There is no shortage of books in South Africa that deal with sport, its history and its place in society. Equally prominent are books that document the demise of apartheid, the rise of democracy, identity politics, and the construction of South African nationhood in various eras. More infrequent, however, are books that deal critically with leisure and sport as key components of identity construction of a specific ethnic grouping, possibly because this could be seen as an essentialist or deterministic explanation of taste or aptitude. Albert Grundlingh, Head of the History Department at Stellenbosch University, negotiates a competent course between these traps and delivers a useful addition to the field.
In this fascinating study, an interdisciplinary team of scholars reflect on the complex conceptions, creation, and consumption of leisure in African cities from the nineteenth century to the present. Combining sophisticated theoretical critiques, masterly historiographical surveys, and rich empirical analyses, the various chapters poignantly capture the meanings, styles and symbols of leisure, as it is molded and marked by the spatial, temporal, and social particularities of place, time and society, of geography, history, and social structure, including the inscriptions of class, status, gender, and other social markers.
An important focus of the book is the body as a site of identity formation, experience, and disciplined recreation of the self. The burgeoning social scientific study of tourism has emphasized the effects of the post-industrial economy on travel and place. However, this volume takes some of these issues into a different area of leisure: the spare-time carved out by people as part of their everyday lives - time that is much more intimately juxtaposed with the pressures and influences of work life, and which often involves specific bodily practices associated with hobbies and sports.
Leisure as a Site of Meaning and Production
"an interesting anthropological attempt, or, rather, an impressive empirical contribution to exploring diverse contemporary themes in modern sports and leisure activities. In many ways, their book, which comprises nine different and exciting empirical cases covering a rich ethnographic area, intends to expand and broaden the term 'sport' as something more than just purely being an activity carried out for mental, physical or bodily restitution; it is a site of meaning production as well as consumption performed by individuals across the globe.
History Summarized: South Africa
Africa Every Day: A Counterpoint
Oluwakemi M. Africa Every Day presents an exuberant, thoughtful, and necessary counterpoint to the prevailing emphasis in introductory African studies classes on war, poverty, corruption, disease, and human rights violations on the continent. These challenges are real and deserve sustained attention, but this volume shows that adverse conditions do not prevent people from making music, falling in love, playing sports, participating in festivals, writing blogs, telling jokes, making videos, playing games, eating delicious food, and finding pleasure in their daily lives.
Read also: Literature and African History
Themes Explored in "Africa Every Day"
- Celebrations and Rites of Passage
- Socializing and Friendship
- Love, Sex, and Marriage
- Sports and Recreation
- Performance, Language, and Creativity
- Technology and Media
- Labor and Livelihoods
Across seven sections-Celebrations and Rites of Passage; Socializing and Friendship; Love, Sex, and Marriage; Sports and Recreation; Performance, Language, and Creativity; Technology and Media; and Labor and Livelihoods-the accessible, multidisciplinary essays in Africa Every Day address these creative and dynamic elements of daily life, without romanticizing them. Ultimately, the book shows that forms of leisure and popular culture in Africa are best discussed in terms of indigenization, adaptation, and appropriation rather than the static binary of European/foreign/global and African. Most of all, it invites readers to reflect on the crucial similarities, rather than the differences, between their lives and those of their African counterparts.
Contributors to "Africa Every Day"
Contributors: Hadeer Aboelnagah, Issahaku Adam, Joseph Osuolale Ayodokun, Victoria Abiola Ayodokun, Omotoyosi Babalola, Martha Bannikov, Mokaya Bosire, Emily Callaci, Deborah Durham, Birgit Englert, Laura Fair, John Fenn, Lara Rosenoff Gauvin, Michael Gennaro, Lisa Gilman, Charlotte Grabli, Joshua Grace, Dorothy L. Hodgson, Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme, Prince F. M. Lamba, Cheikh Tidiane Lo, Bill McCoy, Nginjai Paul Moreto, Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoué, James Nindi, Erin Nourse, Eric Debrah Otchere, Alex Perullo, Daniel Jordan Smith, Maya Smith, Steven Van Wolputte, and Scott M. Youngstedt.
Read also: African American Urban Fiction
Read also: Must-read African American romance novels
Popular articles:
tags: #Africa
