The Ultimate Postcolonial Derby
The city of Angers, France, sits on a hill in the heart of the Loire Valley. It has played a central role in French history: Its cathedral was consecrated in 1096, and the Edict of Nantes, which for a time put an end to the bloody Wars of Religion in France, was written there in 1598 by King Henry IV.
Today, the town is nourishing other histories. Along its southern edge is the neighborhood , which, starting in the late 1960s, became the site of several large housing projects—the likes of which sit outside most French cities and are home to diverse populations, including many immigrants and children of immigrants from former French colonies across North and West Africa. In one of these complexes, Zoubida Belmoulat, an immigrant from Morocco, raised her three sons—including Sofiane Boufal, the virtuosic 29-year-old winger for the Moroccan national soccer
