presented a de-historicized vision of Tourist South Africa: contented tribesfolk and happy mineworkers, as in the old South Africa, but purified and sanctified, somehow, by the Rainbow. When it got to the paler end of the spectrum, however ,it found that it could not proceed without becoming, intermittently, not only a pageant but an historical pageant as well. And so to the procession of timeless Sotho in blankets and timeless Zulu in ostrich feathers it had to add what looked very much like happy eighteenth-century slaves and slave owners in knee-breeches, bearing baskets of agricultural produce to the Rainbow feast.12
Vicky Paraschak shows that the presentation of native peoples in the four Canadian Olympic and Commonwealth Games ceremonies held between 1976and 1994 all likewise portrayed native cultures in a ‘pre-history’ state.13 Coetzee’s critique lamented not only the absence of history, but also that
South Africa was constructed in the RWC ceremonies in the voice of the foreigner, in images and packaging more reminiscent of American hype than South African realities. He argued further that: ‘Now that rugby has fallen into the hands of an international cartel embracing a “philosophy” of growth, we can expect the inherent intellectual muddle of the Rainbow Project to be compounded by floods of images of South Africa as an exotic sports–tourism destination, different certainly, but only in a piquant, easily digested way.’14
The case of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 is further evidence of the packaging of an imagined vision of local culture for global consumption. The focus of broadcasters and image makers upon the Mormon history and identity of the city and the state of Utah was misrepresentative. Despite the presence of the Mormon Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the city centre, only some of the inhabitants of Salt Lake City belong to the Mormon Church. In contrast to the South African RWC case, history was not written out, but rather a history was written in, one that prioritised the Mormon migration to the West in general, and Utah in particular, at the expense of non-Morman Utahans. This demonstrates how global sports events can leadto the promotion of imagined, partial and fictional representations of local identities and histories. Whether it be ‘timeless natives’ or an in-group-focused history, ceremonies have done little to alter pre-existing stereotypes about places and peoples.