Narrative on Sports and its Indigenousness : Indigenization of Modern Sports in Fiji

Abstract

Here I will treat indigenized modern sports which have spread all over the world, accepted by the people of various countries and have become their national sports. Cricket in India and the West Indies, soccer in South America, and rugby in the South Pacific have become indigenous and their teams dominate the world by winning world cup championships. Today these countries send their players and coaches to sports-underdeveloped countries and even to the original homes of these sports. In a Fijian narrative about rugby, we can find the following assertions : “We have the same passion for Christianity and Rugby” and “Rugby is of a traditional chiefly war.” In this paper I will clarify the indigenousness of rugby in Fijian life.In analyzing the process of indigenization of cricket in Indian society, Appadurai emphasizes especially the process of decolonization and indigenization of cricket, and the vernacularization in media and language which helped to unyoke cricket from its “Englishness” [Appadurai 1995 : 25]. Another example is the internationalization of a local sport “kabaddi”. It became an international sport at the same time that it became distinctively less Indian, whereas India gained international recognition in cricket as the sport itself became more and more distinctively Indian. Alter thinks that this internationalization is a process of new colonization, According to Alter [2000 : 14] what makes a sport Indian is not so much its past as the history of its modernization and the extent to which it has been elaborated as a modern, international sport. Fijian rugby has also been indigenized along with it process of modernization. After the Second World War, rugby in Fiji gained popularity and today it has become a national sport.In the year 2001, after employing his Australian girlfriend as the national team manager, the Fiji national team coach lost five international games in succession. And this ex-Australian national team coach lost his job in Fiji. The coach and the manager did not know how deeply Fijian rugby is rooted in the Fijian culture. In this case they completely neglected the Fijian culture. In Fiji the team manager is thought of as a “matanivanua” (a chiefs official herald and executor of protocol), and the coach as a chief. If they do not behave as such, the team will not function well in Fiji. The coach and the manager did not know this indigenousness of rugby. Rugby is played by the international rules, but each player and audience think of it in their own cultural context. Its meaning and power for the players come from its involvement in the culture.In the process of Fiji's modernization, we can see the indigenization of Christianity, modern sports and political style (Fijian democracy, political parties, administration etc.). Thus Christianity was indigenized and today it can be called Fijian Christianity. Fijian Christians pray not only to God but also to their ancestral gods for protection. They say, “lotu lako vata na vanua” (Christianity goes with our tradition.). And they have the same passion for rugby and Christianity. In their narrative, Fijian Christianity and rugby are thought of as bases of their “Fijianness” or Fijian identity.