‘Six packs and big muscles, and stuff like that’. Primary school‐aged South African boys, black¹

1. Apartheid classified people according to race: black or African, Indian, white and coloured. Race continues to be a significant marker in post‐apartheid South Africa, particularly in terms of redress. In this paper I use the term black to refer to young boys in this study.

and white, on sport

Abstract

This paper explores the salience of sport in the lives of eight‐year‐old and nine‐year‐old South African primary school boys. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data, I argue that young boys' developing relationship with sport is inscribed within particular gendered, raced and classed discourses in South Africa. Throughout the paper I show differences and durability of meanings across the social sites that affect and position blacks, white, boys and girls. It is argued that young boys' early association with sport is centrally about identity and doing sport, or at least establishing interest in sport is one important way in claiming to be a real boy. The findings have implications for the call by the South African Government to get the nation to play.

Keywords:

• primary school boys
• sport
• race
• class
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Robert Morrell and Jon Swain for reading and commenting on various drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. Apartheid classified people according to race: black or African, Indian, white and coloured. Race continues to be a significant marker in post‐apartheid South Africa, particularly in terms of redress. In this paper I use the term black to refer to young boys in this study.

2. Pseudonyms have been used for all names.

3. Elsewhere I have argued that young boys draw upon mathematics in doing masculinity (see Bhana 2005).

4. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of the school. This meant that the school was selected on the basis of its typicality and location.

5. The effect of apartheid is that teachers in predominantly white and black township primary schools are still generally white or black, respectively (and female) – although this profile is slowly changing.

6. Many of the boys in the schools have very little contact with adults who speak to them in ways that position them as experts about their own lives. This method of interviewing allowed me to establish an informal rapport with them, enabling them to articulate their views and emotions, to be heard (especially by people in positions of power and authority), to set the agenda, and to introduce and speak with authority about issues that were significant to them.

7. Proud is used here in a racialised way. The boys at this school have very little contact with white people except through the media. The social distance from whites allows them to construct and reinvent apartheid hierarchies so that ‘proud’ becomes associated with white superiority.