Reconciliation through Sports? The case of South Africa

Abstract

Can sports—and if so how—serve as a vehicle for reconciliation and increased social cohesion in countries wrecked by civil conflict? This article analyses the case of South Africa and its experiences in the sports sector since the fall of apartheid, in an effort to explore the processes necessary to understand the potential sports may hold for peace building. By identifying initiatives in South Africa employed at the national, community and individual level of analysis, the article outlines the possible effects of sports on reconciliation in divided states. Through linking experiences from state policies, ngo activities and donor projects with social identity and reconciliation theory, the article outlines the possible positive and negative aspects of sports. Finally, important avenues for further research to uncover how to turn sports into effective political tools for post-conflict peace building are suggested.

Notes

This research was supported by a grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The authors would like to thank Thomas Ohlson at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this article. We gratefully acknowledge assistance from the many people in South Africa who facilitated our research and who shared their views with us. The authors have contributed equally to this article, the order of authors is alphabetical.

1 See YV Auweele, C Malcolm, & B Meulders (eds), Sport and Development, Leuven: LammooCampus, 2006; and M Keim, Nation Building at Play: Sport as a Tool for Social Integration in Post-apartheid South Africa, Oxford: Meyer and Meyer Sport, 2003.

2 For important definitional distinctions, see K Brounéus, Reconciliation—Theory and Practice for Development Cooperation, Stockholm: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), 2003; B Hamber & H van der Merwe, ‘What is this thing called reconciliation?’, Reconciliation in Review, 1 (1), 1998, pp 3–5; L Kriesberg, ‘Changing forms of coexistence’, in M Abu-Nimer (ed), Reconciliation, Justice and Coexistence, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001; and JP Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, Washington, DC: usip, 1997.

3 The policy document is available on the website of the African National Congress, at www.anc.org.za.

4 See, for example, D Booth, The Race Game: Sport and Politics in South Africa, London: Frank Cass, 1998; A Guelke, ‘The politicisation of South African sport’, in L Allison (ed), The Politics of Sport, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986; P Hain, ‘The politics of sport and apartheid’, in J Hargreaves (ed), Sport, Culture, and Ideology, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982; and C Thomas (ed), Sport and Liberation in South Africa, Pretoria: University of Fort Hare, Department of Sport and Recreation, 2006. During apartheid an official classification system of the population groups was introduced, distinguishing between Whites, Black Africans, Coloureds and Indians. The categorisation served as a basis for political, economic and social separation.

5 See, for instance, JL Gibson, ‘Overcoming apartheid: can truth reconcile a divided nation?’, Politikon, 31 (2), 2004, pp 129–155; JL Gibson & A Gouws, ‘Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: attributions of blame and the struggle over apartheid’, American Political Science Review, 93 (3), 1999, pp 501–517; A Jeffery, The Truth About the Truth Commission, Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1999; and D Posel & G Simpson (eds), Commissioning the Past: Understanding South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2002.

6 An important exception is the study by Marion Keim, who looks at sport in Western Cape and its connection to reconciliation and integration. Keim, Nation Building at Play. There are also a few evaluations of sport-related programmes and a number of studies on sport and the transition more generally. See, for instance, J Nauright, Sport, Cultures and Identities in South Africa, Cape Town: David Philip, 1997.

7 On public ceremonies of forgiveness, see WJ Long & P Brecke, ‘Civil war and reconciliation: emotion and reason in conflict resolution’, in Long (ed), War and Reconciliation, Cambridge, MA: mit Press, 2003. On truth commissions, see PB Hayner, ‘Commissioning the truth: further research questions', Third World Quarterly, 17 (1), 1996; and RI Rotberg & D Thompson (eds), Truth v Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. On domestic or international judicial processes, see RJ Goldstone, ‘Bringing war criminals to justice during an ongoing war’, in J Moore (ed), Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998; KJ Holsti, Peace and War—Armed Conflict and International Order 1648–1989, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991; and NJ Kritz (ed), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1995.

8 See R Mac Ginty, ‘The role of symbols in peacemaking’, in J Darby & R Mac Ginty (eds), Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Violence and Peace Processes, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003, p 238.

9 The hosting of international sporting competitions can potentially generate other benefits as well. See the special issue of Third World Quarterly, 25 (7), 2004.

10 See more in DR Black & J Nauright, Rugby and the South African Nation, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998; and A Grundlingh, ‘From redemption to recidivism? Rugby and change in South Africa during the 1995 Rugby World Cup and its aftermath’, Sporting Traditions, 14 (2), 1998.

11 The state of South African football and the challenges of hosting the 2010 World Cup are discussed in M Kunene Kunene, ‘Winning the cup but losing the plot? The troubled state of South African soccer’, in S Buhlungu, J Daniel, R Southall & J Lutchman (eds), State of the Nation: South Africa 2005–2006, Cape Town: hscr Press, 2006.

12 J Nauright, Sport, Cultures and Identities in South Africa, Cape Town: David Philip, 1997.

13 After the 2007 Rugby World Cup victory, which reignited the quota debate, South Africa began to make moves towards abolishing the racial quotas in sports for national teams. Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile labelled the quotas a ‘failed experiment’ and said that true transformation in sports could only materialise through the allocation of more resources and the destruction of the myth that some sports codes were not for blacks. ‘Sports minister says “quotas are out”’, Mail and Guardian, 7 November, 2007. As late as November 2007 a public survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (hsrc) showed that a slim majority of South Africans still supported racial quotas in sports. The black population was, however, more than four times more positive than the white population. ‘Majority want quotas in sport: hsrc’, sabc News, 5 November 2007.

14 For a critical account of South African rugby, see M Keohane, Springbok Rugby Uncovered, Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2004. See also A Desai & Z Nabbi, ‘“Truck and trailer”: rugby and transformation in South Africa’, in Buhlungu et al, State of the Nation.

15 W Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

16 ‘Racial quotas led Pietersen to leave South Africa’, Criticinfo, 30 August 2006.

17 H Richards, ‘Chiliboy: dump the quota system’, News24.com, 12 April 2002; and ‘Questions of color still test South African national teams', International Herald Tribune, 22 July 2002.

18 Interview with Cliffie Booysen, Chief Operating Officer of Rugby Operations, South African Rugby Union, Cape Town, 23 November 2006.

19 On the history of cricket in South Africa, see A Odendaal, The Story of an African Game: Black Cricketers and the Unmasking of One of South Africa's Greatest Myths, 1850–2003, Cape Town: David Philip, 2003.

20 M Abu-Nimer, ‘Conflict resolution, culture, and religion: toward a training model of interreligious peacebuilding’, Journal of Peace Research, 38 (6), 2001; and JP Lederach, Building Peace.

21 On the current political and social challenges facing South Africa, see Buhlungu et al, State of the Nation.

22 There are several other projects along the same lines, such as the Cape Windjammer Education Trust, which runs programmes where sailing is used for reconciliation. www.capewingjammers.com.

23 The positive effects are also confirmed in the evaluation of similar projects in other countries. See, for instance, the evaluation of the Open Fun Football school, mainly active in the Balkans, by P Kvalsund, D Nyheim & J Telford, ccpa Open Fun Football Schools: An Evaluation, available online on the website of the International Platform on Sport and Development, at www.sportanddev.org.

24 Keim, Nation Building at Play, pp 187–188. Keim studies both team sports and individual sport. A commonly held view is that team sport is better than individual sport in forging positive relationships among divided groups. However, she finds no conclusive answer to this question (p 185).

25 Lederach, Building Peace, p 26.

26 Ibid, p 29.

27 H Tajfel, ‘Social identity and intergroup behaviour’, Social Science Information, 13 (2), 1974, pp 65–93.

28 MB Brewer, ‘The social psychology of intergroup relations: can research inform practice?’, Journal of Social Issues, 53 (1), 1997, pp 197–211.

29 DL Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.

30 Y Amir, ‘Contact hypothesis in ethnic relations', Psychological Bulletin, 71 (5), 1969.

31 Keim, Nation Building at Play.

32 Interview with Brian Sebapole, Johannesburg, 15 November 2006.

33 C Burnett, ‘Siyadlala Let's Play’, Your Sport, June 2006, p 14.

34 Ibid, pp 15–16.

35 A Gschwend & U Selvaraju, Psycho-social Support Programmes to Overcome Trauma in Post-Disaster Interventions, Biel/Bienne: Swiss Academy for Development, 2006.

36 ‘Burundi discontent and anger grow among the 3000 child soldiers demobilised from rebel armies: forgotten generation puts uneasy peace at risk’, Guardian, 16 January 2006.

37 R Henley, Helping Children overcome Disaster Trauma through Post-emergency Psychosocial Sports Programs, Biel/Bienne: Swiss Academy for Development, 2005.

38 M Stofile, ‘Sport as a human right’, in Thomas, Sport and Liberation in South Africa, pp 9–10.

39 JP Lederach, Building Peace, pp 94–97.