title: "Now the African reigns supreme": the rise of African boxing on the Witwatersrand, 1924-1959.
abstract: This essay explores the growth of boxing among the African populations on the Witwatersrand region of South Africa between 1924 and 1959. It details how the sport's jump in popularity with Africans paralleled migration to Johannesburg. Africans increasingly saw boxing as an activity and skill conducive with survival in this new environment, and thus the sport grew in popularity, stature, and skill-level amongst this emergent urban population. The essay further explores the various ways that the sport was disseminated and popularized during the era, thus detailing how the sport reached both the African masses and petit-bourgeois educated elite. As their presence in Johannesburg became more and more permanent, boxing came to encompass various meanings and ideals, such as notions of discipline, independence and civility, to these urban populations.
authors.affiliation: Columbus State University, GA.
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fleming
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D001914:Boxing / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities / Q000523:psychology; D044382:Population Groups / Q000193:education / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D011822:Race Relations / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012923:Social Class / Q000266:history; D012924:Social Conditions / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011049:Social Control Policies / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D013019:South Africa / Q000208:ethnology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history