Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the Mandela Soccer Academy, which was established in Ghana by Mohammed Issa, a Lebanese-Ghanaian entrepreneur. The article analyzes the connections between the local, the national, and the transnational at the academy, focusing on its cosmopolitan educational strategies.

Paper long abstract:

Since their arrival in the late Nineteenth century, Lebanese immigrants have come to play an important role in Ghanaian society, especially in commerce. In community development, however, their influence is considered to be less salient, and therefore it is less researched. This paper tries to fill this lacuna by focusing on the Mandela Soccer Academy, which was established in Ghana by Mohammed Issa, a Lebanese-Ghanaian entrepreneur. The paper analyzes the connections between the local, the national, and the transnational at the academy. As a Lebanese-Ghanaian who spent most of his schooling years in the UK, Mohammed brings the discourses and practices of his own transnational and multi-cultural background to the academy. The educational curriculum of the academy incorporates various forms of cosmopolitan ethos aimed at exposing the children to different cultural values, which are perceived by Mohammed to be constructive for them. At the same time, the academy provides Mohammed with an opportunity to bolster the social collateral of the Lebanese in Ghana. The paper explores the ways in which the academy has become a juncture of transnational cultural production, and assesses the extent to which the children have embraced Issa's worldview. These claims are based on recent findings that have emerged through long term ethnography at the academy, which included daily observations and interviews with its members. The paper relates to this panel by dealing with issues of transnational migrants as funders of or investors of education, and the influence of migrants and growing diaspora communities on educational strategies.