South African Football Culture From The Perspective Of Post-colonialism

South Africa,with beautiful landscape,lies in the southernmost of Africa.And European powers once were attracted by its unique geographical location,fertile land and low-cost manpower.Thus,after South Africa is forced into a British colony,colonial rulers adopts the means of land deprivation and physical slavery to ‘accommodate' indigenous South Africans at the material level,and of colonizing football in churches to educate them at the spiritual level,with the attempt of ‘drawing' the black in a way that most vents emotion and assimilates the public,enabling them to have a high recognition of British football culture both physically and mentally,in order to achieve their true colonial purpose.The emergence of South African colonial history and its football culture formation complement each other.Football culture not only includes its explicit culture-football itself,but also its implicit culture-values derived from football.The World Cup not only brings economic benefits,but also manifestation of football culture for South Africa.National color fusion and national reconciliation shown on the World Cup stage fascinate scholars to explore leverage behind them-the formation process of South African football culture.This paper is based on current mainstream theorist Homi K.Bhabha's post-colonialism thoughts,making historical route of African football culture formation as research object,adopts literature review,case and empirical method,as well as literature method,so as to analyze formation process of South African football culture.The research shows that in South African colonial rulers' hegemonic football culture,formation of South African football culture experiences the black football cultural germination after ‘exile' history,the ‘aphasia' black football,‘ambivalence' caused by collision of the black and white football culture,development of imitating football culture,and ‘liminal space' formed by multicultural collision and fusion process.Finally,South African football culture presents harmonious situation under post-colonialism theory.The first chapter analyzes the exiled the black football culture under the white hegemony.In the colonial rulers' political map,introduction of the white football enables the black to escape pain caused by land loss,physical exile and spiritual exile for the time being.And the black football culture begins with playing football game only existed among the black.The second chapter explores the black ‘aphasia' football culture under the white hegemony.In the eyes of white colonial rulers,the black are unworthy of participating in football activity,nor material conditions are provided for the black.This imbalanced black football culture has no power of discourse,and its corresponding characterization is ‘aphasia' state.The third chapter analyzes "Ambivalence" state during collision process of the black and white football culture.The white football culture has shown a mighty stance but anxiety about the white would loss their authority once the black enter their cultural circle.While the black football culturepresents irresistible tangled state.The fourth chapter elaborates the black football ‘imitation'process during the development of the black and white football culture.The effective way for the black to enter the white discursive field is to imitate the white football culture under their hegemony.And to some extent,this kind of imitation possesses positive initiative.Furthermore,this process also shows co-development of the black and white football culture.The fifth chapter dissects the ‘liminal space' formed by collision and fusion of the black and white football culture.In this paper,football field is compared to the space,and it is not only a corporeal field for playing,but also an immaterial place for joint development of the black and white football culture.And to a certain extent,the black and white football culture can have an effective ‘dialogue' on football field.The sixth chapter analyzes the South African football culture is taken shape by fusion of the black and white football culture.South African football culture is not only the medium for national reconciliation,but also the carrier for self-identity.The last chapter elaborates Mandela's football politics and thoughts.Mandela's life-long advocacy of football derives from its strong political function,mainly showing buffer of the black and white contradiction and eventually achievement of national reconciliation.In this paper,the way of integrating shared theme(the body)between football and post-colonialism to expound South African football culture is innovative,and its function coincides with harmonious purpose embodied in post-colonialism.In a little way,this paper offers dedication for its cultural development in light of the lack in South African football culture research made by scholars.