Amid the World Cup, the new pan-Africanism is conditional

Published 2 July 2026 · sports

Before the June 18 South Africa-Czechia match at the ongoing FIFA World Cup, South Africa’s captain Ronwen Williams responded directly to online attacks against the

Before the June 18 South Africa-Czechia match at the ongoing FIFA World Cup, South Africa’s captain Ronwen Williams responded directly to online attacks against the players and the team. The criticism, primarily from other Africans, was directed towards South Africa’s anti-immigrant and xenophobic approach to residents from other African countries. He said he hoped football could unite players and that they should “enjoy and have a wonderful time, and we leave politics to the politicians”. The incident reinforced the growing conditionality that marks African support for African teams, a shift that has become more visible in recent years. Pan-African solidarity has long been a feature of previous sporting tournaments. Only a handful of nations participate in global competitions, and even fewer are competitive. That is why Africans have embraced previous deep tournament runs, from Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) making the quarterfinals, to Morocco becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals in 2022. This solidarity has meant that even fans barred from travel by economic circumstance or visa restrictions could still count on the rest of the continent to show up in support. But the 2026 World Cup, where a record 10 African nations are participating, has shown the limits of this solidarity and the growing willingness of fans to judge teams through politics. The continent went on to enjoy its most successful group stage on record, with nine of the 10 African sides advancing to the round of 32 and shattering the previous best. While teams such as Cape Verde, DR Congo, and Egypt drew praise for taking points off stronger sides, and Ivory Coast and Ghana for actually getting wins on the board, others have drawn vitriol and isolation as a result of their domestic politics. Their teams, apolitical as they and their players might be, have become proxies for their government’s policies in a way that shows how political judgement now follows teams onto the pitch. South Africa has long been a symbol of African pride, from its efforts at post-apartheid reconciliation to its successful hosting of the first senior men’s World Cup on African soil in 2010.

But it has also struggled to reconcile that legacy with waves of xenophobic violence directed at African migrants within the country. Movements like Operation Dudula have mobilised anti-immigrant sentiment under the banner of economic frustration. On the day of South Africa’s openingmatch against Mexico, the first batch of 268 repatriated Nigerian nationals arrived in Lagos. South Africa’s Home Affairs ministry said 586 Nigerians had been processed for repatriation. As Nigerians reflected on such actions, older citizens would have been bemused at Nigeria’s legacy of chairing the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid for decades or the “Mandela Tax”, the name given to the 2 percent that civil servants gave to a Southern Africa Relief Fund (SARF), which ended up raising $10.5m by 1977. That fellow Africans have been targeted in this way, while nationals of countries that did far less during the anti-apartheid struggle have not drawn the same anger, feels like a betrayal and points to a more conditional pan-Africanism. In this context, supporting Mexico became a way of holding an errant family member accountable, akin to speaking out against a perceived slight. Not every African team at the World Cup is navigating the same politics. Morocco, which opened its campaign with a 1-1 draw against five-time champions Brazil, has seen its continental relationship change since its extraordinary semifinal run in 2022. Africans across the continent rallied behind the Atlas Lions as they dispatched Belgium, Spain and Portugal, all with former African colonies, before coming up short against France. Morocco also gained support from its pro-Palestine position, alongside its former coach’s effusive statement embracing the team’s African identity rather than a more simplified Arab one. This was not straightforward, as other players took different positions, but Africans still embraced the team. Yet in the years since, Morocco’s contested position on Western Sahara and documented anti-Black racism towards sub-Saharan Africans have complicated that relationship. So has the dispute over the last African Cup of Nations final, when CAF stripped Senegal of the title and awarded it to Morocco. Morocco are officially African champions, but the legitimacy of that title remains contested, both in court and on the streets.