Sport Past And Present In South Africa

This book provides an interpretation of sport in contemporary South Africa through an historical account of the evolution and social ramifications of sport in the twentieth century. It comprises chapters which trace the growth of sports such as football, cricket, surfing, boxing and rugby, and considers their relationship to aspects of racial identity, masculinity, femininity, political and social development in the country. The book also draws out the wider geo-political significance of South African sport, placing it in the context of the development of sport both elsewhere on the African continent and internationally. The history of sport has seen significant international growth over the past few decades. For the most part, however, the history of sport in Africa has remained largely untraced. By detailing the way in which sport’s development in South Africa overlapped with major socio-political processes on the wider African continent, this volume seeks to narrow the gap. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

The meanings attached to sports in South African societies, past and present, are explored in this book, which focuses particularly on the part played by the prominent team sports of rugby, soccer and cricket in the creation of social divisions and unities over the course of South African history. In the past, only white South Africans could represent "South Africa" in international sport. Now, formerly white-dominated sports have been promoted as unifying forces for a nation in the process of forging a new national identity. The book considers the history and changing meanings attached to particular sports in the old and new South Africas, and how sport is being used and abused today.

These groundbreaking essays demonstrate how Africans past and present have utilized sports to forge complex identities and shape Africa’s dynamic place in the world. Since the late nineteenth century, modern sports in Africa have both reflected and shaped cultural, social, political, economic, generational, and gender relations on the continent. Although colonial powers originally introduced European sports as a means of “civilizing” indigenous populations and upholding then current notions of racial hierarchies and “muscular Christianity,” Africans quickly appropriated these sporting practices to fulfill their own varied interests. This collection encompasses a wide range of topics, including women footballers in Nigeria, Kenya’s world-class long-distance runners, pitches and stadiums in communities large and small, fandom and pay-to-watch kiosks, the sporting diaspora, sports pedagogy, sports as resistance and as a means to forge identity, sports heritage, the impact of politics on sports, and sporting biography.

As athletes of today grapple with how to use their public platforms to fight for activist causes, Sport and Apartheid South Africa: Histories of Politics, Power, and Protest examines a set of longer histories of sport, ‘race’, and activism. The book seeks to uncover and understand new historical aspects of apartheid and sport, challenge myths, and rethink dominant narratives. It examines the subject of racially segregated sport in South Africa from national and transnational perspectives, asking questions about how athletes and administrators, transnational anti-apartheid groups and activists, and politicians around the world interpreted and internalized racial segregation in South Africa. By connecting the local to the global, this book illuminates the ways in which apartheid sport animated national and international debates, ranging from racism and human rights to Cold War politics and post-colonialism. Sport and Apartheid South Africa is a significant new contribution to the study of race and politics in sport and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of History, Politics, International Relations, Sociology, and Political Geography. The chapters in this book were originally published in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Orwell was wrong. Sports are not "war without the shooting", nor are they "war by other means." To be sure sports have generated animosity throughout human history, but they also require rules to which the participants agree to abide before the contest. Among other things, those rules are supposed to limit violence, even death. More than anything else, sports have been a significant part of a historical "civilizing process." They are the opposite of war. As the historical profession has taken its cultural turn over the last few decades, scholars have turned their attention to subject once seen as marginal. As researchers have come to understand the centrality of the human body in human history, they have come to study this most corporeal of human activities. Taking early cues from physical educators and kinesiologists, historians have been exploring sports in all their forms in order to help us answer the most fundamental questions to which scholars have devoted their lives. We have now seen a veritable explosion excellent work on this subject, just as sports have assumed an even greater share of a globalizing world's cultural, political and economic space. Practiced by millions and watched by billions, sports provide an enormous share of content on the Internet. This volume combines the efforts of sports historians with essays by historians whose careers have been devoted to more traditional topics. We want to show how sports have evolved from ancient societies to the world we inhabit today. Our goal is to introduce those from outside this sub-field to this burgeoning body of scholarship. At the same time, we hope here to show those who may want to study sport with rigor and nuance how to embark on a rewarding journey and tackle profound matters that have affected and will affect all of humankind.

The Long Run to Freedom: Sport, Cultures and Identities in South Africa analyzes the meaning attached to sport in South African societies, past and present. It explores the history and changing meanings attached to particular sports in the old and new South Africas, and the ways in which sport is being used in the present. In particular, it examines the prominent team sports of rugby, soccer, and cricket in the creation of social divisions and unities over the course of South African history.

Conventional historical and political analyses of South Africa have frequently neglected the vital role of sport in general, and rugby in particular. This book fills the gap through a critical interpretation of rugby's role in the development of white society, its role in shaping significant social divisions, and its centrality to the apartheid era "power elite".