Following the Ball: African Football Players, Labor Strategies and Emigration across the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1949-75

When the great soccer player Eusébio le� the eld following Portugal’s 2-1 defeat to England in the 1966 World Cup semi nals, he was awash in tears, ercely clutching his red and green jersey – the national colors of Portugal. Yet, Eusébio was neither born nor grew up in the Iberian nation; instead, a Mozambican, he was one of the many Africans who made their way from Portugal’s colonial territories to the metropole from the late 1940s until the conclusion of the colonial period in 1975 in order to ply their athletic skills. Like Eusébio, many of these African players performed spectacularly on the eld, signi cantly elevating the play of their respective club teams and vaulting the Portu-guese national team to unprecedented levels, even as Portugal brutally suppressed a series of nationalist insurgencies in its African territories. Ultimately, these players’ experiences illuminate the

cosmetic and limited nature of the Portu-guese dictatorship’s (1926-74) labor and social reforms, but also some of the ways that Africans could creatively, if carefully,

exploit opportunities generated by shi�s in the social, occupational

and political landscape in the waning decades of the Portu-guese empire.

Todd Cleveland is an Assistant Professor of African History at

the University of Arkansas. His areas of research include the

histories of African diamonds, soccer,

and tourism.

TODD CLEVELAND

Lunch and TalkTuesday, February 13, 2018

12:00pmDept. of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies (159 George St.), Rm. 102

Photograph courtesy of Jorge Varanda

&PortugueseBrazilian Studies With generous support from