Episode 38: Fascism, Coloniality, and Sport with Zoé Samudzi

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by Zoé Samudzi to discuss how colonialism is inextricably linked to the rise of fascism and where sport fits in those dynamics. Zoé Samudzi is a writer, activist, photographer, and sociology doctoral candidate at the University of California, San Francisco, and research fellow at Political Research Associates. She also the co-author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions of Liberation, and has written for The New Inquiry, The Daily Beast, Vice, Verso, and ROAR Magazine.

In the first half of the interview, the conversation focuses on how the Nazi project was linked to an earlier history of German colonialism, including its genocide against the Herero and Nama and San peoples in Namibia from 1904-1908 and the role of sport and the Olympics in the Nazi project. In the second half of the interview, we shift to the contemporary United States to discuss fascism, anti-fascism, colonialism, and sport in terms of fandom, athlete activism, college sport, and much more.

You can find Zoé's co-authored book As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions of Liberation here. You can find her thread on the IOC's recent celebration of the Nazi Olympic torch-lighting ceremony here. You can find  Zoé on Twitter @ztsamudz.

For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)

After listening to the episode, check out our most recent pieces on the college football:

"Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“'We are being gaslit': College football and Covid-19 are imperiling athletes” in The Guardian

“Canceling the college football season is about union busting, not health” also in The Guardian

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