ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the socio-political context for black Capetonians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Within the Coloured community in South Africa's oldest city, Cape Town, religion affected relations between Christian and Muslim sporting organisations, whilst those African men who lived in District Six and the Bo-Kaap played rugby in a separate competition based at Langa township outside the city. In Cape Town, religion and culture as well as ‘race’ were significant in distinguishing between groups within the Coloured communities. Whilst various groups were not detached from a common struggle against racist oppression, religion and sport combined to highlight differences and rivalries between Christian and Muslim Coloured South Africans. Rugby was an integral part of the display of masculinity through physical performance. The display of aggression and competence amongst Muslim rugby players differed little from the tenets of muscular Christianity that had started to take hold in British colonies by the latter part of the nineteenth century.
