Chasing shadows
A docuseries about the Springbok rugby team invites us to examine the enduring legacy of Rainbowism in South Africa.
rugby
Hier kom die bokke
Something’s different about the reaction to South Africa’s victory at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, its fourth title.
Tweeting apartheid sport
What if the social media conditions of 2021 existed in 1981? A group of New Zealand writers tweeted the damned 1981 Springbok rugby tour as if it was happening now.
South Africa’s fatigued, narcissistic nation-building discourse
Springbok rugby projects itself as progress, but preserves the way things are in the popular consciousness of South Africans.
Another hero falls
Eric “Bucs” Damons existed beyond the frame of the narrow scope of the elite South African sporting narrative.
The Blitzboks in America
What the recent World Rugby Sevens Series global championship reveals about national rugby cultures, particularly South Africa's.
Rugby and rainbows
Reflecting on white joy, black celebration, and the meaning of the Springbok win at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Why, despite it all, I’m still a fan of the Springboks
We should not let the achievements of a multiracial Springbok rugby team, led by its first black captain, be commodified and commercialized in the service of neoliberalism.
Chester Williams: pioneer of excellence
The late Springbok rugby wing's legacy needs to be sustained, and the hope that he represented is perhaps more critical than ever.
The long short history of post-apartheid South African rugby
The compromises and conciliations of South African rugby mirror the unfinished transition from apartheid racism in the broader society.
South African rugby’s race problems
What does the divergent fates of Springbok Eben Etzebeth and former coach Peter de Villiers say about the state of South African rugby?
Chester Williams and the making of modern South African rugby
Williams, the only black South African player in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, was a complex figure in complex times. He deserves to be remembered as such.
Cake politics
The Rugby Championship, the World Cup, and Springbok politics in South Africa.
The Rugby revolution is not being televised
Rugby in South Africa is generally understood to be a white sport, but contemporary statistics reveal that a great many more black people than white people play rugby there.
Taking a Mallett to SuperSport
When former Springbok Ashwin Willemse walked off a SuperSport TV set, he forced conversations on racism in South African rugby and its sports media.
“Exceptional kaffirs”
The grumblings of dissatisfaction and anger among black readers over stories about deserving blacks in South Africa.
White Springbok rugby fans and quotas
The writer, Lloyd Gedye, can handle most things, but the mischaracterization of attempts to deracialize the Springbok rugby team, made his blood boil.
Yannick Nyanga’s Tears
How a black French rugby player's crying during the playing of the country's national anthem was appropriated for all sorts of rightwing and reactionary politics.
Blue Balls
When white South Africans do ordinary things, like travel to a black neighborhood, they're showered with platitudes. This is not reserved for their black country fellows.