Reach Barcelona – or die trying: The hope and abandon behind a famous rallying cry

“Walking through the streets of Barcelona, there’s a common slogan you are bound to spot among the graffiti around the city: ‘Barca o mort’ (Barca or death, in Catalan). For some of Barca’s most fervent fans there is an almost religious bond with the club. Almost 5,000 kilometres away on the west coast of Africa, a similar expression reflects a very different reality. In Senegal, it is ‘Barca ou Barzakh’. Barzakh is an Arabic word that literally means ‘isthmus’. In Islam, it describes a stage...