The African Game
The African Game by Knox Robinson & Andrew Dosunmu (photographer)
An excerpt of the book description off Amazon.com:
The African Game is a unique vision of the continent as documented by Nigerian photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu. Punctuated with vivid essays by journalist Knox Robinson, The African Game looks to soccer as a way to explore modern African life, culture, and identity. A compelling, on-the-ground depiction of Africa’s passion for soccer, this book is the first look at the rich sporting culture that has produced some of professional soccer’s biggest and highest-paid stars.
Recently, the Puma Showroom placed The African Game (currently priced on Amazon.com at $31.50) on the coffee table at the waiting area, and during my free time, I sit on the black couches and just peruse the various magazines and reading material that lay there. Since The African Game is such a large book, I immediately get drawn to it over the other standard-size magazines in front of me. Flipping through the pages of The African Game, I get a sense that the African nationa as a whole are entirely enveloped in their sport culture–and for good reason too since the athletes that come from African nations are usually top notch! The book is filled from cover to cover with full-page images and 2-page spreads which I really just love for it’s large scale and detail. You get to see all of the emotions, actions, activities, and the overall life of athletes and fans in Africa during a game and during times of practice.
The book was not placed in the Puma Showroom randomly. If you’re wondering why it’s there, it’s because the World Cup just passed and the world seems to still be captivated in football/soccer mania. Many of the images also happen to be inadvertent advertisements for the Puma brand (though the goal of the photographer was not meant to advertise any particular brand at all). But the images in the book really just go to show how far the reach of Puma and some other brands like Adidas is in other places of the world, and how much the people in such places embrace the product brand.
If you’re in a bookstore, check the book out, and if you like it, purchase it. It’s a nice coffee table addition (I would know, since it’s an object on the coffee table in the Puma Showroom).
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