The race game: sport and politics in South Africa | WorldCat.org
In this book, the author discusses the role of sport in the fostering of a new national identity in South Africa. He looks at the 30-year course and the changes in the objectives of the sports boycott of South Africa. Black South Africans initially proposed the boycott as a strategy for integrating sports, and Western governments and international sporting federations, such as the International Olympic Committee, later applied the boycott with similar intentions. At first, South Africa's ruling National Party dismissed all demands to either integrate sports or extend political rights to blacks, but prolonged international isolation forced the country to make concessions, and by the mid-1980s the government had accepted integrated sports. The international sporting community readmitted South Africa to competition in the early 1980s in acknowledgment of state president F.W. de Klerk's political initiatives and commitment to a universal franchise. Sports remains an integral element of post-apartheid politics. State president Nelson Mandela and his government believe that sports can unite black and white South Africans and contribute to social and political change. Indeed, there have been moments, such as South Africa's victory in the 1995 World Rugby Cup, when unity through sports seemed possible. Drawing on his analyses, however, the author contends that sports will never unite South Africans except in the most fleeting and superficial moments