This book explores several cultural and historical paths intertwined in the genesis and development of sport and physical activities within colonial and postcolonial contexts. As far as youth organizations and Western-based sports are concerned, the Independencies political split needs to be reconsidered, from a cultural perspective with practices overlapping spatial, chronological and epistemological borders. When looking at the variety of practices, the colonial legacies and the ensuing migration journeys through a global perspective, there is a need to understand the diverse ways of composing and building the postcolonial sport worlds. Multiculturalism (South Africa, France, Algeria), transnational journeys (Pacific Islands), rebuilding of national identities through sporting institutions (Ireland, West Africa), racialization of the society (Rwanda, South Africa), gender control (from the West-East to the North-South gap), sportization of traditional/old games (Americas), and so on. Following the various studies shaping this book, the ambivalence of sporting and physical activities' paths comes up. It is apparent these trajectories have generated a mixed feeling of adhesion and repulsion towards Western hegemonies in postcolonial societies.

1. Introduction: Rethinking Postcolonial Worlds through Physical ActivitiesStanislas Frenkiel, Thomas Riot and Nicolas Bancel 2. Sports Mobilities Across Borders: Postcolonial PerspectivesNiko Besnier 3. Physical Activities through Postcolonial Eyes: A Place of Epistemologic and Historiographical ExperimentationNicolas Bancel4. 'Last Zulu Warrior Standing': Cultural Legacies of Racial Stereotyping and Embodied Enthno-Branding in South AfricaBenedict Carton and John Nauright5. Not Quite Free? Irish Postcoloniality and the Career of Pat O'CallaghanMike Cronin6. Imperialisms in the Olympics of the Colonization in the Postcolonization: Africa into the International Olympic Committee, 1910 - 1965Pascal Charitas 7. From Baggataway to Lacrosse: An Example of the Sportization of Native American GamesFabrice Delsahut