Football and a New National Identity : An Audience Survey of Rwandan Professionals

Literature connects sports with creating a feeling of unity and nation building amongst people. In a country such as Rwanda, a nation that is rebuilding itself after ethnic tensions that resulted into genocide against one of the ethnic groups, the Tutsi, it is important to understand the role of the new national identity in the process of rebuilding the country. Subsequently, this study aimed at investigating the link between national identity and sport specifically how professionals in Rwanda, as football fans, perceive their national identity. To this end, the study used survey questionnaire to investigate perceptions of new national identity. The findings relate football to the new national identity based on unity and professionals identify themselves with that new national identity. These findings suggest that football plays an important role in building the national identity for a country. This study presents original findings about new Rwandan national identity and its representation and, thus, fills a gap in existing literature. It also serves as a basis to study further the Rwandan national identity