BBC Press Office
12 Dec 2003

BBC THREE Winter Highlights 2004 – Africa Kicks

Africa Kicks embraces the continent of Africa in a provocative season of programming made exclusively for BBC THREE.

Kicking off with coverage from the African Nations Cup, the season presents a series of intelligent documentaries which challenge our preconceptions about this vast continent and offer a fascinating insight into the lives of some of its 690 million people.

Football Magic
Travelling to Africa, actor John Simm investigates the role of the juju man in African football.

This role is seen as the most important member of the team, even above the star striker, manager or chairman.

Juju is big business in African football and most African teams, at both club and national level, keep an official witch doctor on their staff.

These men are seen as so important to the success of the team that in some cases clubs have chosen to pay higher wages to the juju man than the players.

These … films looks at the fall-out when 21st century football collides with centuries-old African tradition. (BJ-O)