Experiences of moving: A history of women and sport in Tanzania

Abstract

Although the literature on the history of sports in Africa is growing, the literature on women and sports sport in Africa remains limited. This article explores women and sport in Africa through a focus on women’s experiences of moving, drawing on Tanzanian women’s accounts and memories of their ongoing practices related to activities such as walking and fitness training. In order to broaden our understanding of women and sport in Africa, we should expand the scope of our inquiry to include everyday movements, and explore the ways that athletic activities form part of a broader context of moving in time and space. The Swahili word for sport, michezo, has connotation that suggest this broad approach to sporting activity. The article draws on material from anthropological fieldwork in Tanzania in the 1990s, as well as the author’s experiences at a sport development project run by Norwegians in Dar es Salaam