1. Introduction
[1.1] Since the early 1990s, fan studies have evolved from Henry Jenkins's foundational insights in Textual Poachers (1992) to a vibrant field exploring how audiences actively interpret, circulate, and recreate media texts. Jenkins famously characterized fandom as a participatory culture, where spectators become "prosumers" who blur the line between consumption and production (Jenkins 2006; Gray et al. 2007). Such practices, as Geraghty (2019, 9) notes, are at once "transformative, transforming, and transformational," underscoring how fandom reshapes both cultural texts and the social worlds around them.
[1.2] Yet, as fan studies increasingly interrogates its own Anglo-American center of gravity, it is important to examine fandom in Africa, even though it is still in its infancy. African contexts not only inflect what fans consume but also how they organize, identify, and contest meaning. In postcolonial and postapartheid contexts, fandom provides a rich lens for examining how race, class, and national identity are negotiated through popular culture, offering an opportunity to illuminate fandom's pluralities and contradictions, particularly when familiar fan practices take on new significance in unfamiliar terrains (Morimoto et al. 2021).
[1.3] In this article, we discuss South Africa as one such critical site. More than three decades after apartheid, South Africa remains marked by deep social inequalities even as it cultivates a vibrant popular culture. From soccer rivalries and domestic television dramas to online fan communities and cosplay conventions, South African fandoms, most visible around sports, reveal how fan practices are impacted by national histories of race, religion, and nation building. Examining these dynamics foregrounds both the communal solidarities and the fractures that animate fan life in the country. By examining these, we contribute to a growing body of work that not only highlights the cultural specificity of South African soccer fandom but also urges fan studies to recognize the region as a fertile ground for theorizing fandom's entanglements with power, identity, and everyday life. We situate South African soccer fandom within and compared to other local fannish communities that are only now beginning to be studied, such as the South African Comic-Con and Black Twitter.
2. The South African setting
[2.1] South Africa was colonized first by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 (with colonists later identified as Afrikaners) and later by the British in 1815. This colonial trajectory arguably laid the foundations for a racially stratified society, which reached its most entrenched form under the apartheid system of separate development. Apartheid classified people by skin color and systematically excluded the majority Black population from political, social, and economic participation.
[2.2] These colonial dynamics further entrenched racial stratification. By the early twentieth century, Europeans, primarily Dutch and British settlers, constituted approximately 26 percent of the population, an unusually high proportion compared to most African contexts (McKeever 2017). This demographic imbalance reinforced white dominance in land, resources, and cultural authority, which continued into the apartheid era. Although on May 10, 1994, South Africa inaugurated its first democratically elected government in a moment of historic transition (Mhlauli et al. 2015), thirty years into democracy, the consequences of colonialism and apartheid remain visible, shaping inequality, identity politics, and cultural expression. At the same time, democracy, despite its weaknesses, has created possibilities for integration, creativity, and national healing.
[2.3] Within this historical and social landscape, fandom remains an underexplored area in South African scholarship. Despite the nation's complex cultural dynamics, the academic literature on fandom is sparse (Fletcher 2014; Duncan 2022). Duncan observes that if South African audiences are "fragmented along race, language and class fault lines, fans as a subset of those audiences do too" (7). This fragmentation highlights how fandom in South Africa is not only about leisure or entertainment but also shaped by apartheid legacies, racialized belonging, and socioeconomic disparities. Fandom in South Africa thrives most visibly around sports, with few nation-specific expressions in the media and online communities. As such, sports fandom offers fertile ground for exploring how South Africans negotiate identity, memory, and cultural participation in the postapartheid era.
3. National identity: Home, memories, spectacles
[3.1] South African fandom offers a distinctive lens for understanding the negotiation of nationhood in a society marked by colonialism, apartheid, and democratic transformation. This section traces fandom across multiple scales: from the intimate spaces of the home, where family and personal identity intersect, to the public sphere of sports, particularly soccer, where rituals of loyalty and spectacle unite diverse groups. Such public spectacles are not limited to national expression but have also taken place on global stages, such as at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where national pride was performed for the world while still contested in meaning. By following this trajectory, from private to public, both national and global, we discuss how fandom functions simultaneously as a site of unity and fragmentation, cultural pride and cultural contestation, all central to the ongoing project of postapartheid nationhood.
[3.2] Fandom in South Africa reveals that the home is a foundational site for fannish practice and identity making. Duncan (2022) demonstrates that the home is more than just a private space; it is where collections, objects, and aesthetic choices anchor feelings of belonging and pleasure. Within homes, fandom becomes intertwined with family dynamics, generational tastes, and cultural negotiation. This intimate nationhood suggests that fandom is not only a public spectacle but also cultivated in everyday spaces, where South Africans build microworlds of meaning that reflect wider cultural identities.
[3.3] In the public sphere, sports, particularly soccer, have long provided a crucial platform for fandom in South Africa (Fletcher 2010, 2014; Kaminju and Ndlovu 2011). Studies of rival teams such as the Kaizer Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates highlight how fandom generates colorful rituals and performances that transcend ethnic and social divisions. These practices reveal how sport, as a national pastime, contributes to the performance of unity, while also carrying traces of historical inequalities and urban rivalries.
[3.4] Some significant events have marked a high point in South African nationhood expressed through fandom. Burnett and Wessels (2012, 165) observed that "the legacy of 2010 FIFA World Cup is as much ingrained in the memories of fans as it is in the structural development of the Country." They further argue that the tournament's legacy is embedded in both the memories of fans and the nation's symbolic imagination, even as it has left behind structural inequalities such as public debt and redundant infrastructure. As a global media spectacle, the World Cup placed South African soccer fandom on the international stage, as is usually of utmost value for the hosts (Kolamo and Vuolteenaho 2013). However, it raises questions about who benefited materially versus who gained symbolically from this performance of national pride.[3.5] Importantly, fandom around soccer events also reshaped public sociability. Burnett and Wessels (2012) argue that fan parks and public viewing areas have become accessible alternatives to stadiums, enabling fans across class and gender divides to gather, celebrate, and express a sense of collective belonging. Such spaces demonstrate how fandom becomes a democratic ritual of nationhood, enabling South Africans to experience solidarity across difference, even if only temporarily.
[3.6] Soccer fandom itself carries symbolic weight. The colorful displays of vuvuzelas (note 1), costumes, and props embodied South African pride during the 2010 World Cup, but they also generated global controversy (Kaminju and Ndlovu 2011). While some dismissed the vuvuzela as disruptive, Fletcher (2014) avers that it was already part of local soccer culture, rooted in community participation and festive identity.
[3.7] The vuvuzela thus illustrates the ambivalence of fandom and national identity. On one hand, it became a unifying emblem of South African soccer culture and a metaphor for postapartheid hope (Swanepoel et al. 2010). On the other hand, its branding by FIFA and South African officials as a Pan-African symbol was contested. Jethro (2014) documents how Nigeria's Football Supporters Club resisted this imposition, viewing it as intra-African cultural colonialism rather than shared identity. Here, fandom reveals the tensions between national pride, continental solidarity, and cultural particularity.
[3.8] Overall, South African soccer fandom, from domestic practices in the home to public rituals and global spectacles, illuminates the multifaceted ways in which nationhood is imagined, performed, and contested. Fandom is both intimate and spectacular, local and global, unifying and divisive. In postapartheid South Africa, it provides a powerful lens for understanding how cultural practices contribute to the ongoing project of nation building while also exposing the fractures that persist within it.
4. Sports and fractured fandom
[4.1] Sports fandom remains one of the most visible and socially significant forms of popular engagement in South Africa. Yet, beneath its unifying potential, scholars have observed patterns of what might be termed fractured fandom, where loyalty and attachment are not always tied to national identity or geographic proximity.
[4.2] Grundlingh and Grundlingh (2019) describe such fractured fandom in the context of South African support for international teams, such as New Zealand's All Blacks. At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that a South African sports enthusiast would prioritize allegiance to a foreign team over the national side. Yet this phenomenon underscores that fandom is neither linear nor purely patriotic; it reflects diverse social, cultural, and personal motivations that shape how individuals engage with sports.
[4.3] The dynamics of fractured fandom are further amplified by transnational and digital media. As Grundlingh and Grundlingh (2019) note, fandom is not confined to stadiums or live events; it permeates online spaces and media platforms, enabling connections that transcend time and geography. Farred (2002) similarly documents cases in apartheid-era South Africa where fans cultivated long-term affiliations with English football clubs. These enduring relationships demonstrate the arbitrariness and flexibility of fandom, highlighting how global sports cultures intersect with local identities and histories.
[4.4] In South Africa, sports fandom thus operates on multiple levels: It is simultaneously a site of national pride, transnational engagement, and personal identity formation.
5. Race and class
[5.1] Race and class are central to understanding South African fandom, given the country's history of colonialism, apartheid, and persistent inequality. It is interesting how racial politics and class distinctions influence fannish practices across various cultural domains. It begins with soccer, where questions of whiteness, authenticity, and belonging are negotiated in ways that reflect broader social hierarchies. Fandom also offers new perspectives on segregation and identity, with attempts to localize and Africanize global fan practices as well as to cultivate racially sensitive spaces like Black Twitter, which has enabled South Africans to reimagine fandom, community, and cultural expression in ways that challenge older racialized patterns. Fandom is thus not a neutral leisure activity but a field deeply marked by race, class, and the politics of belonging in postapartheid South Africa.
[5.2] Another notable feature of South African fandom is its involvement in racial politics. Fletcher (2010) highlights the significance of racial discourse in South African soccer fandom, particularly during Manchester United's 2008 preseason tour of South Africa. Here, issues of class, financial capability, perceptions of Black people, ownership of the domestic game, and the spaces where matches are consumed all emerged as critical concerns. Fletcher observes that soccer culture in South Africa is more racially and ethnically diverse than often assumed. His study revealed that white fans expressed loyalty to the visiting English team, while most Black South Africans preferred their local clubs. This tension resonates with Pande's (2016) critique that fan scholarship often mainstreams fandom without adequately addressing the racial demographics of fan communities, thereby risking bias and erasure.
[5.3] Fletcher (2015) further demonstrates how postapartheid resistant whiteness continues to shape the Johannesburg "soccerscape." His ethnographic research into Manchester United (MU) and the Kaizer Chiefs (KC) revealed how whiteness was reproduced and contested through patterns of travel across racialized spaces. While KC's roots lie in the Black township of Phefeni, Soweto, MU carries a working-class identity from northwest England, reinterpreted within Johannesburg's social terrain. Fletcher's own whiteness became a point of negotiation: Among KC fans it was used as a novelty to draw more white supporters into domestic football, while among MU fans it was questioned as inauthentic due to his engagement with a predominantly Black football space. This notion of inauthentic whiteness points to the possibility of unsettling entrenched views that domestic soccer is exclusively a Black domain, opening a path for reconfiguring racial boundaries through fandom.
[5.4] Moreover, Fletcher (2010) shows how soccer and sports more broadly can generate new ways of understanding South Africa's history of segregation, colonialism, apartheid, and liberation. Passion for the game is entangled with identity formation and reformation, while also being shaped by commodification and commercialization. This intersection underscores how cultural values, economic interests, and power relations all converge in sports fandom.
[5.5] These dynamics extend beyond sports in contemporary South Africa. For example, Labuschagne and Burger (2022) suggest that comic book conventions can Africanize international brands by employing African and South African celebrities as cosplayers to attract local fans. Venter and Erasmus (2021) suggest that Comic-Con Africa 2019's introduction of KidsCon expanded the event's family-oriented appeal and localization. Smit and Bosch (2020) examine how DStv's Mzansi Magic channel has cultivated audiences for reality shows such as Our Perfect Wedding (note 2) through Twitter (now X). Their study highlights the rise of Black Twitter in South Africa as a vital cultural force, offering a space where fans engage productively with themes of love, relationships, humor, and language. In doing so, fans created a networked public and a community that reimagined television in postapartheid South Africa. This digital engagement not only bridges traditional and new media but also foregrounds the agency of Black South Africans as active cultural producers. However, the dynamics of Black Twitter reveal that while digital platforms can unsettle inherited racial boundaries, they also reproduce familiar lines of racialized belonging, suggesting that South African fandom, whether in stadiums or on social media timelines, largely remains a contested terrain where race, authenticity, and power are continuously renegotiated rather than dissolved.
6. Religion
[6.1] Religion is another important lens for understanding soccer fandom in South Africa, where spiritual symbolism and cultural performance often intersect with popular culture. This section first considers how religious imagery is expressed in South African sports fandom, particularly through attire and ritualized practices that blur the lines between sacred devotion and fan loyalty. We then situate these practices within broader scholarly debates about fandom as a form of religion, highlighting the ways in which emotional attachment, ritual, and meaning making overlap in both domains. We explore how fandom and religion intersect in lived experience, not as substitutes for one another but as mutually informing practices that structure identity, community, and everyday life.
[6.2] In South Africa, sports fandom often carries a distinct religious coloration. Kaminju and Ndlovu (2011) vividly describe how fans express themselves through attire and performance, sometimes dressing like bishops, priests, or female sangomas (note 3). These bishops and priests appear in their team's colors, holding Bibles and crosses, invoking divine intervention for their team's fortunes. Such practices underscore the convergence of spirituality and fandom, where loyalty and ritual devotion are framed in overtly religious terms.
[6.3] Comparative scholarship shows that the link between fandom and religion is not unique to South Africa. Jindra's (1994) analysis of Star Trek fandom, Elliott's (2022) work on fandom as religion, and Crome's (2015) exploration of Doctor Who all emphasize how scholars identify religious dimensions in nonconventional spaces. Emotional engagement, deep loyalty, and ritual participation characterize both fandom and religion. However, scholars note that such symbolic religiosity within fandom is often functional rather than substantive, diverging from mainstream theological definitions. Fleeson (2024) pushes for a more expansive understanding of religion, arguing that participating in structured, ritualized forms of social life itself constitutes religious practice. Similarly, Wolff (2023) suggests that religion need not be tied to a deity or sacred text but can be understood as the human capacity to create meaning. Within this framework, South African soccer fans' use of religious imagery and ritual performance can be read as both entertainment and sincere cultural expression, neither wholly sacred nor entirely secular.
[6.4] Importantly, the overlap between fandom and religion is not abstract but rooted in experience. Many religious adherents in South Africa are also passionate fans, and elements of one practice are often found in the other. Crome (2015) cautions against seeing fandom as a replacement for religion. Instead, he suggests asking how media practices and fandom are channeled into religious life and vice versa. This approach highlights the permeability of the boundary between sacred and secular, where fandom becomes not a substitute for faith but an extension of the ways that South Africans make sense of the world, build communities, and express devotion.
7. Conclusion
[7.1] The literature examined so far suggests that fandom in South Africa has been largely influenced by soccer and that soccer fandom is South Africa's most visible fandom. It provides a unique perspective through which to understand the interplay between identity, culture, politics, and media in postapartheid society. From the vibrant rituals of soccer supporters and the racialized allegiances to local and international teams, to the digital engagements on platforms like Twitter/X and the domestication of global pop culture through events such as Comic-Con, South African fandom is multifaceted and dynamic. It is deeply rooted in social structures and expressive of both unity and fragmentation. As seen in the adoption of religious symbols by fans, the use of vuvuzelas as contested cultural markers, and the emergence of Black Twitter as a participatory audience network, fandom extends beyond entertainment into spheres of social meaning-making. However, cases of fractured loyalty highlight the complexity and fluidity of fan identity in South Africa. These intricacies necessitate a more in-depth and sustained scholarly engagement with African fandoms. Understanding these cultural practices not only fills a significant gap in fan studies but also contributes to a more inclusive, global understanding of media consumption and identity formation.
[7.2] Fandoms in South Africa intersect with broader social themes such as nationhood, race, class, and religion by reflecting inequalities, social mobility, and cultural practices, while also providing spaces for communal expression, ritualized performance, and shared meaning making. This multilayered perspective positions sports as both a lens into South African society and a microcosm of the complexities of contemporary fandom.
[7.3] There is considerable potential for fan studies within the South African context. In the area of sports, rugby is significantly popular in South Africa, and it could be plausible to explore fandom around the Springboks, South Africa's national rugby union team. Another area of research in South Africa would be the fandom capital and interracial collaboration within fandom. Finally, further research on fandoms in other parts of Africa and outside of sports would enrich fandom studies generally.