Exploring African-American Influences on Athletics in the Cape Colony, South Africa

Abstract

This research creates a historical narrative of athletics in Cape Town, South Africa, a British colonial seaport at the turn of the twentieth century. It draws comparisons between Coloured Capetonians and African-American experiences by examining political and social events affecting sports practices. Existing segregation intensified from the turn of the twentieth century and elicited new responses from a younger generation of Coloured politicians in Cape Town. The responses included organizing sports on a regional scale. This happened at a time when African-American influences were being transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean and it became visible in an emerging Coloured community in Cape Town. Under these circumstances, the Western Province Amateur Athletic and Cycling Union (Coloured) was established there in 1901. A concerted effort was made to determine if any similarities and differences existed between athletic developments in African-American and Cape Town Coloured communities at the time of its establishment.