Paper short abstract:

This paper is based on a nuanced qualitative process, which sought to understand the sociology of everyday transnational fan identities in Zimbabwe. It explores European football fandoms through the lens of creolization and conviviality.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on a nuanced qualitative process, which sought to understand the sociology of everyday transnational fan identities in Zimbabwe. It explores European football fandoms through the lens of creolization and conviviality. In most contemporary African societies today, we have communities of highly committed European football fans. These communities seem to manifest most of the conventional characteristics of football fandom. Barring the fact that these fandoms are geographically set apart from the teams and players they support, the deep structure that informs their identifying with and support of European football teams seems to bear a significant sense of empathy with the teams they support, deep interest in the athletic performance of these teams and desire to acquire as much knowledge as possible about these teams. The paper explores the scope and impact of these fandoms in relation to how definition and practice of football fandom in contemporary times has been influenced by the global patterns of popular culture. It also shows that African fandoms of European football are not just overseas support of European football but also distinct communities that are constructed in and that also reflect their immediate socio-cultural contexts.