A Moveable Tournament? The Women’s African Cup of Nations, 2026

Thursday, March 12, @ 3 pm GMT (DakarTime) 
11:00 am US EST – 10:00 am US CST – 8:00 am US PST – 6:00 pm Nairobi 4:00 pm Lagos – 5:00 pm Jo’burg

A Moveable Tournament? The Women’s African Cup of Nations, 2026

African women and girls playing at all levels of the sport, both within and outside of the continent. The expansion from 12 to 16 teams in the 16th edition of the Women’s African Cup of Nations, scheduled from 17 March to 3 April 2026 in Morocco, is evidence of this. Nevertheless, challenges persist. The delay of the 2024 WAFCON to July 2025 followed by the current uncertainty and expected postponement of WAFCON 2026 are reminders of the precarity confronting African women’s football. In this Sports Africa Live session Drs. Anima Adjepong and Chuka Onwumechili will delve into the promise and challenges of WAFCON 2026 and the wider implications for women’s football in Africa.

Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rUshtQMMRueH2K87GSfViA

Panelists

Anima Adjepong, PhD
https://animaadjepong.com/ and https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/adjepoaa

Anima Adjepong (he/they) is a writer, organizer, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at the University of Cincinnati. Their work explores themes of embodiment, belonging, freedom, and reciprocity through the lens of indigenous and diasporic African ways of knowing. His second book, Ghana’s Black Queens: The Women Who Made Football in the Postcolonial Nation (forthcoming April 2027), explores the emergence of women’s football in Ghana at the intersection of postcolonial identity, heteropatriarchal nationalism, and collective efforts for gender and class justice.

Chuka Onwumechili, Ph.D.
https://profiles.howard.edu/chukwuka-onwumechili

Bio: Dr. Onwumechili (pronouns: he/him) is Full Professor of Communications and the Editor-In-Chief of The Howard Journal of Communications. Dr. Onwumechili has published widely in multiple academic journals and over 15 books. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the Communication & Sport journal. He is the author of the textbook Sport Communication: An International Approach. Dr. Onwumechili’s research interest is varied and covers multiple areas: Africa, sports communication, media issues, telecommunications, and political communication. He writes periodically for various media outlets including The Conversation. Among his many publications is the 2024 book, Women’s football In Africa. New York: Routledge.

Moderator

Martha Saavedra Ph. D.
Academic Coordinator, Emerita; Alum

Dr. Martha Saavedra

Martha Saavedra, PhD, Emerita, was the Associate Director of the Center for African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Over her career she taught at St. Mary’s College of California, Ohio University, La Escuela Universitaria Real Madrid Universidad Europea, and UC Berkeley. Her publications include work on sport, gender, and development in Africa, agrarian politics and ethnic conflict in Sudan, and representations of Africa in Chinese popular culture. She is a board member of Sport Africa and Soccer Without Borders. She has been involved with football most of her life as a player, coach, scholar, parent, and fan.