Sports in African history, politics, and identity formation / edited by Michael J. Gennaro and Saheed Aderinto.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction / by Michael Gennaro and Saheed Aderinto -- "I was really disgusted at seeing healthy young boys playing ping pong" : ping-pong and masculinity in post-World War II Nigeria / by Michael Gennaro -- Pas de deux as I tell you : physical education, dance, and the remaking of discipline in World War II Brazzaville / by Danielle Porter Sanchez -- Cameroonian cricket : the interface between local and dominant colonial ideologies / by Joanne Clarke -- Political action in sports development under the national liberation council era in Ghana / by Kwame Adum-Kyeremeh -- "The best of the best" : the politicization of sports under Ghana's Supreme Military Council / by Humphrey Asamoah Agyekum -- "We have material second to none" : colored sportsmen and masculine competition in the South African press, 1936-1960 / by Cody S. Perkins -- Playing away from home : the nature of soccer integration in South Africa, 1978-1984 / by Gustav Venter -- Examining physical culture in a local context / by Francois Cleophas -- "Visionary courtyard players" : the Robben Island Rugby Board and the transition to post-apartheid South Africa, ca. 1972-1992 / by Hendrik Snyders -- The birth of the Springboks : how early international rugby matches unified white cultural identity in South Africa / by Zachary R. Bigalke -- A tale of two sports fields : contested spaces, histories, and identities at play in rural South Africa / by Tarminder Kaur -- The bulldog, the pharaoh, and football : British imperialism and Egypt's national sport and identity, 1882-1934 / by Christopher Ferraro -- Sports and physical education in Ethiopia during the Italian occupation, 1936-1941 / by Tamirat Gebremariam and Benoit Gaudin -- Commercialization of football in Africa : prospects, challenges, and experiences / by Manase Chiweshe -- Islam and the foreign other : representing the alterity of Hakeem Olajuwon / by Munene Mwaniki -- Afro-orientalism in the global village : media imaginations of South Africa and Africa in the coverage of the 2010 World Cup / by Shepherd Mpofu.

"Sports in African History, Politics, and Identity Formation explores how sports can render a window to unlocking complex social, political, economic, and gendered relations across Africa and the Diaspora. Sport holds significant value and has an intricate relationship with many components of African societies throughout history. For many Africans, sports are a way of life, a site of cultural heroes, a way out of poverty and social mobility, and a site for leisurely play. This book focuses on the many ways in which sport uniquely reflects changing cultural trends at diverse levels of African societies. The contributors detail various sports such as football, cricket, ping pong, and rugby across the continent to show how sport lay at the heart of the discourse of nationalism, self-fashioning, gender and masculinity, leisure and play, challenges of underdevelopment, and ideas of progress. Bringing together the newest and most innovative scholarship on African sports, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Contemporary Africa, African history, culture and society, sports history and politics"-- Provided by publisher.