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Prologue: Sport past and present in South Africa: (Trans)forming the nation?

In a compelling analysis of identity and nationhood in post-apartheid South Africa published shortly after the country’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South African sociologist Neville Alexander provocatively posed the question whether the country’s recent political trajectories suggest that ‘a new historical community’ is being fashioned – one in which the racial divisions of the apartheid past have been fully transcended, the liberation ideals of class and other equalities have been attained, and a cohesive, national South African identity prevails. Certainly, the FIFA World Cup appeared to be the occasion for just that: media images beamed across the world showed South Africans from all racial, ethnic and class backgrounds collectively and proudly displaying the national flag, blowing the ubiquitous ‘vuvuzela’ and stoically supporting the national team, Bafana Bafana. Media portrayals reinforced a government rhetoric that underlined the unity and modernity of post-apartheid South Africa. From the perspective of the government, certainly, the World Cup represented the pinnacle of the achievements of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ after 1994. These positive assessments of the nation-building momentum of the large sport tournament were countered by critical appraisals from several public figures and intellectuals who questioned the longevity or even authenticity of the feel-good sentiment evoked by the event. Alexander himself doubted the real utility of the event for a society still marked by racial conflict and deepening economic inequalities, which for him nullified any progress towards the ‘creative and constructive future’ envisioned in the early post-apartheid years. Others lamented elaborate spending on a ‘grand spectacle’ which ‘is not a metaphor of the historical triumph over adversity, of South Africa’s (or Africa’s) ‘‘renaissance’’ or of a positive ‘‘developmental legacy’’. It is rather a hugely costly and ultimately ephemeral exercise in myth-making.’ Yet others saw in the triumphalist popular celebrations and euphoria during the tournament ‘a false nationhood’ with little content or political mainstay. Whatever, ultimately, the socio-economic or socio-cultural legacies of the FIFA World Cup, the debates about what impacts the tournament will leave on the political consciousness of South Africans are significant because they reflect a longstanding intellectual problematic – how to grasp the dynamics between sport, politics and identity in the country and how to understand the role that sport has historically played in societal processes.