The tragedy of South Africa was that white South Africans were somewhat complacent and because of that they made other people invisible. This is also rings true for the history of sport. In sport history, not only black people but also women were “invisible", said Prof Andre Odendaal, sports historian and keynote speaker at a two-day conference themed “Decolonising Sport Historical Themes" organised by the Department of Sport Science at Stellenbosch University (SU) and the SU Museum.

The conferences, that ended on Saturday, is to all accounts the first of its kind with delegates from universities and civil society convening in Stellenbosch, said Dr Francois Cleophas of the Department of Sport Science.

In his keynote address Odendaal gave a short wrap of his sport history research and writing stretching over 40 years. He recalled engaging in conversation in the 1960's with the then captain of the South African rugby team who told him that black people do not really know cricket or rugby as they have not played it for long.

In his research, Odendaal found two living archives with sport history data that told a different story of the involvement of black people in sport.

“The first time that it was recorded that Xhosa was spoken on a cricket field was in 1859 in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape," said Odendaal.

But Odendaal said the invisible role of the women in history also got his attention. The exclusion of women may be ascribed to the Anglo-centric perceptions of history writers of the past. They presented certain people like women and blacks in limited ways or not at all.

“Women make up 50% of the population and they do not feature in the sport history. They were as invisible as blacks," said Odendaal. Women playing cricket is also recorded in that the women's cricket association in England was started in 1926, two years after women got voting rights in England. In South Africa the Peninsula Ladies Club started in 1932. In 1952 the national women's cricket teams were announced in Rhodesia and South Africa.

According to Odendaal a wonderful journey for him started after he took note of Thozama April (from the Centre for Humanities Research at UWC) who criticised history writers on the exclusion of women in history. He then started looking with different eyes at the history and include the women's role they played. “It is not a forced narrative or artificial imposition of women, but a seamless tapestry," he said.

Dr Heinrich Grobbelaar of the Department of Sport Science said the theme of conference contains the words “Decolonising" and “sport history", that also dovetails the current discourse between the departments and faculties in the university sector across Africa.

Grobbelaar quoted from an article by Prof Lesley Le Grange, Vice-Dean: Research in the Faculty of Education at SU on decolonising the curriculum of universities. “The student protests of 2015 precipitated a renewed interest in the decolonisation of the university in South Africa, and by association the decolonisation of the university curriculum. The decolonisation of the curriculum is an important conversation, and long overdue, given that the Western model of academic organisation on which the South African university is based, remains largely unchallenged." In Le Grange's article he added to the conversation by discussing why the need for decolonisation, the importance of rethinking how curriculum is conceived, and outlining some possible ways of decolonising the university curriculum.

“The conference is held at a time in our country's history where discourse on decolonisation is a guiding principle. However, the discourse does not always include sports studies. This conference addresses this gap and it is appropriate that it takes place in Stellenbosch with its controversial past," said Cleophas.

“The conference can thus be seen as an expansion of his work (Odendaal's work), where new insights, new methodology and new substantive stories are discussed," said Cleophas.

• Odendaal can be regarded as the father of black cricket history writing. His The story of an African game (2006) remains a focal point for all South African cricket history writers. The book was highly acclaimed with a foreword by former president Nelson Mandela. Besides this book, he has authored numerous publications about cricket and black South African history. Odendaal has a historical relationship with SU. He studied up to Masters level here in the 1970s, and was also editor of Die Stellenbosse Student and captain of the league-winning university cricket team in that time. But instead of following the establishment path, he chose instead to join the struggle and pursue his sports career under the banner of the SACOS, thereby associating himself with mass participation.