Sport in the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada and the Caribbean Diaspora, Janelle Joseph Critically Examines the Meanings of Being Black and Caribbean in Canada
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i Sport in the Black Atlantic ii Globalizing Sport Studies Series editor: John Horne, Professor of Sport and Sociology, University of Central Lancashire, UK Public interest in sport studies continues to grow throughout the world. This series brings together the latest work in the field and acts as a global knowledge hub for interdisciplinary work in sport studies. While promoting work across disciplines, the series focuses on social scientific and cultural studies of sport. It brings together the most innovative scholarly empirical and theoretical work, from within the UK and internationally. Books previously published in this series by Bloomsbury Academic: Global Media Sport: Flows, Forms and Futures David Rowe Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo Robin Kietlinski Sport for Development and Peace: A Critical Sociology Simon Darnell Globalizing Cricket: Englishness, Empire and Identity Dominic Malcolm Global Boxing Kath Woodward Sport and Social Movements: From the Local to the Global Jean Harvey, John Horne, Parissa Safai, Simon Darnell and Sebastien Courchesne- O’Neill Football Italia: Italian Football in an Age of Globalization Mark Doidge Books previously published in this series by Manchester University Press: The Greening of Golf: Sport, Globalization and the environment Brad Millington and Brad Wilson Sport and Technology: An Actor- Network Theory perspective Roslyn Kerr iii Sport in the Black Atlantic Cricket, Canada and the Caribbean diaspora Janelle Joseph Manchester University Press iv Copyright © Janelle Joseph 2017 The right of Janelle Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 1 7849 9407 5 hardback First published 2017 An electronic version of this book is also available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC) licence. The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Out of House Publishing Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, CR0 4YY v Contents Series editor’s preface page vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Community 35 2 Routes 62 3 Nostalgia 85 4 Disjunctures 108 5 Diaspora space 135 6 Nationalisms 155 Conclusion 177 Appendix 190 References 194 Index 203 vi vii Series editor’s preface There is now a considerable amount of expertise nationally and internationally in the social scientific and cultural analysis of sport in relation to the economy and society more generally. Contemporary research topics, such as sport and social justice, science/technology and sport, global social movements and sport, sports mega- events, sports participation and engagement and the role of sport in social development, suggest that sport and social relations need to be understood in non- Western developing economies, as well as European, North American and other advanced capitalist societies. The current high global visibility of sport makes this an excellent time to launch a major new book series that takes sport seriously, and makes this research accessible to a wide readership. The series Globalizing Sport Studies is thus in line with a massive growth of academic expertise, research output and public interest in sport worldwide. At the same time, it seeks to use the latest developments in technology and the eco- nomics of publishing to reflect the most innovative research into sport in soci- ety currently underway in the world. The series is multidisciplinary, although primarily based on the social sciences and cultural studies approaches to sport. The broad aims of the series are as follows: toact as a knowledge hub for social scientific and cultural studies research in sport, including, but not exclusively, anthropological, economic, geographic, historical, political science and socio- logical studies; to contribute to the expanding field of research on sport in soci- ety in the United Kingdom and internationally by focusing on sport at regional, national and international levels; to create a series for both senior and more junior researchers that will become synonymous with cutting- edge research, scholarly opportunities and academic development; to promote innovative disci- pline- based, multi- , inter- and trans- disciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches to researching sport in society; to provide an English language outlet for high- quality non- English writing on sport in society; to publish broad over- views, original empirical research studies and classic studies from non-English sources; and thus attempt to realise the potential for globalising sport studies through open content licensing with “Creative Commons.” Caribbean cricket, especially the elite, professional game, has long been rec- ognised as a force for unifying communities throughout the entire Caribbean viii viii Series editor’s preface region. In Sport in the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada and the Caribbean Diaspora, Janelle Joseph critically examines the meanings of being black and Caribbean in Canada. She reveals how cricket operates within the ranks of the diaspora, as a force for unity but also for exclusions, hierarchies and chauvin- isms and replicates social divisions in the broader society. Joseph demonstrates the ways in which first-generation Afro- Caribbean- Canadian immigrants’ culinary, musical, language, destination and, especially, sporting choices actively help the diaspora to construct homelands. She explores the ways in which playing and watching sport, and supporting or travelling with a sport club, are important to creating racialised, gendered, ethnic and/ or national identities. In doing so, she extends, theoretically and empirically, the promise of intersectional analyses of race, gender and globalisation in sport. The book’s chapters explore everyday life and the construction of community, as well as the place of transnational mobility in the formation of social networks. Examining the activities of an Afro-Caribbean- Canadian cricket and social club reveals much about Caribbean and Canadian belonging, pure and hybrid racial identities, transnational social networks and performances of nation and masculinity. Sport in the Black Atlantic also moves beyond earlier analyses to suggest that the gendering of Afro- Caribbean diasporic cultural forms leads to the occupa- tion of different spaces and roles for men and women. In this way, it contributes to the feminist critique of black diaspora studies by showing women to be an integral part of the Black Atlantic. The book builds on foundational sport and diaspora literature to explore how borderless racial and ethnic communities are made. In doing so, Joseph provokes the need for further examinations of other black diasporas in the context of specific nationalisms, transnational networks and physical cultural forms. John Horne, Preston and Edinburgh ix Acknowledgements All books represent author journeys and ethnographic texts provide an espe- cially acute representation of relationships formed along the way. I have con- sidered where to place the origins of this text. Should it be with my doctoral supervisor at the University of Toronto, Dr Peter Donnelly, who helped me consider the possibility of switching my focus from my personal passion, capo- eira, to my father’s fixation, cricket? Did the journey start with my fourth- year undergraduate exchange mentor at Victoria University in Australia, Dr Chris Hallinan, who recommended that I would make a good academic, an idea I had never before contemplated. Or should I trace back even earlier? In many ways, this book began when my eighth- grade teacher at Ramer Wood Public School, Ted Cowan, told me the best athletes are “thinkers,” instantly collapsing what had hitherto been two separate categories in my mind. He also taught me to think critically about the sometimes disingenuous separation of fact and fiction and the value of telling stories for both speakers and listeners. These obvious origins were major milestones along the journey, but give exclusive credit to the educators of the academic institutions that formed me. Without their critical support, this book would not exist, but the foundations are with my first educators, my mother and father, who were born in the Caribbean, migrated to Canada in the 1970s and raised me with a love for words, a knowl- edge of sport and the freedom to pursue what excites me, even when it so dif- fered from their interests. To you I give foremost thanks. Without the cricket expertise, wise ideas, open sharing and nostalgic stories of Caribbean cricketers in the Greater Toronto Area, there would be no text. Thank you E. Bertram Joseph, Eugene Soanes, Henry Yearwood, John Verneuil, Keith Greene, Nigel Griffith, Roy Pollard and a few hundred others. I deeply appreciate the unwavering support, shrewd judgments and cogent advice from my doctoral committee and other mentors: Drs Ato Quayson Cameron McCarthy, Caroline Fusco, D. Alissa Trotz, Margaret MacNeill, Melanie Newton, Patricia Landolt, Peter Donnelly, Rinaldo Walcott and Russell Field. I am truly