ABSTRACT
In this article, the history of African football in Namibia and its politicized and public visuality are analysed with reference to the history of both historical photography and historical poster archives. A brief outline of the history of African football in this South African colony is followed by discussion of how African football became part and parcel of the marketing and consumer imagery used during apartheid reformism in late-colonial Namibia. Wall painting and poster campaigns by leading Namibian companies are analysed and discussed with regard to the visual representation of African football players in the context of transforming racialized sportsmanship in the 1980s into a symbolic terrain of a unified nation. More generally, the article is interested in understanding the possibilities and limitations of football posters (archived and unarchived) for extending historical analysis.
