Postcolonialism and the Formation of Brazilian Sport: Toward the Necessary Overcoming of the Concept of Sport as a Universal Value

Abstract

Modern sport has historically presented itself to society as a universal model of competitive athletic practices. Canonical explanations about the reasons for its “universality” generally use a triumphalist argument of globalization which tends to remove the power from the historical process. But how to explain globalization and the homogenization of modern sports rules without colonialism and imperialism? At the basis of these economic, military, and cultural policies of domination and expropriation there is a civilizationist orientation whose strength is the way in which the sociocultural formation of countries like Brazil was based on European models. It is no coincidence that the development of modern sporting practices in the country resulted from the efforts of a notably Philo-European financial and political elite, who were certain of the potential cultural and racial benefits of welcoming European immigrants into the country. Through their sports associations and activities, these communities lent a significant part of the inputs that make up the Brazilian sports complex. However, this system has developed maintaining hierarchies and violence of gender, race, and class inaugurated by colonialism. Based on this framework, and using an exploratory method of historical-critical approach, this article attempts to identify and analyze the specificities of the post-colonial condition of Brazilian sport, at the same time it attempts studying the horizons of its overcoming. The analysis of this scenario suggests the need for theoretical-political projects of decolonization of the national sports imagination and complex.