Sport and Liberation in South Africa: Reflections and Suggestions

Cornelius Thomas (Ed.) jointly published by University of Fort Hare’s National

Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre and Department of sport and Recreations of the

Republic of South Africa (2006) 177 pp., Photographs, notes. No price listed (cloth),

ISBN 0 620 361 662

Reviewed for the Grahamstown Festival Journal of Reviews in June/July 2007, by

Philani Nongogo nongogop@tut.ac.za Department of Sport, Physical and Rehabilitation

Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria West Campus, South Africa

"The labour of love and duty of many individuals and several organizations and

institutions brought forth this social product, the book Sport and Liberation in

South Africa: Reflections and Suggestions …

This is a relatively standard size book. It is beautifully produced, and a well-spaced and

highly readable text. It has twelve chapters, covering diverse topics on South African

sport and liberation.

This book is a product of the 2005 Sport and Liberation Conference that was conceived

by the University of Fort Hare’s National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre

(NAHECS, that holds the cultural and political history documents of several South

African liberations movements and of individual politicians), in collaboration with the

Department of Sport and Recreation of the Republic of South Africa, in an effort to offset

a process of generating the literature that assess the contribution and the role of sport in

the liberation struggle of the South African society (or vice versa, that is, the role of

politics in sport transformation), from the chains of apartheid. At the time Department of

Sport and Recreation was on a process of collecting the “the sport and liberation” body

of literature with the purpose of housing it at Fort Hare’s NAHECS, amongst other

liberation archives.

The chapters in the book, Sport and Liberation in South Africa, were contributed by

individuals from diverse backgrounds and stature: academics, the former and present

sports administrators, former sports (predominantly nonracial) personalities and the sport

enthusiasts generally. For those who know, André Odendaal, Albert Grundlingh, Peter

Alegi, Basil Brown, Avis Smith, Chris Merrett, Bruce Murray, Hamilton Peterson, and

Cornelius Thomas, should have a sense of quality and maturity in this book.

There much written on South African sport in the post-1994 era, but the book Sport and

Liberation in South Africa, brings a fresh air and a unique dimension in the analysis of

sport on this period. Here, the nonracial sport people are giving their own account of the

ever topical issue: the role of sport in the liberation struggle in South Africa.

The issues raised in this book are fascinating especially that there some contestation and

debate on the relationship between sort and politics. This book does not only illustrate

that indeed, a complicated and sometimes contradictory relationship, between the sport

and politics, existed and still exists, but goes further to show that this relationship was not

always and will never be linear. The chapters by Basil Brown, ‘The Destruction of Non-

racial Sport – A Consequence of the Negotiated Political Settlement’, and Hamilton

Petersons, school sport Organizations and Education, 1960s – 1990s ’, demonstrate that

indeed sport “contributed” to the “liberation” of the country, albeit, to its own detriment.

These two chapters are not shy to claim that the whole notion of a liberated South Africa,

and its sport set up being democratic is only a sham, victory.

This book celebrates, in its own way, the role sport (especially the nonracial sport) played

as an effective arsenal in the liberation struggle in South Africa. The chapter by

Christopher Merrett is indicative of the above view, as he demonstrates the

contradictions and complexity of the sports struggle in the pre-1994 period. It also shows

that the interrelationship between sport and politics did not start and end pre-1994, this process continues beyond the post-1994 era.

This book is subsidized by the Department of Sport and Recreation, but the latter did not

influence the ideas espoused in this publication. The chapters in this book assume an

acceptable academic design and flavor, and conform to the standard scientific writing of

its discipline, with the exception of Basil Brown’s and Yusuf Ebrahim’s “Comments on

the Future of South African Sport”, that are characteristic of swiping statements and are

without references.

Generally, I think that this book in an interesting read for someone looking for a quick

browse but deep understanding of the Sport African (nonracial) sports history (and or SA

sport under apartheid). Another interesting feature about this publication is finding the

voice of women in sports (see Avis Smith’s “The Invisible Factor”), and their valuable

contribution in the nonracial sports movement, something that is often much neglected.