{"id":948064,"date":"2023-01-05T02:07:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T02:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=82569"},"modified":"2023-01-05T02:07:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T02:07:37","slug":"tony-fala-pele-a-tribute-from-aotearoa-and-oceania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/05\/tony-fala-pele-a-tribute-from-aotearoa-and-oceania\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Fala: Pel\u00e9 \u2013 a tribute from Aotearoa and Oceania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANALYSIS:<\/strong> <em>By Tony Fala<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Edson Arantes do Nascimento passed away at the age of 82 after a brave battle with colon cancer in Brazil on 20 December 2022. Known as &#8220;O Rei&#8221;, &#8220;The Black Pearl&#8221;, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pel%C3%A9\">&#8220;Pel\u00e9&#8221;<\/a>, he was an ambassador, businessperson, community worker to the world, cultural force, leader, soccer player, and politician.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, I write about why I admired Pel\u00e9 as a child.<\/p>\n<p>Writing as an adult and activist, I also pay tribute to Pel\u00e9 and articulate why &#8220;O Rei&#8221; remains an important teacher of decoloniality and decolonisation in contemporary Oceania.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/1\/3\/brazils-lula-pays-respects-to-pele-as-150000-attend-stadium-wake\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Brazilian sports legend Pele laid to rest in Santos cemetery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2023\/jan\/04\/pele-funeral-brazil-footballers-dont-show-up\">A lack of respect\u2019: Brazil footballers fail to show up to Pel\u00e9\u2019s funeral<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-64126695\">Pel\u00e9 in Africa: The man, the myth, the legend<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pel\u00e9 in my childhood in the 1970s<br \/>\n<\/strong>I caught brief glimpses of Pel\u00e9\u2019s soccer genius in sports highlights on Aotearoa television news as a child in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>I did not grasp the tactical, technical, or strategic intricacies of professional soccer when watching Pel\u00e9 play for the New York Cosmos as a child. But I did see Pel\u00e9\u2019s genius with a soccer ball on television. I remember seeing him play with creativity, joy, and imagination.<\/p>\n<p>Pel\u00e9 brought joy into my difficult childhood.<\/p>\n<p>Like other Pacific Islanders of his generation, my father was a born-again rugby supporter who did not rate football as a sport. But even he would marvel at O Rei\u2019s exploits on Aotearoa television when Pel\u00e9 appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Pacific people recognised Pel\u00e9\u2019s genius &#8212; just as they recognised the extraordinary gifts of Muhammad Ali in the boxing ring.<\/p>\n<p>Years before the formation of the English Premier League, I grew to love watching the great British players representing the mighty first division English clubs. Aotearoa television would play a weekly English first division match, and we always received televised, free- to-air coverage of FA Cup Finals in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>I came to love Division One English club football in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o6xz8faVy8s\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>An Al Jazeera tribute to Pel\u00e9.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Historically, Aotearoa has always had a strong affinity with British football. Despite loving the English game, I saw that Pel\u00e9 played soccer in a radically unique way.<\/p>\n<p>In later years, I would understand that Pel\u00e9 played an Afro-Brazilian style of football known as &#8220;jogo bonito&#8221;, or, the beautiful game &#8212; characterised by creativity and improvisation by individual players; off the ball movement; one touch passing; samba like team rhythm and tempo, and superlative dribbling, passing, and attacking movements on the ground and in the air by the entire team.<\/p>\n<p>I watched documentaries about Pel\u00e9 as a child and a teen when they appeared on Aotearoa television. But I was too young to see the televised, in-colour spectacle of &#8220;jogo bonito&#8221; performed by Alberto, Gerson, Jairzinho, Pele, or Rivellino at Mexico City when Brazil beat Italy 4-1 to win the 1970 World Cup. I would only watch these mighty players in the 1970 World Cup after Sky TV played classic matches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pel\u00e9, Brazil, and &#8216;jogo bonito&#8217; in 1982<br \/>\n<\/strong>But I did witness the &#8220;jogo bonito&#8221; performed by the 1982 Brazilian side that featured Eder, Falcao, Junior, Socrates, and Zico. Although this side did not win the 1982 World Cup, they remain the greatest sporting team I have ever witnessed &#8212; they performed art and played soccer simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p>Aotearoa\u2019s mighty All Whites played this Brazilian side in the group stages of the 1982 tournament. The team also got to meet Pel\u00e9 in person when O Rei visited the Aotearoa team changing room before the match.<\/p>\n<p>I was too young to understand that the 1982 side played a style of Afro-Brazilian soccer that continued the legacy of the beautiful game begun by Didi, Garrincha, Pel\u00e9, and Jairzinho long years before. Pel\u00e9 was one of the innovators of this style of play in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Engaging with Pel\u00e9 as an adult<br \/>\n<\/strong>As an adult, I developed a fuller understanding of Pel\u00e9, his life, and his historical context.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Pel\u00e9 was born only 53 years after the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 into an Afro-Brazilian family who often struggled to put food on the table. (Pel\u00e9 writes about his childhood and the hardships he endured in his 2007 autobiography.)<\/li>\n<li>The Black Pearl\u2019s Afro-Brazilian people occupied the lowest socio-economic positions in Brazilian society.<\/li>\n<li>Even today, Afro-Brazilians face discrimination in employment, the justice system, and day-to-day life in Brazil. The Brazilian police still target Afro-Brazilian male youth for violence even today.<\/li>\n<li>Opposing team\u2019s fans made monkey noises &#8212; whether Pel\u00e9 played in Brazil or around the world with his club, Santos. Despite his popularity, Pel\u00e9 was a target of racism.<\/li>\n<li>Pel\u00e9\u2019s Brazilian government prevented him from playing soccer in Europe by making him a &#8220;national treasure&#8221;. In consequence, Pel\u00e9 could not sell his labour to European clubs. Critics have stated that this would never have happened to a white Brazilian.<\/li>\n<li>Brazilians accused Pel\u00e9 of getting too close to figures in the Brazilian dictatorship of 1964-1985 &#8212; such as General Medici.<\/li>\n<li>Pel\u00e9\u2019s former national teammate, Paulo Cesar Lima, said in the 2021 documentary <em>Pel\u00e9<\/em> that he loved Edson, but Lima also said he felt Pel\u00e9 functioned as a &#8220;submissive Black man&#8221; during the height of the dictatorship repressions in 1969. Lima felt a statement by Pel\u00e9 against the dictatorship in the late 1960s would have &#8220;gone a long way&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Brazilian journalist Juca Kfouri stated that Pel\u00e9 did not have a guarantee that the Brazilian regime would not torture him if he did speak out.<\/li>\n<li>In Africa, ordinary people treated Pel\u00e9 as a son when O Rei playing there in the late 1960s. Pel\u00e9 remains a figure of Trans-Atlantic Black unity in Africa, the US, and in other parts of the Black Diaspora.<\/li>\n<li>Apartheid security forces prevented Pel\u00e9 from leaving an airport when he visited South Africa in the 1960s. Pel\u00e9 swore he would never return until South Africa was free from Apartheid. He did return in the 1990s &#8212; to spend time with Nelson Mandela.<\/li>\n<li>Pel\u00e9 was a Goodwill Ambassador for the Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992.<\/li>\n<li>He was a Minister for Sport in Brazil.<\/li>\n<li>He was an ambassador for the UN, UNICEF, and UNESCO during his lifetime &#8212; always seeking to forge relationships with children.<\/li>\n<li>He endured business failures.<\/li>\n<li>He refused to recognise a daughter born out of wedlock.<\/li>\n<li>Pel\u00e9 was a significant cultural force in Brazil &#8212; for good and for bad.<\/li>\n<li>He was a football genius. Football journalists such as Tim Vickery have spoken of Pel\u00e9\u2019s soccer skills &#8212; Edson\u2019s ability with both feet; acceleration; skills in the air; passing talents; unselfishness; football intelligence, and his psychological strength.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Pel\u00e9\u2019s passing in the media<br \/>\n<\/strong>Since his untimely passing, television news networks such as Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Television New Zealand have all honoured Pel\u00e9\u2019s cultural, historical, political, and sporting legacy.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, print media in Aotearoa, Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, and South Africa have represented Pel\u00e9 as a &#8220;cultural icon&#8221;, &#8220;hero&#8221;, &#8220;innovator&#8221;, &#8220;giant of sport&#8221;, an &#8220;artist&#8221;, a &#8220;genius&#8221;, and a &#8220;fine, humble, and warm human being&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Print media sources in France and the US have also expressed criticism of Pel\u00e9 for not doing more against the Brazilian dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>Sources in Brazil have criticised Pel\u00e9 for not taking more of a public stand against racism in Brazil and the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pel\u00e9\u2019s aesthetics<br \/>\n<\/strong>Brazilian star Neymar wrote a moving tribute for O Rei after the great man died. In one part of his tribute, Neymar stated that Pel\u00e9 transformed soccer into art. I agree with Neymar\u2019s insight.<\/p>\n<p>If one watches Pel\u00e9 on film today, one sees a kinetic aesthetics of balance, gesture, grace, intelligence, power, speed, rhythm, and style &#8212; whether Pel\u00e9 was in the air, in space, or in a crowd of players. One observes Pel\u00e9 performing an aesthetics of creativity, joy, and improvisation. I have no doubt Pel\u00e9&#8217;s parents, coaches, friends, and teammates in Brazil all nurtured his aesthetics.<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously, I am in no doubt that Pel\u00e9\u2019s aesthetic genius was a gift given him by his ancestors and by his historical experience of being Afro-Brazilian.<\/p>\n<p>I am not Afro-Brazilian and do not pretend to understand the language of decoloniality and decolonisation Pel\u00e9 performed in living motion on a soccer field. But I am convinced Pel\u00e9 performed an aesthetics of Afro-Brazilian being, decolonisation, decoloniality, living, and expressing in his every movement on the soccer field.<\/p>\n<p>Pel\u00e9 performed the history of his ancestors on the soccer stage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pel\u00e9\u2019s lessons for Oceania<br \/>\n<\/strong>In conclusion, Pel\u00e9 taught me five things as a Pacific person in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>struggle to embrace joy and freedom in your life,<\/li>\n<li>always extend solidarity to those engaged in the Black struggle,<\/li>\n<li>remember the struggle for justice in Aotearoa, the Moana, Palestine, or West Papua are one with the struggle Black people face around the world,<\/li>\n<li>always look for the talents and potential in your own Moana peoples, and<\/li>\n<li>never be ashamed of your Oceanian ancestors, your genealogy, or your history.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Despite his handful of personal failings, Pel\u00e9 remains one of my great teachers in decolonial Oceania.<\/p>\n<p><em>The author, Tony Fala, acknowledges the lives of Brazilian football greats Garrincha, Pel\u00e9, and Socrates as the inspiration for this article. He also pays tribute to Pacific peoples across Oceania who believe in soccer as a sport that embraces emancipation, participation, struggle, and unity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/01\/05\/tony-fala-pele-a-tribute-from-aotearoa-and-oceania\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANALYSIS: By Tony Fala Edson Arantes do Nascimento passed away at the age of 82 after a brave battle with colon cancer in Brazil on 20 December 2022. Known as \u201cO Rei\u201d, \u201cThe Black Pearl\u201d, and \u201cPel\u00e9\u201d, he was an ambassador, businessperson, community worker to the world, cultural force, leader, soccer player, and politician. In<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55811,441,55844,32869,250,20115,432,5,6544,365,6,7,55849,94,1183,255,122,389,33,358,12,55852,55855,14,784,55859,124,1743,2975,4802],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":948065,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948064\/revisions\/948065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}