Ogbah, carries an interesting case. The region has, since the British colonial rule, been a part of the multi-ethnic state of Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous state split by religious and other cultural divides. As a ‘nation state’ constructed on the drawing board of British colonialists, its birth and constitution are different from the European examples, making the processes of nation-building and secessionism threaten to occur simultaneously. And indeed, separatism did lead to a dreadful civil war in 1969 when Biafra fought to break loose from Nigeria – a war which created the image of starving African children for Western TV-viewers. Less known is probably the story of another ‘football truce’ (like the Christmas truce during World War One) that occurred during the same miserable war: a 48 hour long truce which enabled the civil population of both warring parties to experience a football match(!). Unlike the Christmas game of 1914 the purpose was not to play, but to watch. However, not to watch a normal, local game. Nonetheless, as Ogbah claims, the enormous interest in watching Brazilian superstar Pele on a rare visit with his club side to Nigeria, illustrates ‘football’s influence’ in Nigeria. For two days it over-shadowed the otherwise unavoidable and ‘necessary’ war. The generals from both sides agreed to open a crucial bridge and safeguard fans from Biafra in their travel to the match and back.

However, as most of Ogbah’s chapter deals with, the conflict between Nigeria’s different regions and groups are far from over, since its underlying dimensions are still visible and working, but now in a different way. These dimensions are visible working in relation to Nigeria’s present national team, the Super Eagles, usually one of Africa’s best teams and a regular contender at the FIFA World Cups, but also simultaneously marred and troubled by religious and ethnic divides. While president Obasanjo in 2002 explicably, after yet another disappointing world cup campaign without obvious success by the recognised talented Nigerian national team, tried to blame the presence of foreign coaches as the cause for the Super Eagles ongoing under-achievement, Ogbah points to and analyses the presence of more basic divergences as more plausible sources. The religious divide between Christianity and Islam, represented in geographical splits, has also entered the support for the national team in a sense where football fans from the Muslim North claims not to root for the national team which happens to consist mainly of players from the former Republic of Biafra, populated by Christian Igbos. When the Super Eagles recently played against neighbouring Algeria, northern football fans threatened to instead support the (Muslim) opponents. Ogbah takes this as a sign of modern sport’s, i.e., football’s decreasing influence as a national unifier.

The Biafra example is one of many interesting pieces in a book which contains several similar stimulating stories. Although, as mentioned above, some of these examples and analyses may be familiar territories and some well-known statements may appear, this book nevertheless presents fresh takes on the field that are most welcome.

That sport can function as an arena for displaying identities and be a powerful tool in struggles for national independence and secession is a well-known ‘fact’ from a fair amount of research literature. Considering that sports studies historically has had a Western bias, the international field in question is far from over-researched and new books like the one under review here will hopefully appear.

What this particular book brings is however, new takes, new examples and hence new perspectives and more nuances to the ways sport can operate and be applied in these and similar settings. In this way it provides more depth and foundation to the often-used phrases about sport’s importance as an entry to increased cultural and political knowledge and understanding.

Copyright © Matti Goksøyr 2023