Racing on the Rand: Black Competitive Cycling around Johannesburg, 1930–1960

Abstract

The history of bicycle racing amongst urban black South Africans exists largely outside of published academic literature. Individuals and communities created vibrant social spaces around this sport during decades of intensifying segregation and apartheid. Racing was not ‘hidden’ from the hundreds of participants and the many thousands of spectators who cheered them. But the early township scene remains virtually unknown today and with only a few exceptions African racers simply do not feature in the historical narrative of bicycle racing in South Africa. Yet certain municipalities sponsored racing events for black residents and in some instances, the popularity of track racing even led authorities to construct a velodrome. By the 1940s, corporate mining operations included bicycle racing among their sponsored leisure activities and several funded constructions of tracks that exceeded municipal offerings. However, an earlier history of racing, one organized or supported by entirely African participants, and one that existed largely outside the purview of both the white cycling community and the broader white sporting public, also undergirded the increasing numbers of black South Africans in cycling. Both racing clubs and regional governing bodies existed, sometimes for decades, prior to the expansion of municipal and corporate efforts to include bicycle racing within their formal recreational programs.