Urban football narratives and the colonial process in Lourenço Marques

Support for Portuguese football teams, in Mozambique as well as in other former Portuguese colonies, could be interpreted either as a sign of the importance of a cultural colonial heritage in Africa or as a symbol of a perverse and neo-colonial acculturation. This article, focused on Maputo, the capital of Mozambique – formerly called Lourenc¸o Marques – argues that in order to understand contemporary social bonds, it is crucial to research the connection between the colonial process of urbanisation and the rise of urban popular cultures. Despite the existence of social discrimination in colonial Lourenc¸o Marques, deeply present in the spatial organisation of a city divided between a ‘concrete’ centre and the immense periphery, the consumption of football, as part of an emergent popular culture, crossed segregation lines. I argue that football narratives, locally appropriated, became the basis of daily social rituals and encounters, an element of urban sociability and the content of increasingly larger social networks. Therefore, the fact that a Portuguese narrative emerged as the dominant form of popular culture is deeply connected to the growth of an urban community

Le développement des activités sportives en Afrique occidentale française : un bras de fer entre sportifs et administration coloniale (1920-1956)

During the Twenties and Thirties, the French colonial governrnent tried to develop physical training and military drilling in order to ameliorate the physical health of the population of West Africa where labour and soldiers were recruited. However, in the Thirties, the Africans preferred sports games, particularly soccer, to the activities proposed by the French authorities. Hence, the government progressively accepted that the Africans organized sports movements similar to those existing in France. The authorities could develop athletics but in the schools. So, the Africans were able to bend the will of the colonial administration.Durant l' entre-deux-guerres, le pouvoir colonial français tenta de développer l'éducation physique et la préparation militaire en Afrique occidentale française afin d'améliorer l'état sanitaire des populations africaines, réserves de main-d'œuvre et de soldats. Mais dès les années trente, les Africains se montrèrent attirés par les jeux sportifs, le football en particulier, délaissant ostensiblement les activités proposées par l'administration. Celle-ci dut progressivement (notamment après la Seconde Guerre mondiale) concéder, contre son gré, aux Africains la création d'un mouvement sportif comparable à celui de métropole. Les administrateurs tentèrent alors de promouvoir l'athlétisme, seule discipline sportive ayant à leurs yeux les vertus recherchées. Mais là encore, les populations contrèrent les volontés du colonisateur qui ne put développer l'athlétisme que là où il pouvait l'imposer : en milieu scolaire. Les pratiques sportives représentent donc un domaine où les colonisés ont su infléchir de façon nette les volontés du pouvoir colonialDeville-Danthu Bernadette. Le développement des activités sportives en Afrique occidentale française : un bras de fer entre sportifs et administration coloniale (1920-1956). In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 85, n°318, 1er trimestre 1998. pp. 105-118