Unpacking Nelson Mandela’s Sports Legacy
An Examination of Press Discourses During the Fifa 2010 World Cup in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20156783 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tendai Chari (0000-0003-4651-0738, University of Venda, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 72-89 |
| Publication date | 2017-10-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387 |
| Publisher | Unisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02564718.2017.1403725 |
| OpenAlex | W2779195067 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
The late Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratic president is perhaps the most revered political leader globally. His legacy spawns fields such as politics, sports and society and portends different interpretations by different people. His name is invoked during elections and sporting events, and instrumentalised, if not “commodified” for electoral power gains with reckless abandon. Because Mandela symbolises many things, there are varied interpretations of his legacy, a conundrum that remains unresolved after the global icon’s death. Theoretically grounded on Berger’s (2014) “myth model”, this article examines the discursive construction of Nelson Mandela”s sports legacy in the context of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, the maiden world cup extravaganza on African soil, in order to gain insights on how symbolic power is embedded in and is naturalised through texts and discourse. Empirical data for this article was gleaned through a corpus of purposively sampled archival press cuttings from three main South African newspapers, namely The Sunday Times, Mail & Guardian and The Sowetan. Data was coded thematically and subjected to discourse analysis using the hermeneutic approach. The article argues that the discursive constructions of Nelson Mandela in these newspapers during the 2010 FIFA World Cup projected Mandela’s sports legacy through a mythological lens that accentuated his individual rather than collective contributions towards bringing the World Cup to South Africa/Africa. The article further argues that Mandela’s sports legacy is depicted as inseparable from his larger legacy in politics and society, thus demonstrating the intricate link between sports and politics in post-colonial societies
Commodification · Democracy · Media studies · Mythology · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Law · South African History and Culture · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |