Evan Atchison

A World At Their Feet: African Soccer During the Cold War

History EN ↓ 5 episodes

Welcome to A World At Their Feet. In this limited series, host Evan Atchison explores the extraordinary stories of African Soccer During the Cold War. Through four case studies, Atchison tells stories of African soccer's intersection with politics, culture, and society from 1945-1990. Wars of Independence, Pan-Africanism, and kleptocratic dictators are just three themes of a complicated, nuanced history of African soccer.

Author

Evan Atchison

Episodes

Conclusion and South African Soccer During Apartheid 24.06.2026 18:03

In this concluding episode, Evan looks back at the history of Black and Indian South African soccer during Apartheid (1948-1994). South Africa’s black and Indian populations adopted soccer as their sport, creating styles focused on individualism, expression, and flair. In a society with legalized racial segregation and discrimination, soccer was a crucial avenue for black and indian players to gai...

Zaire, Mobutu, and the 1974 FIFA World Cup 17.06.2026 40:56

When Zaire qualified for the 1974 World Cup, the country’s dictator, Joseph Desire-Mobutu, gifted his players cars and houses. Mobutu took power in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1965 after staging multiple coups, the first one notably usurping Patrice Lumumba, which ultimately led to his execution in early 1961. Over the next three decades, Mobutu ran a kleptocratic dictatorship indelibly l...

Soccer in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana 10.06.2026 38:34

In its first decade as an independent country, Ghana won two African Cup of Nations and solidified itself as the dominant soccer team on the continent. After achieving independence from England in 1957, Ghana’s charismatic Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah, hoped to create a unified Ghanaian identity while also pursuing his loftier vision of unifying Africa under the banner of Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah...

The FLN Football Team and the Algerian War of Independence 03.06.2026 33:33

In April 1958, a group of talented Algerian soccer players who played in France, including Rachid Mehkloufi, Mustapha Zitouni, and Abdelaziz Ben Tifour, shocked the world by defecting from France overnight and flying to Tunis. There, they created the FLN Football Team. Algeria, France’s most prized colony, was under French dominion for more than 120 years before a group of Algerian militants known...

Introduction 27.05.2026 14:14

Welcome to A World At Their Feet: a podcast about African soccer during the Cold War. Over three body episodes and one concluding episode, host Evan Atchison covers the extraordinary stories of four African countries that navigated independence, geopolitics, domestic turmoil, dictatorship, and second-class citizenship over the 45-year period known as the Cold War. Soccer was a crucial institution...