Rugby, Decolonisation and African Moral Philosophy

This book examines the complex interrelationship between rugby, honour, and the African moral philosophy of ubuntu, positioning sport within the broader history of coloniality to reveal how athletic practices can become powerful vehicles for social justice transformation.

The book offers a nuanced analysis of how Springbok rugby served as both an instrument of colonial and apartheid exclusion and a catalyst for democratic change in post-apartheid South Africa. The re-entry of the Springboks into international rugby involved the transformation of South African rugby and sporting honour that is worthy of study from a decolonial perspective. Through a creative methodological lens that centres ubuntu as a humanising philosophical framework, the book explores how notions of sporting honour shaped racial boundaries and colonial conduct, while simultaneously demonstrating sport’s potential for advancing inclusion and social justice. The book provides fresh insights into the connections between rugby and other sports, South African colonial societies, the collapse of apartheid, and the transition to democracy. By considering rugby as a postcolonial, post-apartheid sport, it reveals nuanced complexities and possibilities for weaving a desirable fabric of inclusive sociality. This involves transcending damaged and limiting notions of colonial honour and rethinking colonial violence through ubuntu’s humanising principles, offering a compelling critique that reimagines how rugby, and sport more broadly, can be re-humanised and transformed into a force for positive social change.

This book will appeal to students, scholars, and academics across multiple disciplines, including sports studies, African philosophy, postcolonial studies, sociology, and social justice research, as well as anyone interested in sport, ubuntu, and social change more generally.