Cricket, Kirikiti and Imperialism in Samoa, 1879–1939

Download or read book Cricket, Kirikiti and Imperialism in Samoa, 1879–1939 written by Benjamin Sacks and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers how Samoans embraced and reshaped the English game of cricket, recasting it as a distinctively Samoan pastime, kirikiti. Starting with cricket’s introduction to the islands in 1879, it uses both cricket and kirikiti to trace six decades of contest between and within the categories of ‘colonisers’ and ‘colonised.’ How and why did Samoans adapt and appropriate the imperial game? How did officials, missionaries, colonists, soldiers and those with mixed foreign and Samoan heritage understand and respond to the real and symbolic challenges kirikiti presented? And how did Samoans use both games to navigate foreign colonialism(s)? By investigating these questions, Benjamin Sacks suggests alternative frameworks for conceptualising sporting transfer and adoption, and advances understandings of how power, politics and identity were manifested through sport, in Samoa and across the globe.