The Anfield Man — Peter Abrahams

There once lived a young man called Alfonso, who was a citizen of Spain. Alfonso fell in love with a Spanish girl. His mother, however, did not approve of the love match; this because the girl’s grandmother had South American blood in her veins. Trouble soon abounded and the love story took Alfonso on a journey from Spain to Africa. While Alfonso was in Africa, the national teams of England and Spain played against one another in a football match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. During the course of the match in Madrid, black footballers in the England Team were subjected to one of the most appalling forms of racial abuse ever known in history: a black player only need to go anywhere near the ball and a large section of the crowd will burst into the most Sickening of Monkey Chants. The Sickening Monkey Chants that Black English players were subjected to in Spain caused Alfonso to fi nd himself confronted by a di cult problem amongst black people in Africa. What happened to Alfonso in Africa inspired the writing of Fly the 7 Rings & Go Tell a Friend. The pupil of a Holy Man taught Alfonso how The 7 Rings of the Human Family is used in practice. It opened Alfonso’s eyes to some truths about our common Human Nature. And the Monkey Chants in Madrid caused Alfonso to embark on a journey that he never saw coming in his life.