"A man's game": cricket, war and masculinity, South Africa, 1899-1902

As practitioners of the imperial sport of the Victorian age, cricketers rallied whenever war descended upon England and its colonies. The South African War of 1899-1902 was no different. Adding to existing work on cricket's imperial development within South Africa, this study marks a significant contribution to research on the link between masculinity, war and sport during the Victorian era. A concept emerging from the English public schools of the mid- to late nineteenth century, the masculine ethos of sport and military honour had reached colonial South Africa by the outbreak of war in 1899. In its analysis of cricket and masculinity, this essay examines the events surrounding the war in South Africa and provides an example of the distinct relationship that existed between the military and the masculinity of sport and its organisation during this era.     

‘Tours of Imperialism’: Cricket and Cultural Transfer in South Africa, 1880–1910

Abstract

Few can deny the significance of sport in today’s South Africa. The sporting structures upon which this is based were first introduced to the country by the British in the late nineteenth century. In line with policies of cultural imperialism, sports such as cricket were promoted at this time as part of a wider political agenda that encouraged the adoption of an ‘English’ way of life in the region. Sports tours, most notably cricket, were a fundamental part of this cultural transfer between the ‘Mother Country’ and her colonies in Southern Africa. To underpin the study of transnational linkages and transfer in African sports, this paper will offer an historical overview of how ‘British-styled’ sport arrived in South Africa and how the early cricket tours between England and South Africa were constructed to promote distinct political and cultural connections. This paper will explore the early development of cricket in South Africa and investigate its symbiotic link to British imperialism and colonialism via the first tours and sporting exchanges that took place. The origins of the game in South Africa will be examined as well as its development up to 1910 (the date of Union in South Africa) as the site of a constructed transnational 'brotherhood' between Britain and its most coveted African colonies.     

"Now the African reigns supreme": the rise of African boxing on the Witwatersrand, 1924-1959

This essay explores the growth of boxing among the African populations on the Witwatersrand region of South Africa between 1924 and 1959. It details how the sport's jump in popularity with Africans paralleled migration to Johannesburg. Africans increasingly saw boxing as an activity and skill conducive with survival in this new environment, and thus the sport grew in popularity, stature, and skill-level amongst this emergent urban population. The essay further explores the various ways that the sport was disseminated and popularized during the era, thus detailing how the sport reached both the African masses and petit-bourgeois educated elite. As their presence in Johannesburg became more and more permanent, boxing came to encompass various meanings and ideals, such as notions of discipline, independence and civility, to these urban populations.     

Sport and Racial Discrimination in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Reanalysis

The British colony of Southern Rhodesia, later governed by a white settler minority as unilaterally-independent Rhodesia, practiced racial segregation in many spheres, including education, health care access and political participation. Though racial segregation tended to exist on a less formal level than in Rhodesia's neighbour, apartheid South Africa, segregationist policies were nonetheless invasive and virtually complete in some areas. Sport was a heavily contested sphere, in which pockets of black African autonomy and advancement existed alongside near-complete white domination, largely, but not entirely, free of government intrusion. This article is an effort to develop a working hypothesis of racial discrimination in Rhodesian sport, discrimination that was never as formal or complete as in South Africa but which nonetheless provided a firm foundation for Rhodesia's exclusion from international sporting competition in the 1970s.     

Playing With "patriotic fire": women and football in the Antipodes during the Great War

The revelation that women first played Australian Rules football during the period of the Great War is an important element in overall understandings of how both masculine and feminine ideals were challenged and redefined by sporting practices in a time of general social flux. This paper reveals that the genesis of the women's code was in Western Australia, where contests occurred as early as 1915. Three years later, with the war nearing its conclusion, the template of women's involvement in charity matches with strong military and patriotic overtones was adopted in the state of Victoria, the code's heartland. Investigations such as this one, indicative of the complex relationships between sport and gender during the First World War, offer scope for deeper comprehension of a much-studied military conflict, and point the way forward for those that bemoan the static agenda of research into women's football.     

Opening a Window on Early Twentieth-Century School Sport in Cape Town Society

An attempt was made at recording structured sport in non-White schools in Cape Town, South Africa, prior to 1956. The study was introduced with a historical presentation of sport at mission schools. It was shown how these schools inherited a legacy of deprivation and neglect that impacted upon sport participation. Yet, champion sportspersons at these schools gained some recognition in a racist and hostile society. This was possible due to the efforts of a few Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA) campaigners who saw sport development as part of their mission of uplifting children in their charge. The TLSA attempted organising athletic meetings from 1916 onwards. Teachers belonging to this organisation were instrumental in establishing the first mass-based school sport organisation in Cape Town in 1928, the Central School Sports Union (CSU). This organisation was the only avenue of meaningful sport participation for most of Cape Town's marginalised children. A study of the CSU enables historians to open a window not only on social and political complexities of school sport but also on the broader early twentieth-century Cape society.     

‘They are able to play football in South Africa’: Austria’s ‘little Wunderteam’ on tour in 1936

From the end of the nineteenth century South Africa had become a popular touring destination for British and colonial sports teams. Tours in the popular sport of cricket, football and rugby were very popular. These tours tested local opposition against foreign competition, brought in revenue to local and national sports associations and contributed to the development of a white South African identity. Austrian football teams were extensive travellers and popular attractions around the world. Prior to the Second World War Austrian football was highly regarded and was able to compete and hold its own against English and Scottish clubs and representative teams. This article considers an unusual tour by a combined Viennese football team to South Africa in 1936. We consider the preparations for the tour, the different playing styles and the way in which the visitors were received around the country. At the broader political level, the tour was important as leading South African politicians and Austrian diplomats attended matches and functions while on tour. This can be understood in the context of both countries attempting to flex their political identity and muscle in light of more dominant neighbours and colonial masters.     

Opportunities and challenges facing NGOs using sport as a vehicle for development in post-apartheid South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa manifests poor social indicators with over half the population living below the poverty line and the worst levels of inequality in the world, with much work needed to overcome the skewed legacy of apartheid. Sport suffered in this system resulting in unequal access to sporting facilities and opportunities, meaning many South Africans cannot exercise their right to play. Despite this legacy, sport can fulfil a vital developmental role in alleviating some of these issues. The state has a major role to play but it must be supported by civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who have the ability to deliver in situations where government has struggled. This article researches the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. This study used a qualitative approach to collect data on the opportunities and challenges encountered by two NGOs based in Cape Town that use sport as a means of development, but in markedly different ways. The study suggests that NGOs face a variety of conceptual, technical, logistical and organisational challenges using sport in schools and should enact certain measures to reduce resistance from educators and ensure successful programmes. The interaction between NGOs, schools and the state Department of Education is a complicated process that presents obstacles and opportunities. Nevertheless, despite these challenges it is clear NGOs can support schools in South Africa to optimise their physical activity programmes in the backdrop of a stagnating education system and a lack of sporting support from the government. NGOs in an educational setting such as schools operate in what Houlihan has identified as a crowded policy space. Yet, the observations in this study suggest that, particularly in the context of education, a partnership policy model of NGO work is preferred.     

Beyond Kolpak: European Union Law’s Unforeseen Contribution to the Movement of African Cricketers

Abstract

The movement of professional cricketers from South Africa to England to play in County Cricket has expanded since the late 1960s. It became more attractive during the period of South African isolation and some players saw English cricket as a route to play at Test match level through changing national allegiance. This paper explores the role of law in facilitating movement in two ways. First, in the case of Greig, the attempt to ban players who chose to participate in the new commercial venture, World Series Cricket, was overturned. Second, in the Kolpak case a decision of the European Court of Justice paved the way for South Africans and Zimbabweans to abandon their national side and play in England as domestic players without the usual constraints applied to overseas players. The opportunity was taken by numerous players because of the political upheaval in cricket that was contemporaneously taking place in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. The movement of players caused concern in both South Africa and England and led to a re-consideration of the financial relationships between governing bodies and players.     

‘Last Zulu Warrior Standing’: Cultural Legacies of Racial Stereotyping and Embodied Ethno-Branding in South Africa

This paper explores the legacies of white South African cricketer Lance ‘Zulu’ Klusener. His childhood immersion in ‘Shakan culture’ on a Natal farm was said to imbue him with warrior prowess on the field. In Klusener's newly democratic country even township veterans of the People's War against apartheid, who associated cricket with racial tyranny, followed his World Cup exploits. So too did his rural Zulu fans in KwaZulu–Natal chiefdoms. Klusener's ‘Zulu’ persona not only represented deeper cultural histories, but also pervasive colonial markers. In the post-apartheid era, Klusener's fame revealed a different minority at play. His sporting identity impressed the ‘rainbow nation’, especially the promoters of reconciliation selling the evocatively familiar with a new twist: the warrior inspiring unity, not with tribal spear, but with colonial bat. With international sanctions against South Africa lifted in 1994, boosters of cricket wanted to change negative perceptions of their racially exclusive sport. Klusener appealed to the historically oppressed at home and opened sources of global revenue formerly closed by a four-decade-old sport boycott. Indeed, his ‘warrior’ reputation was ripe for exploitation in a ‘neoliberal’ tourism-oriented economy called ‘Ethnicity Inc.’, the title of a book by John and Jean Comaroff on the ‘marketing [of] vernacular lifeways’ of ‘ethno-nations’.     

‘An Outrage,Not Athletics’: Apartheid and South African–United States Rugby Relations, 1976–1990

Abstract

In the period from1976 to1990 during the international campaign against apartheid, some affiliate members of the USA Rugby Football Union, went out of their way to establish and maintain a strong relationship with the South African Rugby Football Board and its successor, the South African Rugby Board. Over the course of six reciprocal tours, they ignored the campaigns of the worldwide anti-apartheid movement and the British Commonwealth. In their dogged pursuit of a sporting relationship with a key South African cultural institution that buttressed apartheid in a sport that, at best, enjoyed minority status in the United States, they defied both their own national federation and the American Olympic Committee. By 1990 as the international campaign against apartheid became a truly worldwide affair, US–South Africa rugby relations were suspended in line with larger political developments both within and outside of the country. This essay, beyond mapping the trials and tribulations of that relationship, also foregrounds a largely hidden history in order to fill the existing gap in the official sporting histories of both the United States and South Africa.     

The Coming of Nelson and the Ending of Apartheid Cricket? Gatting’s Rebels in South Africa, 1990

Abstract

The year 1990 is pivotal in South African history. The liberation movements were unbanned, and Nelson Mandela was freed in the midst of a tour by Mike Gatting’s English rebel cricket team. The newly constituted National Sports Congress, which had the support of the African National Congress, was at the forefront of protests against the tour. For once, Ali Bacher and apartheid cricket were on the back foot. However, the NSC did a sudden volte-face by calling off protests and negotiating the end of the tour. One reason for this decision was that the NSC was made aware of Mandela’s imminent release and that sport would play a key role in creating a ‘stable’ environment. These moves and countermoves accelerated cricket “unity” and saw South African return to international cricket before the formal end of apartheid. This paper interrogates the consequences of cricket returning to the international fold in such haste. It is entitled ‘Nelson’ because in some cricket countries, the score of 111 is called Nelson, and there is a superstitious belief that a wicket would fall. With Mandela’s release, 1990 was the year in which apartheid’s wicket fell, though victory celebrations appear to have been premature.     

The Media Impact of South Africa's Historical Hosting of Africa's First Mega-Event: Sport and Leisure Consumption Patterns

The 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa was the biggest mega-event ever to be hosted on the African continent. This historical event had several social, economic and developmental imperatives, including destination profiling and changing negative perceptions of South Africa, specifically, and the African continent more generally. This research undertakes a media analysis of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in selected key markets, namely the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. The study investigates the media impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on South Africa as the host nation and Africa's major tourism destination by undertaking a media analysis of the key source markets. Africa's first mega-event provides an ideal opportunity to examine how a host country (in this case South Africa) is profiled in relation to sport and leisure consumption patterns, including shifts in sentiment over time. Four time periods were identified, namely pre-, leading up to, during and post-2010. A qualitative analysis is undertaken, which includes content sourcing, content identification, semantic cluster analysis and the use of Leximancer, an analytical tool used to evaluate the content of textual documents, in this case primarily online newspaper articles. For each of the source markets identified, 400–600 articles were extracted. The findings show generally positive or favourable media coverage in relation to sport and leisure consumption patterns. However, a higher level of unfavourable media coverage was discernible during the pre- and lead-up periods, which may have influenced World Cup attendance figures and therefore leisure consumption. Specific tourist products (in particular Table Mountain and Robben Island) and the main host cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban) had more mentions and stronger associations than South Africa generally. The positive imagery which prevailed during the event needs to be further emphasised in future sport events and the tourism and leisure marketing of South Africa.     

South African Cricket,Imperial Cricketers and Imperial Expansion, 1850–1910

‘It has become an accepted fact,’ declared one South African observer in 1915, ‘that where Englishmen are banded together, either by reason of duty, self-advancement or force of circumstances, there cricket will be played.’[1 [1]‘Cover Point’, ‘Eastern Province Cricket’, 27. ] Indeed, throughout the British Empire cricket had followed on the heels of exploration, military might and political intervention in establishing a British code of civilization in foreign territories. This article will explore the early development of cricket in southern Africa and investigate its symbiotic link to British imperialism and colonialism. The origins of the game in South Africa will be examined as well as its development up to 1910 (the date of Union in South Africa) as a site of a burgeoning imperial ‘brotherhood’ between Britain and its most contested colony.     

Virtually there: Cricket,community, and commerce on the internet

This essay records a recent history of how dedicated and public-spirited lovers of a sport created a virtual community of cricket fans using what was then a new medium called the internet. The website “Cricinfo” was initially a product of this community. The essay then shows how commercial concerns came to override those of the virtual community, as Cricinfo was transformed from a community-based enterprise to a commercial entity. All of this happened at a time when the sport and the internet itself was being transformed by new technologies, and entrepreneurs were taking advantage of these changes to create new economic opportunities. The recent acquisition of Cricinfo by the media giant ESPN (itself owned by The Walt Disney Company) merely continues the trajectory outlined in this essay.     

板球运动的传播及其在地境遇:体育全球史的视角

英国是现代板球运动的发祥地。在英帝国扩张进程中,板球运动传播到南亚、中南美洲、澳洲、北美和南非等殖民地,于19世纪形成全球板球交往圈。通过体育全球史的视角,以板球运动在印度等英殖民地的传播为典型个案,实证再现板球"全球之旅"的多重景观。结果表明,板球的传播并非由英国人单向掌控,殖民地的板球受众也以调试、利用、改造等"再发明"手段,尝试了外来体育的在地化,通过与英国体育传统的互动,构建起交错杂糅的全球板球运动格局。体育全球史的释义旨在超越"西方中心论"的桎梏,启发当下尊重人类体育的多元传统,推动体育的跨文化互鉴与平等交往,在人类共同命运的视域高点上审视全球体育的未来。     

Degenerate days: colonial sports tours and British manliness 1900–1910

The 1900s saw a crisis in English manliness that played out in the commentary on sport in the national press. At a time when the theory of social Darwinism was becoming more influential among intellectuals and politicians, the British Army put in a catastrophic performance against the Boers in the South African War. In the aftermath of the war some of the blame for the bad performance of the Army had been placed upon the poor physical and mental quality of recruits to the armed forces. This articles argues that the success of colonial teams caused a crisis of middle-class British masculinity that was played out in the national press as progressives and conservatives debated the future direction of cricket and rugby. A debate, it is argued, that was won by those who wished to demarcate their games from the masses, and who rejected class and ethnic inclusivity as a threat to their future leadership of the nation's sports.     

Charles Hamilton Sorley,Sport and the Poetics of Running

Cricket is perhaps the quintessential English game, evoking images of green fields and dreaming spires. ‘No other game’, writes Hughes, ‘captures the peace and tranquillity of an English summer afternoon quite like cricket.’ 1 1. G. Hughes, ‘The Veil of War’, in South African Cricket Union, A Century of South Africa in Test and International Cricket (Johannesburg, 1989), pp. 14–15. Just as cricket speaks of England at peace, so too, perhaps because of Newbolt's much-quoted ‘Vitai Lampada’, was it bound up with England and the way she saw herself at war. Inevitably when war descended upon England and her colonies, cricketers rallied and were rallied to the ranks. And wherever the fight took them, cricket went too. The Duke of Wellington watched his guards playing cricket at Enghien a few days before Waterloo and on the day after the battle of Chernaya in the Crimea a match was played between the Guards division and the ‘Leg of Mutton Club’, a team of officers from other regiments.2 2. G. Hughes, ‘The Veil of War’, in South African Cricket Union, A Century of South Africa in Test and International Cricket (Johannesburg, 1989, p. 14.

The Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902 was no different. Former teammates were forced onto opposing sides and some fine cricketers were killed. Yet on more than one occasion it was the game of cricket that crossed the conventional boundaries of politics and warfare. It is no surprise, then, that with the conflict coming at a time when cricket had already established itself within the colonies of Southern Africa, cricket and war should become inexorably linked.     

Ignoring taboos: Maria Lenk, Latin American inspirationalist

Maria Lenk is widely recognized as an exceptional athlete who participated in women's sport from around 1930 until 1950. In 1932, at the age of seventeen, she was the first woman to be included in a Latin American delegation to the Olympic Games. As a swimmer, she still sets world records at the age of eighty-six. This super-champion's sporting achievements and her persistent dedication to the advancement of sport still impress and surprise todays professional swimmers and researchers. Contextualised in the male-dominated society of Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century, this chapter traces the achievement, and rise to international fame, of Maria Lenk. It examines the factors that enabled her to emerge not only as an important figure in sport but also as an icon of female emancipation in Brazilian and Latin American society. The focus is on Lenk's influence on the issues which affected the development of women's sport in Latin America. It also highlights the significance of Lenk's contribution to the changing place of women in Brazilian and South American society.     

In pursuit of empowerment: Sensei Nellie Kleinsmidt, race and gender challenges in South Africa

This chapter traces the way in which Nellie Kleinsmidt, known as the grandmother of karate in Africa, has negotiated discriminatory practices and overcome race and gender-related struggles, including the struggle to free the female body, in pursuit of empowerment. It explores her expectations and the constraints and frustrations she experienced, as well as the many contributions she has made to women's karate in South Africa. Nellie Kleinsmidt's karate career, which began in 1965, coincided with the early developments of South African karate. As a woman of colour her life and karate career were significantly shaped by apartheid legislation. It divided the country into areas of occupancy and residency according to race and was designed to prevent contact between the people of the government defined race groups. Black karate-kas were prohibited by law from practising karate in white designated areas. Lack of facilities and qualified instructors in areas allocated to Kleinsmidt's race group meant that she received very little formal karate instruction between 1966 and 1973. Soon after, she met Johan Roux, a white male. He was to become her chief karate instructor and life-long companion. They defied the apartheid legislation and in 1978 set up home together. They organized defiance campaigns, resisting the pressures from government to close their dojo because of its non-racial policies. Freeing her body at the broader political level involved the abolition of the race categories and all other apartheid legislation which impacted on her life choices and experiences. Initially this struggle and that of freeing her body occurred simultaneously. In her ongoing struggle against gender discrimination in the sport, it was in karate that Nellie Kleinsmidt could strive for the personal empowerment she sought. She could however not translate this into freedom in South African society itself. The impact of apartheid legislation together with the imposition of a sports moratorium by the South African Council on Sports (SACOS), hindered the growth of Nellie Kleinsmidt's karate career, yet she managed to obtain her sixth Dan Black Belt in 1998. This was a remarkable achievement given the constraints she had to overcome. In karate, Kleinsmidt was often viewed as a female first. The problem of female access is exacerbated by the overwhelming number of male instructors perpetuating the notion that the martial arts are inherently male sports. Accessing the various levels of karate has involved claiming physical and symbolic space on the dojo floor as well as involvement in the decision-making arenas of karate. In 1992 with the unification of karate in South Africa, Sensei Nellie began to extend her involvement with the refereeing arena and jointly established a Women's Karate Forum in her province. She has subsequently become a South African national referee and has earned the status of continental judge with the Union of African Karate Federation (UFAK). Nellie Kleinsmidt is the first and only woman of colour to have been appointed to the Referee's Board of South Africa and the only woman of colour in Africa to have obtained a sixth Dan Black belt.