Playing to the gallery? Sport, cultural performance, and social identity in South Africa, 1920s-1945

International Journal of African Historical Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 17-38

  Alegi, Peter C ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 35348934180     PISSN: 03617882     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3097364     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (124)

1. Albert Luthuli, Let My People Go (New York, 1962), 38
2. For the most recent articles on the social and political history of southern African football, see Peter C. Alegi, "Amathe Nolimi (It Is Saliva and the Tongue): Contracts of Joy in South African Football, c.1940-1976," International Journal of the History of Sport 17, 4 (2000), 1-20
3. and "Katanga v Johannesburg: A History of the First Sub-Saharan African Football Championship, 1949-50," Kleio 31 (1999), 55-74
4. For a local case study see Ian Jeffrey, "Street Rivalry and Patron-Managers: Football in Sharpeville, 1943-1985," African Studies 51, 1 (1992), 68-94
5. For a comprehensive historical investigation of this topic see Peter C. Alegi, "Keep Your Eye on the Ball: A Social History of Soccer in South Africa, 1910-1976" (Ph.D. thesis, Boston University, 2000)
6. Robert Archer and Antoine Bouillon, The South African Game: Sport and Racism (London, 1982), 100
7. For recent scholarship on African football see Laura Fair, "Kickin' It: Leisure, Politics and Football in Colonial Zanzibar, 1900s-1950s," Africa 67, 2 (1997), 224-51
8. Ossie Stuart, "Players, Workers and Protestors: Social Change and Soccer in Colonial Zimbabwe," in Jeremy MacClancy, ed., Sport, Identity and Ethnicity (Oxford, 1996), 167-80
9. and "The Lions Stir: Football in African Society," in Stephen Wagg, ed., Giving the Game Away: Football, Politics, and Culture on Five Continents (Leicester, 1995), 24-51
10. Phil Vasili, "Colonialism and Football: the First Nigerian Tour of Britain," Race & Class 36, 4 (1995), 55-70
11. Phyllis Martin, "Colonialism, Youth and Football in French Equatorial Africa" International Journal of the History of Sport 8, 1 (1991), 56-71
12. and "Football is King!" in her Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville, 99-126
13. For an important unpublished study see Cecile Bàdenhorst, "Mines, Missionaries, and the Municipality: Organized African Sport and Recreation in Johannesburg, c.1920-1950" (Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, 1992)
14. Social scientists have also begun to examine African football seriously. For example, see the special issue dedicated to football of the electronic journal Mots Pluriels 2, 6 (1998) 〈http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/ MP698index.html〉
15. Ramon Sarro, "The Generation Game: Football among the Baga of Guinea," in G. Armstrong and R. Giulianotti, eds., Football Cultures and Identities (London, 1999), 141-53
16. Paul Nchoji Nkwi and Bea Vidacs, "Football: Politics and Power in Cameroon," in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti, eds., Entering the Field: New Perspectives in World Football (Oxford, 1997), 123-40
17. Anne Leseth, "The Use of Juju in Football: Sport and Witchcraft in Tanzania," in Armstrong and Giulianotti, eds., Entering the Field, 159-74
18. For recent studies on sport and leisure elsewhere in Africa see Laura Fair, Pastimes and Politics: Culture, Community, and Identity in Post-Abolition Urban Zanzibar, 1890-1945 (Athens, Ohio, 2001)
19. Charles Ambler, "Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies in Northern Rhodesia," American Historical Review 106, 1 (2001), 81-105
20. Bernadette Deville-Danthu, Le Sport en Noir et Blanc: Du Sport Colonial au Sport Africain dans les Anciens Territoires Français d'Afrique Occidentale, 1920-1965 (Paris and Montreal, 1997)
21. John Bale and Joe Sang, Kenyan Running: Movement Culture, Geography and Global Change (London, 1996)
22. Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Drink, Power, and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c.1800 to Recent Times (Portsmouth, N.H., 1996)
23. and Phyllis M. Martin, Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville (Cambridge, 1995)
24. For an insightful review that contextualizes these new trends within broader historiographical developments see Tamara Giles-Vernick, "Workers, Football Players, Musicians, and Painters: Remaking Conventional Narratives of Africa's Colonial Past," Radical History Review 77 (2000), 135-141
25. For more details on the earliest period of football in South Africa see Alegi, "Keep Your Eye on the Ball," 59-69
26. John Nauright, Sport, Cultures and Identities in South Africa (London, 1997), 101-123
27. Tim Couzens, "An Introduction to the History of Football in South Africa," in Belinda Bozzoli, ed., Town and Countryside in the Transvaal (Johannesburg, 1983), 198-214
28. and F.J. Nöthling, "Soccer in South Africa (A Brief Outline)," Kleio 14 (1982), 28-41
29. Sheila Van der Horst, African Workers in Town (Cape Town, 1964), 19. The proportion of the urban population to South Africa's total population rose from 25 percent to 37 percent between 1911 and 1946
30. Colin Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry (London, 1979)
31. On the generational dimension of labor migrancy in Natal, for example, see Benedict Carton, Blood From Your Children: The Colonial Origins of Generational Conflict in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, 2000), 171-77
32. Johannesburg's demographic statistics cited in M. Proctor, "Capital, State and the African Population of Johannesburg, " in Dennis D. Cordell and Joel W. Gregory, eds., African Population and Capitalism (Boulder, Colo., 1987), 225-68
33. Number of mine workers cited in Jonathan Crush and others, South Africa's Labor Empire: A History of Black Migrancy to the Gold Mines (Boulder, Colo., 1991), 9
34. and Randall Packard, White Plague, Black Labor: Tuberculosis and the Political Economy of Health and Disease in South Africa (Berkeley, 1989), 34
35. Official South African statistics are notoriously inaccurate and unreliable historical sources. For example, a white city councilor remarked that there were "93,000 Natives living in Johannesburg and on the Reef who live by their wits, sleep with their friends at night, and are not included in the [1936] census"; cited in David Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theater (New York, 1985), 90, fn. 2
36. Durban statistics from Paul Maylam, "The Struggle for Space in Twentieth Century Durban," 16
37. Cape Town statistics from John Western, Outcast Cape Town [1981] (Berkeley, 1996), 36
38. and Muchaparara Musemwa, "Aspects of the Social and Political History of Langa Township, Cape Town, 1927-1948" (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993), 28
39. Archer and Bouillon, The South African Game, 100
40. Aspects of the political history of African sport in pre-apartheid South Africa are also covered in Goolam Vahed, "Control of African Leisure Time in Durban in the 1930s," Journal of Natal and Zulu History 18 (1998), 67-123
41. Douglas Booth, The Race Game: Sport and Politics in South Africa (London, 1998), 10-54
42. Nauright, Sport, Cultures and Identities
43. Cecile Badenhorst and Charles Mather, "Tribal Recreation and Recreating Tribalism: Culture, Leisure and Social Control on South Africa's Gold Mines, 1940-1950," Journal of Southern African Studies 23, 3 (1997), 473-489
44. Alan Gregor Cobley, The Rules of the Game: Struggles in Black Recreation and Social Welfare Policy in South Africa (Westport, Conn., 1997), 17-41
45. A.G. Cobley, "A Political History of Playing Fields: The Provision of Sporting Facilities for Africans in the Johannesburg Area to 1948," International Journal of the History of Sport 11, 2 (1994), 212-30
46. For a rare study of Coloured sport in Cape Town see John Nauright, "Masculinity, Muscular Islam and Popular Culture: 'Coloured' Rugby's Cultural Symbolism in Working-Class Cape Town c.1930-70," International Journal of the History of Sport 14, 1 (1997), 184-90
47. The Native Economic Commission of 1930-32 recommended that provisions be made for African sport in cities and towns. The Commission stated that "the experience gained from providing recreation for Natives shows clearly that money spent on it has been effective in reducing by a far greater amount the expenditure or loss through crime and drunkenness. It is very desirable that local authorities and large employers of Native Labor should make provision for recreation for Natives under the guidance of Native sports organizers." Cited in U.G. 22-32, Report of the Native Economic Commission (Pretoria, 1932), para. 572
48. Native Administration Committee Report Book, 13 March 1931, and Native Welfare Officer to Town Clerk, 25 April 1931, cited in Paul Maylam, "Aspects of African Urbanization in the Durban Area before 1940," in Richard Haines and Gina Buijs, eds., The Struggle for Social and Economic Space: Urbanization in Twentieth Century South Africa (Durban, 1985), 56
49. The Representation of Natives Act abolished the Cape African franchise, gave Africans in the Union the right to elect four white senators to represent them, and established Native Representative Council with advisory powers. The Native Trust and Land Act enlarged the rural labor reserves from 7.5 percent to just over 13 percent of South African land but, concomitantly, prohibited rural Africans from owning land outside these demarcated areas. See Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa (New Haven, Conn., 1990), 161-62
50. For insightful studies of South African rugby see David Black and John Nauright, Rugby and the South African Nation (Manchester, 1998)
51. Rob Morrell, "Forging a Ruling Race: Rugby and White Masculinity in Colonial Natal, c.1870-1910," in John Nauright and Timothy J. Chandler eds., Making Men: Rugby and Masculine Identity (London, 1996), 91-120
52. Albert Grundlingh and others, Beyond the Tryline: Rugby and South African Society (Johannesburg, 1995)
53. and Paul Dobson, Rugby in South Africa (Cape Town, 1989)
54. "Are Ladies' Games Rough?" Bantu World, 22 October 1932
55. "History of Only Bantu Women Hockey Association in Union," Bantu World, 8 September 1934
56. "Annual Report of the 1935 JBFA Season," Bantu World, 4 April 1936
57. DDAFA Minutes, 29 April 1932
58. "Messrs. Evans and Farrell Interest Natal Employers in Bantu Sport," Bantu World, 16 February 1935
59. Richard Maguire interview with Shabangu, Soweto, 23 July 1991. My thanks to Richard Maguire for allowing me to use his taped interviews with former members of Orlando Pirates. Known originally as Orlando Boys' Club, Pirates Football Club was established in 1937; see Alegi, "Amathe Nolimi," 4
60. Bantu World, 2 October 1937
61. Bakers' football sponsorship football was also linked to its drive to recruit a non-migrant labor force. In pursuit of this objective, for example, the Durban manufacturer showed films to its 300 workers at the company compound on Saturday nights. Cited in Vahed, "Control of African Leisure Time," 87
62. "Natal Beats Transvaal at Bantu Sports Ground in Brilliant Match," Bantu World, 12 August 1933
63. Tom Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (London, 1983), 13, 15
64. For further details on sport and leisure on the gold mines see Badenhorst and Mather, "Tribal Recreation and Recreating Tribalism."
65. John Nauright, "'The Mecca of Native Scum' and 'a Running Sore of Evil': White Johannesburg and the Alexandra Township Removal Debate, 1935-1945," Kleio 30 (1998), 64-88
66. Coplan, In Township Tonight!, 128-29
67. Paul Gardner, The Simplest Game (New York, 1996), 187
68. For observations on the social impact in Uruguay and Argentina of the 1930 World Cup final see Tony Mason, Passion of the People? Football in South America (London, 1995), 39-43
69. Bantu World, 24 August 1940. [Emphasis in the original.]
70. Gardner, The Simplest Game, 183
71. For more on football tactics see Richard Giulianotti, Football: A Sociology of the Global Game (London, 1999), 127-45
72. Samaniso led Transvaal to national titles in the 1934, 1935, 1937, and 1938. On Samaniso's funeral, see "Passing Away Of Enoch "Joko Tea" Samaniso, Bantu World, 14 June 1941
73. and "Transvaal African Football Association, Annual Report for 1941," Bantu World, 4 April 1942
74. Ernst Jokl, "Physical Education, Sport, and Recreation," in Ellen Hellmann, ed., Handbook on Race Relations (Oxford, 1949), 456-457. It should be pointed out that 13 of the 30 fields in question were on mine grounds. The survey concluded that Coloured and Indian sports were also greatly underserved
75. R. Botto, "Some Aspects of the Leisure Occupations of the African Population of Cape Town," (M. Soc. Sci. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1954), 48
76. Direct quote is from Christopher Merrett, "Sport, Racism and Urban Policy in South Africa: Pietermaritzburg: A Case Study," Sporting Traditions 10, 2 (1994), 97-122
77. Interviews with Conrad Stuurman, Factreton, 25 February 1998, and Bernard Hartze, Cape Town, 29 January 1998. See also Jeffrey, "Street Rivalry and Patron-Managers"
78. and Couzens, "Introduction to the History of Football in South Africa," 204-205
79. Maguire interview with Shabangu
80. Christopher Ballantine, Marabi Nights: Early South African Jazz and Vaudeville (Braamfontein, 1993), 28-29
81. On liquor and leisure in southern Africa see Jonathan Crush and Charles Ambler, eds., Liquor and Labor in Southern Africa (Athens, Ohio, 1992)
82. Paul la Hausse, Brewers, Beerhalls, and Boycotts: A History of Liquor in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1988)
83. and "The Struggle for the City: Alcohol, the Ematsheni and Popular Culture in Durban, 1902-1936," in Paul Maylam and Iain Edwards, eds., The People's City: African Life in Twentieth-Century Durban (Portsmouth, NH, 1996), 33-66
84. Interview with Ben Malamba, Langa, 26 July 1995
85. Ballantine, Marabi Nights, 5
86. For a classic African novel see Modikwe Dikobe, The Marabi Dance (London, 1973)
87. Njabulo Ndebele, South African Literature and Culture (Manchester, 1994), 46
88. See "Referee's Decision Mars Grand Game Between Pirates and Rovers," African Sports, December 1953
89. "Corrugated Rovers Beat Pirates in Re-Play of Cup Final," African Sports, January 1954
90. and Richard Maguire, "The People's Game: A Social and Institutional History of Orlando Pirates Football Club, 1937-1973" (B.A. Hons. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1991), 29
91. Minutes of Meetings of Orlando Pirates Football Club, 4 June 1952
92. Maguire interview with Buthelezi, Shabangu, and Mokgosinyane, Soweto, August 1991
93. Bantu World, 19 August 1933
94. Liz Gunner and Mafika Gwala, Musho! Zulu Popular Praises (East Lansing, Mich. 1991)
95. Bheki Peterson, "Performing History Off the Stage: Notes of Working-Class Theater," Radical History Review 46, 7, (1990), 321-29
96. and Robert Kavanagh, Theater and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (London, 1985)
97. Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 3-4
98. Maguire interview with Shabangu
99. Interview with Sitsila
100. For a superb study of black urban youth culture in Johannesburg see Clive Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935-1976 (Portsmouth, NH, 2000)
101. Ndebele, South African Literature and Culture, 48
102. am grateful to Richard Giulianotti for access to Jack Webster, The Dons: The History of Aberdeen Football Club (London, 1990). In his account of Aberdeen's South African tours, Webster pointed out that the Scottish club fielded several white South Africans in the 1930s and early 1940s, among them Herbert Currer, Billy Strauss, and Alfred Stanley Williams
103. Interview with Moses Molelekoa, Khayelitsha, 26 July 1995
104. Giulianotti, Football, 143
105. Highlanders' "Motherwell" style also mentioned in Bantu World, 11 November 1933 and 25 November 1933
106. A photograph of the 1935 team appeared in Thabe, It's a Goal!, 26
107. See also Badenhorst, "Mines, Missionaries and the Municipality," 146-50
108. South African social historians have tended to portray the Bantu Men's Social Centre as an arena for the playing out of "petit bourgeois respectability" among elite Africans, but, recent work suggests the former may be too narrow an interpretation. See David Goodhew, "Working-Class Respectability: The Example of the Western Areas of Johannesburg, 1930-55," Journal of African History 41, 2 (2000), 241-66
109. Tony Mason, "Kick and Rush or Revolt into Style? Football Playing among English Professionals from Great Power to Image of Decline" (manuscript, 1998)
110. For details on the 1934 All-India tour see Jack Blades, comp., The Rainbow Game: A Random History of South African Soccer (Lanseria, 1998), 20-21
111. It is interesting to note that the majority of the All-India players were from Bengal, the only region in India where soccer competes with cricket in popularity; Tony Mason, "Football on the Maidan: Cultural Imperialism in Calcutta," International Journal of the History of Sport 7, 1 (1990), 85-89
112. For more on this topic see the special issue "Soccer in South Asia," Soccer and Society 2, 2 (2001)
113. "Rhod. Motherwell Soccer Team: Impression From 1937-1939 At Wemmer Ground," Bantu World, 26 August 1939. Bulawayo was in Southern Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe
114. Charles Van Onselen, "The Witches of Suburbia: Domestic Service on the Witwatersrand, 1890-1914," in his Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914, Vol. II: New Nineveh (Johannesburg, 1982), 33
115. "Clumsy Tactics of Rhodesian Motherwells," Bantu World, 14 May 1938
116. Maguire interview with Shabangu, Soweto, August 1991
117. see, for example, Roberto Da Matta, "Notes Sur le Football Brésilien," Le Débat, 19 (1982)
118. cited in Bromberger, "Football as World-View," 303
119. and Josè Sergio Leite Lopes, "Successes and Contradictions in 'Multiracial' Brazilian Football," in Armstrong and Giulianotti, eds., Entering the Field, 53-86
120. For more on tricksters and the ambiguities of everyday resistance see Paul La Hausse, "So Who Was Elias Kuzwayo? Nationalism, Collaboration, and the Picaresque in Natal," in Phil Bonner, Peter Delius, and Deborah Posel, eds., Apartheid's Genesis: 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993), 195-228
121. For nearly three decades (1932-1959), the Bakers/Moroka-Baloyi Cup was the premier African football competition in the country. Statistics compiled by the author suggest a shifting power of balance in African football during this period: Transvaal won the cup seven times outright and shared it twice in the 1940s (the Orange Free State won in 1941), while Natal claimed seven titles in the 1950s. See Golden City Post, 9 August 1959
122. "National Congress Sport's Day," Bantu World, 19 August 1944
123. "African National Congress Match," 2
124. Patrick Harries, Work, Culture and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860-1910 (Portsmouth, NH, 1994), 211