Apartheid Mountaineering: Race, Politics, and the History of the University of Cape Town Mountain and Ski Club, 1933–1969

Abstract

Given the racially based politics of inequality prevailing in South Africa since colonial times, it is unsurprising to find that the spheres of sport and politics have been inextricable since the first formal sports clubs were established in Cape Town in the nineteenth century. This has also been demonstrated in the formal sport of mountaineering since its emergence in South Africa in the late nineteenth century in its birthplace of Cape Town. The racial inequality and segregation that prevailed during the pre-apartheid years deepened during the first decades of apartheid and strongly influenced the development of mountaineering. The history of the University of Cape Town Mountain and Ski Club (UCTMSC) between 1933 and 1969 will be examined in the context of changing university policies as well as in relation to the other two Cape Town-based mountain clubs in existence during this period, the Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA), and the Cape Province Mountain Club (CPMC).