This article examines how nativist nationalism manifests in expressions of digital fandom spaces during mega transnational football. Germane to this study is how the appointment of white expatriate coaches to manage African teams at mega tournaments such as the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and FIFA World Cup shores up identitarian othering. Drawing insights from theorisations of nativism, we perform a critical discourse analysis of purposively sampled digital fandom discourses about the dismissal of Jean-Louis Gasset – a white French expatriate coach – and replacement with Emerse Faé – a black coach of Ivorian origin – as Ivory Coast senior men national football team coach during the 2023 AFCON tournament. Faé guided the Ivorian team to the AFCON triumph, consequently provoking debates on digital social media platforms. We demonstrate that fandom reactions were largely by a nativist and racialised nationalism. Deploying strategic essentialism Africanness is reduced to black indigeneity. Faé’s blackness was valorised in a way that eclipsed his technical prowess and that of the Ivory Coast team. Moreover, Gasset and white coaches in general became subjects of nativist vitriol. We argue that the manifestation of nativist nationalism in digital fandom spaces is a microcosm of the broader quotidian politics of belonging in postcolonial Africa.

Projects

Currently no objects available

Currently no objects available