More than a Pastime: Cricket, Culture, and Society in South Africa

Until 1990, the literature on South African cricket focused primarily on White cricket.[1] This reflected not only White political, social, and economic dominance, but also the fact that only Whites were seen to constitute the “nation” and represented SouthAfrica in international competition. The advent of non-racial democracy changed this. During the apartheid years, most historians of South Africa focused on resistance politics, racial consciousness, and class formation. South African historiography has become more diverse since the end of apartheid, with scholars turning their attention to the history of sport, environment, science, technology, culture, education, and so on. This shift from a White ethnocentric approach is advancing our knowledge of the previously neglected histories of Black South Africans.