How did South Africa, a former pariah of the world, come to host the 2010 World Cup? This book tries to answer this question by telling the story of football in South Africa and how it was
transformed from a British colonial export into a central aspect of the black experience. It explores the Africanisation of the game with the introduction of rituals and magic, and the
emergence of distinctive playing styles.
Using archival research, interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, adverts and photos, Laduma! chronicles the impact of indigenous sporting traditions such as stick fighting, and the power
struggles between different football associations and white authorities. Soccer influenced class and generational divisions, shaped masculine identities, and mobilised popular resistance
against racism and segregation.
This new, updated edition of Laduma! embodies sporting history at its best and will be of interest to soccer fans, general readers and scholars seeking to inform themselves ahead of the 2010
World Cup in South Africa.
Peter Alegi is an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. He is an editorial board member of the International Journal of African Historical Studies and book review editor
of Soccer and Society. With Peter Limb, he co-hosts Africa Past and Present, a widely accessed academic podcast about African studies (http://afripod.aodl.org/).
'The passionate and meticulous research in Laduma! ensures that a lost legacy is highlighted and that the roots of soccer in South Africa have now been properly recorded.'-Mark Gleeson
