Military Sport in the Belgian Congo: From Physical Training and Leisure to Belgian-Congolese Records in Track and Field, 1945–1960 |
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| Authors: | Roger Vanmeerbeek |
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| Institution: | Policy in Sports and Physical Activity Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium |
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| Abstract: | While the important role of several ‘muscular missionaries' in promoting sport has been thoroughly studied and discussed, less is known about the sports policy of the Force Publique (FP, Public Army) in the Belgian Congo. Therefore, for this article we have focused on military sources. Like the Catholic Church, the FP tried to establish a new order and, by doing so, shaped ‘new tribes' and new identities. In the military training camps – where the recruits lived together with their wives and children – they were physically drilled by means of Swedish gymnastics, fitness exercises and battle training. The choice of Swedish gymnastics was not a surprise, since Belgium was the Mecca of Swedish gymnastics until 1968. Additionally, the soldiers practised sports like football, volleyball, basketball, judo and track and field, as a kind of leisure. With regard to track and field, however, well-performing athletes were selected and displaced to the best training facilities. Some of these Congolese elite athletes, like Victor Mangwele, were able to break Belgian records during their participation in national and international competitions. It remains unclear, however, to what degree all these military athletes also became part of a ‘new elite'. In the eyes of the Congolese population, their performances could be seen in an ambivalent way: on the one hand they represented the disciplining policy of the colonial power, on the other hand they were idols showing the colonial power the prowess of the African population. |
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| Keywords: | black athletes ‘new tribes' Force Publique Swedish gymnastics Raphaël de la Kethulle de Ryhove Léon Mokuna |
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