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Crafting Sport History Behind Bars: Wrestling with State Patronage and Colonial Confinement in Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2015

Matthew Carotenuto
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Abstract:

This article explores how indigenous games such as wrestling were marginalized during the colonial era and the contemporary impact of this legacy. Through the sport of wrestling’s neotraditional resurgence, I argue that the sport’s contemporary iteration which emerged behind the imposing walls of Kenya’s penitentiaries provides an important window into historic discourse and state control of sport rooted in the colonial past. Paying close attention to the methodological challenges and opportunities researchers of indigenous sport face, the article also examines the sources available for scholars interested in investigating the social history of indigenous sport in Africa.

Résumé:

Cet article explore la manière dont les sports locaux comme la lutte ont été marginalisés pendant la période coloniale et l’impact contemporain de cette relative inattention. Grace à la résurgence néo-traditionaliste de la lutte, je suggère que la version contemporaine de ce sport née derrière les murs imposants des prisons kenyanes révèle les racines coloniales du discours historique et du contrôle de l’Etat sur ce sport. En examinant au plus près les défis méthodologiques et les opportunités offertes aux chercheurs des sports africains, cet article se penche sur les sources disponibles pour les chercheurs intéressés par l’histoire sociale des sports locaux en Afrique.

Type
Sport and Society in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa
Information
History in Africa , Volume 43 , June 2016 , pp. 289 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

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