Modernization and the Game of Soccer in Cameroun.

The article focuses on soccer and intends to show how larger societal structures and processes in Cameroun, West Africa, influence the participation of players, officials and audiences in that game. Soccer is and has been a popular game in that country since the early days of colonization. In addition, the country has been subjected to the triple influence of German, British, and French colonial authorities. The main task is accordingly to isolate a significant set of interrelationships between patterns of colonization and subsequent forms of social differentiation on the one hand and patterns of participation in soccer on the other. The article reflects on the modes of participation in soccer as dependent variable. The first problem to be tackled in this respect concerns the diffusion of the game in Cameroun. The lack of adequate equipment probably prevented them from practicing individual sportive activities. Further, the game of soccer was particularly popular among the social segments of the metropolitan population from which most colonizers were derived. Colonization, however, is a significant determinant not only of the degree of diffusion of soccer within African social systems but also of the forms taken by such diffusion. Similarly, patterns of diffusion of soccer are also influenced by patterns of economic exploitation. Soccer teams in the Cameroun differ indeed in terms of the number, the stability and the socio-economic characteristics of their players.