Peter Elegie

In 1862, there's already documented matches that took place in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

That's South African football historian Peter Elegie.

And that is a year before the Football Association was even founded in England and before the first rules of association football were codified.

It's an interesting story whereby a colonial game...

really was transformed into a pillar of black culture by the racially oppressed.

And when I use the term black, I'm referring to people who either are self-identified or were later classified under apartheid as African, Indian or South Asian and coloured or multiracial.

Members held elections for various positions in the supporters club, and also through their formal organization, they tried to influence the football club's internal affairs.

And so the ability to campaign for office

to achieve a kind of social honor and visibility by achieving these high offices was something that was highly valued, particularly in Black communities.

playing music at the grounds, chanting, singing, dancing, maybe insulting the opponents.

This was something intensely pleasurable and entertaining.

It provided cover in a way by allowing activists to have conversations and even organize particular subversive activities.

And in doing so, kind of undermining the white state's surveillance and censorship.

The government was keen on using it because it saw it as a symbol of, you know, African-ness.

But there were also other African visitors who hated it, who said, you know, we have no tradition of horn blowing where I come from.

So how is this supposed to represent pan-Africanism?