Physical education and physical culture in the coloured community of the Western Cape: Areview

Abstract

A scienti fic-historical li terature review was undertaken in order to place the history of physical education and physical culture in the Coloured community at the epicenter of research. This review was extracted and
adapted from research done in preparation for a doctoral dissertation. A broad range of approaches, from Coloured denial to works challenging Apartheid, was covered during the review. Consequently, three themes were ident ified during the review. First, Coloured people were omitted from South African physical education and physical cul ture history. Then, Coloured people were portrayed as marginal figures and final ly they are
represented in literature that may be classi fied “analyt ical critique”. The review revealed that there is no available formal academic research
of physical education and physical cul ture practices focussing solely on the Coloured communi ty in South Africa. There is, however, a large corps of academic and popular literature honing in on White South Africans. In order to correct this discrepancy, an extensive literature review of published and unpublished works was conducted. The works were placed in scienti fic-historical context so as to present a coherent narrative of Coloured
people and their relationship to other population groups in South African physical education and physical culture history.