A home away from home: football and the street in a South African township

Abstract

Grassroots football in Soweto is peculiar – played in public, but suspended in ideas of confined protection. Physically situated in the midst of treacherous streets, but understood through concepts of safety and security. In a desire to navigate life in the precarious conditions of the South African township, young footballers lean on authoritative structures, as well as being caught in them, in a search for identity, and in an effort to draw a much-needed demarcation line between wholesome activity and unwanted conduct. From a ground up perspective, I pose new questions relating to how the conceptualization of local football structures activity, coordinates social control and offers a framework for a desired dependency in the urban, Global South.

Le football populaire à Soweto est curieux – joué en public, mais suspendu dans des idées de protection confinée. Physiquement situé au cœur de rues traitresses, mais compris à travers des concepts de sûreté et de sécurité. Dans un désir de traverser la vie dans les conditions précaires de la colonie Sud-africaine, les jeunes footballeurs s’appuient sur des structures faisant autorité, tout en y étant coincés, dans une quête d’identité et un effort pour dessiner une très nécessaire ligne de démarcation entre une activité saine et une conduite indésirable. A partir d’une perspective de la base au sommet, je pose de nouvelles questions concernant comment la conceptualisation de l’activité des structures du football local, coordonne le contrôle social et présente un cadre pour une dépendance souhaitable dans le Sud global urbain.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• Soweto
• identity
• conceptualization
• football
• social anthropology

Mots-clés:

• Afrique du Sud
• Soweto
• identité
• conceptualisation
• football
• anthropologie sociale

Notes

1 Unlicensed township drinking establishments.

2 Township residents seldom communicate in English spontaneously, although the younger generations certainly speak it properly. However, my basic understanding of some of the local languages, my curiosity about the linguistic phenomenon of tsotsitaal, and my general interest in learning enabled me to communicate with informants in a rather natural manner. A detailed perspective on the urban phenomenon of tsotsitaal can be found in Ellen Hurst’s work (2009).

3 In traditional sporting terminology, it would be a stretch to call this a ‘club’ rather than a loosely organized team. It has no formal dimension to it, no official affiliation with a sporting organization or any board members in charge of managing the club’s affairs, just to mention a few of the usual characteristic of a sporting club. Yet, I choose to call it a ‘club’ since this is how the informants themselves label their activity.

4 McAllister argues how this phrase sums up an emic understanding of the idea of a unique African moral ideal of the social nature of personhood as opposed to Western individualism (2010, 54).

5 The concepts of family in this context usually only imply that of the father-child relationship. The metaphors of family in township football seldom expand to involve the roles of mothers, siblings and so forth.

6 A slang term for cannabis.