The SARL board has granted its blessing to the Western Cape to form a Khoi Indigenous team, a first for South African sport. The Rugby League fraternity in the Western Cape recently met with the Koranna False Bay Council and South Africa’s very first Indigenous team was born.
The indigenous team will all be descendants of the Khoi (as per the current Government terminology, the current coloured people of Cape Town) who were the inhabitants of the Cape before the Europeans arrived on our Shores. The Khoisan people of the Northern Cape are descended from two different tribes. An amalgam of the original San hunter-gatherers and the later-arriving Khoi-Khoi, they the Khoisan culture lives on through some of the most compelling rock art on Earth.
What makes this unique, is that Rugby League has recognised that there are cultural differences within South Africa and is embracing it. “This will help us to understand each other, it must be seen as a celebration of the Khoi culture”, says Denzil Watson, Vice President of SARL.
The team will be launched on 4 March 2017, when the charges of Evan Geduld, Head Coach of the Indigenous team, will meet the South African Rugby League Sables in an unofficial test down in Cape Town. As per Mr Geduld, this will be an opportunity to grow the game amongst the Khoi community and he is looking forward to the match-up with experience boys from the North of the country.
Article by Denzil Watson
The indigenous team will all be descendants of the Khoi (as per the current Government terminology, the current coloured people of Cape Town) who were the inhabitants of the Cape before the Europeans arrived on our Shores. The Khoisan people of the Northern Cape are descended from two different tribes. An amalgam of the original San hunter-gatherers and the later-arriving Khoi-Khoi, they the Khoisan culture lives on through some of the most compelling rock art on Earth.
What makes this unique, is that Rugby League has recognised that there are cultural differences within South Africa and is embracing it. “This will help us to understand each other, it must be seen as a celebration of the Khoi culture”, says Denzil Watson, Vice President of SARL.
The team will be launched on 4 March 2017, when the charges of Evan Geduld, Head Coach of the Indigenous team, will meet the South African Rugby League Sables in an unofficial test down in Cape Town. As per Mr Geduld, this will be an opportunity to grow the game amongst the Khoi community and he is looking forward to the match-up with experience boys from the North of the country.
Article by Denzil Watson
