Urban Football Performances: Playing for the Neighbourhood in Senegal, 1950s-2000s

In Senegal, neighbourhood football teams are more popular than teams in the national football league. The so-called navetanes teams were first created in the 1950s. Since the early 1970s, they have competed in local, regional and national neighbourhood championships. This article considers the history of these clubs and their championships by focusing on the city of Dakar and its fast-growing suburbs, Pikine and Guediawaye. Research on the navetanes allows an exploration of the social and cultural history of the neighbourhoods from the actor-centred perspective of urban youth. The history of the navetanes reflects the complex interrelations between young people, the city and the state. The performative act of football - on and beyond the pitch, by players, fans and organizers - constitutes the neighbourhood as a social space in a context where the state fails to provide sufficient infrastructure and is often contested. The navetanes clubs and championships demonstrate how young people have experienced and imagined their neighbourhoods in different local-level ways, while at the same time interconnecting them with other social spaces, such as the 'city', the 'nation' and 'the world'.