Football is a relatively new way for Cameroonians to succeed in life and is, therefore, closely linked to witchcraft’s dual function of levelling and accumu- lation. Every player in Cameroon wants to play in a country where football is profitable, at least more so than in this country.
The situation in Cameroon and the rest of Africa correlates with Wallerstein’s (1974) world systems theory, which is readily applicable to contemporary world football. He argues that an interdependence exists between all nations in the world and that there are strong and intimate relationships between the so-called core areas such as Europe and the peripheral areas in the so-called Third World. While the core dominates the peripheral areas, neither the core nor the periphery can sustain themselves independently. We can see that the flow of footballers is mostly a one-way affair, namely from the peripheral areas (Latin America, South East Asia and Africa) to the core countries in Europe.
Of course, there is also a semi-periphery which is a core area in a peripheral area. As for football in Africa, it is evident that football players from Mali, Sudan, Zambia and Rwanda, among others, are more than willing to be trans- ferred to clubs in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana or North African countries. Many African football players also go to clubs in Japan, South Korea or the Middle East (particularly Saudi Arabia).
For Cameroonian and African players in general, there are three ways to achieve their objective in finding a club abroad:
Some migrants arrive as a result of their own initiatives … A second group is made up of migrants who are recommended by an agent and may be drawn to Europe on the basis of a videotape or an invitation to demonstrate their abilities. … The third group is made up of players who are known to European coaches or African scouts who have witnessed these promising players at first hand. (Bale 2004: 238-239)
For most players in Buea, Europe is a true image of (football) paradise. ‘The way of living there is good,’ Essomba explains. ‘I can go to Holland and play for three or four years. I will have more money than somebody who has worked for the Cameroonian government for ten or fifteen years.’
As Armstrong & Giulianotti (2004: 11) argue, ‘[f]or the handful [of players] that succeed, social status and economic security go alongside the pleasure of playing the game regularly’. Indeed, there are numerous examples of African players who gained fame and fortune in major European clubs. The successful players who return to Africa now and again confirm the European ideal, espe- cially those who play in the various national teams.
However, the majority of the players who have failed to become football stars are easily forgotten. Bale (2004: 237) has argued that the ‘… systematization of recruitment, migration and work of African footballers can be read as a form of neocolonialism and exploitation in the well worn European traditions of scram- bling for Africa’. In general, African players can be regarded ‘… as relatively “cheap labour”, in Western terms’ (Ibid.: 235). Broere & Van der Drift (1997: 84) give an example of European scouts who look for promising African players and then have them sign highly unfavourable contracts.
Although the players’ ultimate goal is to play in one of the European leagues, they usually have to settle for a country in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe or South East Asia. In general, players would like to be invited for a ‘test match’ at a club abroad where a player can then participate in training sessions for a few weeks to give the coach an idea of his football qualities and mental skills.
Whenever a player leaves Cameroon to play in a foreign football competition, he is called a bushfaller in pidgin dialect. This simply means that the player will fall out of the bush (Cameroon) to go and play in a European football league. There he will make a lot of money, after which he falls back into the bush now and again to share his riches with friends and family.
There is a lot of witchcraft and sorcery involved in the international aspira- tions of Cameroonian players. The main reason is, again, jealousy. ‘When some- body is jealous of you, he always tries to block your future,’ Essomba explains. ‘He blocks you because he doesn’t want you to progress. He can go to the medicine man to block you. He can do any mystical thing so that you won’t pro- gress.’
First, the captain of Olympique de Buea has been selected for at least five test matches in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, mainly through the connections and efforts of his godfather, the president of Olympique de Buea. Unfortunately for him, no club has yet offered him a contract. Other attackers in the club are said to be jealous and angry of the fact that the club president sends the captain for test matches but does not even think about them. Listening to the rumours in town, I learned that one or more team mates therefore bewitched the captain so that he would fail in every test match. This time around, the captain and club president have kept the test match in Japan a secret and, instead, spread the rumour that he was going to the village to bury his dead brother. In this case, nobody knew anything about the test match and no one would thus think of bewitching the captain.
Second, Ashu is one of two players who have been selected by the head coach of Buea Boys to go for a test match. The head coach and the club president both have a lot of connections in European football. Although Ashu was supposed to go to Germany sometime in April 2003, he had not left the country by the time I returned home in late August. A few years earlier, Ashu got the chance to go for a test match at a club in Indonesia. After he had bought the ticket, it mysteriously disappeared at his parents’ house two days before his departure. Some time later, Ashu was supposed to go to a club in Ghana. Upon arrival in Accra, he suddenly fell extremely ill and had to return to Cameroon right away. In both cases, Ashu suspects that some Buea Boys players bewitched him to prevent him from suc- ceeding in a foreign competition.
Witchcraft and sorcery can thus be seen as an explanation as to why some players manage to get selected by foreign clubs and become rich in the process, while other players are ‘denied’ such chances and keep on struggling in their own impoverished football leagues. Witchcraft discourses can explain success and failure, wealth and poverty, good luck and bad luck. However, witchcraft and sorcery can also be seen as personal attempts by players to blame their own failures on the jealous behaviour of others. As Gluckman (1955: 89) states, ‘… clearly the selection of a witch is guided by a man’s own view of his personal relations, by his own grudges, ambitions, and similar sentiments. But his accusa- tions also have to appear reasonable before a general public.’ Players who do not play official matches or fail to get accepted by foreign clubs may think of witch- craft, while others would perhaps say that their skills leave a lot to be desired.
Since witchcraft accusations are selective and personal, it is necessary to look at the motivations of the ‘accuser’ and the relationship between the ‘accuser’ and the ‘accused’. A clear example is Ashu’s accusation against Olympique de Brea’s team captain. Also, since witchcraft accusations usually arise between persons who have some sort of social relationship, Bleek (1976: 527) suggests the need to ‘… take into account some of the characteristics of gossip’. During his fieldwork among the Kwahu, an Akan sub-group in Ghana, he discovered that ‘… witch- craft accusations in that society were far from formal public affairs. Most accu- sations were expressed covertly, some could hardly be called accusations …’ (Ibid.: 526).
Also, ‘… witchcraft accusations were … characterised by many conflicting versions and it would have been incorrect to select one of them as the “official version”. All of them should be studied in their own context and given due attention’ (Ibid.: 526). Indeed, the captain of Olympique de Buea’s unsuccessful test matches provided fertile ground for many witchcraft rumours around town.