Michelle Sikes is a DPhil Candidate in Economic and Social History at Oxford University, Oxford, UK.John Bale is Emeritus Professor John Bale, Department of Education, Keele University, Keele, UK.

• 1. Introduction: women’s sport and gender in sub-Saharan Africa 2. ‘Mother of the nation’: rugby, nationalism and the role of women in South Africa’s Afrikaner society 3. Experiences of moving: a history of women and sport in Tanzania 4. Towards an understanding of netball in Malawi, international sport development and identification: theoretical and methodological sensitizing issues 5. Women’s running as freedom: development and choice 6. The way out? African players’ migration to Scandinavian women’s football 7. Perceptions of the African Women’s Championships: female footballers as anomalies 8. Namibia’s Brave Gladiators: gendering the sport and development nexus from the 1998 2nd World Women and Sport Conference to the 2011 Women’s World Cup 9. African women and sport: the state of play

"A very interesting anthology from different sports research perspective. It also shows that research on women's sport in Africa is on the rise."—Anders Östnäs, Lund University, www.idrottsforum.org