African Games
- 1 The 1965 African Games
- 2 The 1973 African Games
- 3 The 1978 African Games
- 4 The 1987 African Games
- 5 The 1991 African Games
- 6 The 1995 African Games
- 7 The Seventh African Games
- 8 The Eighth African Games, Abuja, Nigeria
- 9 The Future
The first attempts to organize games for the African continent occurred from 1925 to 1929. At the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Rome in 1923, a plan was unveiled to create regional games in Africa, to be held biennially. Algiers, Algeria, was to hold the first games in 1925, but this was too soon and the games were not held. The games were rescheduled for 1927 in Alexandria, Egypt, but facilities could not be prepared in time and once again the games were postponed, until 1929. Under the patronage of King Fouad I the games were set to open in April of 1929, when the British and French colonial rulers fearing that the games would prove dangerous to their power if African unity were to succeed, arranged for the games to be canceled at the very last minute.
The new stadium in Alexandria was reportedly built in the same spot as Alexandria’s ancient Olympic stadium at the time of the Ptolemies. Though the stadium was not used for the canceled 1929 games, it made history when it hosted the first Mediterranean Games in 1951.Women were to be explicitly excluded from participation in the first games according to the published rules for the proposed 1927 games. However, women were to be included in lawn tennis in the 1929 edition.
Over three decades later, after regional games such as the West African Games and the French-backed Community-Friendship Games were held in Africa, the African games idea was revived. On 12 April 1963, the organizers of the West African Games and the Community-Friendship Games of the previous three years met in Dakar, Senegal, and awarded the first All- African Games to Brazzaville, Congo.
The original aim was to provide “a genuine means of fostering friendship, unity and brotherhood among African nations” (Mathias 1990, 16). South Africa and Rhodesia were specifically excluded from this gathering and would not be included in the games due to their apartheid policies. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) originally protested this exclusion, claiming that the organizers would need to choose a name other than African Games if South Africa were not allowed to compete.
The organizers replied that the IOC had excluded South Africa from the 1964 Olympic Games over the issue of apartheid, and also noted that all of the nations of Africa could easily join the new Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) movement and not become part of the Olympic movement. The IOC took the threats seriously and began a closer working relationship with the organizing committee, in part so it could more closely control the preparations.
China had planned a political exhibition in Brazzaville during the 1965 games, specifically to take advantage of the large crowds that would be present. Games organizers made sure the exhibition did not take place as this would have been a violation of the rules set up by the IOC for regional games, which stated that regional games were not to be held in conjunction with other events or exhibitions, and “There must be no extraneous events connected with the Games, particularly those of a political nature” (Rules for Regional Games 1952, 12–13).
The 1965 African Games
The games opened under a tight ring of security. The Congo-Brazzaville army patrolled entrances to the city to guard against “counter-revolutionaries” that might want to disrupt the games. International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage was present at the games and met with the organizers to discuss ways in which the IOC could help the African nations firmly establish the games. Jean-Claude Ganga of the Congo served as the head of the organizing committee for the 1965 games, and helped to found the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) in 1966, which became responsible for the organization of the African Games.
The 1973 African Games
Quadrennial plans for the games did not materialize. During the Brazzaville games, Bamako, Mali, was awarded the next games, to be held in 1969. A coup in 1968 canceled those games, which were then moved to Lagos, Nigeria, and rescheduled for 1971. The games were postponed once again and finally held in January of 1973.
Nigerian General Yakubu Gowon opened the 1973 games, with new IOC president Lord Killanin and former IOC president Avery Brundage in attendance. The games torch was relayed from Brazzaville to Lagos. According to a games report by IOC member Artur Takacs, traffic and crowd control at the opening ceremonies was chaotic and eight IOC members could not get in the stadium to see the ceremony.
The 1978 African Games
Algiers, Algeria, hosted the 1978 games, but controversy began before the games when IOC members noted that an official poster for the games was overtly political in violation of the Olympic Charter. The poster featured an oversized continent of Africa, all in black, shaped into a large fist, poised to smash the continent of Europe, drawn in white. Several IOC members and international federation officials exchanged hasty letters, and IOC president Killanin contacted the organizers and was assured that all of the posters would be removed.
After beating Libya 1-0, the Egyptian soccer team was attacked by the Libyan football players and by spectators armed with clubs and metal bars. The violence was shown on live television and Egypt’s Prime Minister Mamduh Salem ordered all Egyptian athletes home immediately. Kenya’s Henry Rono, having already set four distance-running world records in 1978, would win the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 10,000-meter run in Algiers.
The issue of apartheid in South Africa and Rhodesia had not been solved and once again these nations were excluded from the games. Rhodesia never participated in the African Games. The nation became Zimbabwe and first competed in the 1987 African Games. South Africa had been reinstated by the IOC in time for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and first competed in the 1995 African Games.
The 1987 African Games
After the 1978 games in Algiers, it was hoped the games could finally be organized on a quadrennial schedule and the 1982 games were awarded to Nairobi, Kenya. In December of 1980 Kenya informed the SCSA that they would not be able to hold the games on time. Pressure was put on the SCSA to move the games to Tunis,Tunisia, but the SCSA backed Nairobi. After several delays and near cancellation, and after China stepped in to help build the main stadium, the fourth African Games opened in August of 1987.
Kenyan distance runner Kip Keino and Kenyan Paralympian Japheth Musyoki started out the Fourth All- African Games month-long torch run with John Ngugi, Kenya’s world champion cross-country star, lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony. Morocco boycotted the games, pulling out of activities involving the Organization of African Unity over its dispute with Western Sahara.
The 1991 African Games
Cairo, Egypt, hosted the next games in 1991, the first time the games had been held in a four-year schedule. The Egyptians hoped to impress the IOC and convince them that an African city was ready to hold the Olympic Games. The games did not run as smoothly as expected. A stampede by spectators at the opening ceremonies prevented some dignitaries from getting inside the stadium. The Egyptians had spent some US$250 million for facilities for the games, and gave away most of the tickets to the games for free to fill the stands. Once the games began, the Egyptians were accused on numerous occasions of biased officiating, and computer systems did not work as well as expected. The medals for the diving events were struck from the records after the completion of the competition when it was ruled that not enough nations had participated in order to make it an official competition.
The 1995 African Games
South Africa was finally welcomed to the games in 1995, when the games were held in Harare, Zimbabwe. The opening ceremony held in Harare’s 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium had just 6,000 spectators in attendance. The games involved several protests, doping, poor sportsmanship, and a general lack of organization. Drug suspensions included Egyptian wrestler Mohy Abdel in the 100-kilogram class, Nigeria’s 45100- meter relay after team member Paul Egonye failed his drug test, and long jumpers Andrew Osuwu of Ghana, who lost the men’s silver medal, and Karen Botha of South Africa, stripped of the women’s long jump bronze medal.
Violence between the athletes and teams was especially disturbing at the games. The Zimbabwean security forces used police dogs to assist in escorting the football referee from the field after angry Nigerians confronted him after the match with Egypt. Boxers from Nigeria and fans from Egypt brawled in the boxing arena. Nigerians and Algerians fought during the volleyball competition. Women’s handball teams from Zimbabwe and Egypt fought off court.
Controversies and arguments occurred over unfair judging in tae kwon do. The Egyptian team also protested that the South African women’s gymnastics teams uniforms were too revealing. The Egyptian boxing contingent made claims that boxers from South Africa had AIDS, but later issued a retraction and an apology in an Egyptian newspaper. At the end of the games one Nigerian official stated that North Africans don’t want to accept defeat and always think they are superior to black Africa.
Women’s diving and netball were demoted to demonstration sports when not enough nations showed up to compete. South African hammer thrower Rumne Koprivchin won the gold medal but had only been given his South African citizenship in May, less than the six months required for eligibility in the games, and was disqualified. Okkert Brits, a pole vaulter from South Africa, was the heavy favorite in the event. Traveling from Europe to compete in the games, his pole vaulting poles were lost. Organizers postponed the pole vault event for several days, until the equipment arrived allowing Brits to compete and win the gold medal.
One modern difficulty of the games is that many of the bigger athletics stars choose to skip the games, preferring to make money in other competitions, leading to a decline in spectator interest. In 1995 the main noshows were Noureddine Morceli, Moses Kiptanui, Hassiba Boulmerka, Samuel Matete, Frankie Fredericks, and Haile Gebreselassie.
South Africa is a sporting power in Africa, and their participation changed the dynamics of the games. Egypt had generally been the most successful nation in terms of medals won in previous games, but an instant rivalry was created when South Africa entered the games in 1995. The two nations both won 154 medals at the games, with South Africa claiming 64 gold medals and Egypt 61. The new rivalry was considered to be one of the reasons that the 1995 games were more contentious than most.
The games of Harare were the largest African Games up to that time with forty-six nations and 6,000 participants. International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch warned future African Games hosts not to copy the Olympic Games, that it would be harmful to try to organize games that were beyond the resources of most African nations.
King Seezigeera, the last Tege King of Rwanda, with his bow.
The Seventh African Games
The seventh African Games were held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September of 1999 with some 25,000 visitors, 6,000 athletes, and 3,000 officials from throughout the continent. Just prior to the 1999 African Games the SCSA met to discuss problems and issues in African sport and the sport movement worldwide, and passed a Code of Ethics for the African Sport Movement. The detailed code strongly emphasized that the members and associations of the African sport movement were to be ethical in all of their activities and stressed that there should be no discrimination or harassment of any kind, no doping, free and public elections, no forms of embezzlement, bribery, or conflict of interest, and no cheating or violence in sport.
Spectator interest in the Johannesburg games was low, however, with the opening ceremonies staged in a stadium with fewer than 15,000 spectators present. Johannesburg, which had lost to Athens for a bid for the 2004 Olympic Games, was hoping to impress the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in hopes of landing the 2006 World Cup, a bid Johannesburg did not win. Laborers protested outside games venues with a strike, pressing for higher wages. Police escorted the Egyptian basketball team from the court after an on-court brawl between Angola and Egypt.Women’s field hockey became a nonmedal event after the Nigerian team dropped out of the tournament and not enough teams were present to make it a medal sport.
Overall, though, the games impressed IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch enough that he concluded that South Africa was ready to hold big events.
The Eighth African Games, Abuja, Nigeria
Labor unions once again called for strikes both before and during the eighth African Games in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2003, in protest over the government-mandated prices for fuel. The unions also asked spectators to boycott the games. At the closing ceremonies, spectators protesting the fuel prices and the cost of the games booed Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, cutting his final speech short. Spectators also complained that ticket priceswere out of reach for most Nigerians, and security was so tight and took so long that even those who had tickets had some difficulty getting into the venues.
Money and budget issues for the games were so severe that the Japanese television equipment company JVC (Japan Victor Company) refused to turn over the keys to the television equipment it had installed for the games because organizers had not paid for the work, and JVC was afraid they might never see the money. The issue was solved right at the beginning of the games and Nigerian television was allowed use of the equipment.
Nigeria’s efforts to top the medals table brought protests from South Africa and Egypt and claims that Nigeria was counting several medals that were not official. Nigeria claimed that medals won by its disabled weightlifters counted in the medals table. The agreement was that disabled medals would count, but, in some of the events, South Africa and Egypt claimed that there were not enough competitors in the event to make the results official, that at least four nations had to participate in each weight class for official medals to be awarded. In one weight class, only one Nigerian competed and took home a medal. The games ended with the official count still in dispute. Sadly, several athletes and visitors contracted malaria while at the games and two Egyptians, one South African, and one Ethiopian died from the disease.
The Future
The next African Games are scheduled to be held in 2007 in Algiers, Algeria. Algiers should be well prepared to host the games after hosting the Arab Games in the fall of 2004. Algiers has already hosted the African Games, the Mediterranean Games, and the Arab Games, the only city on the world to have the distinction of hosting three of the major regional games. The continent of Africa is still hoping to host a future Olympic Games, with Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria most often mentioned as possible hosts.
Daniel Bell
Categories: Sporting Events