African Games

The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC).

African Games
Official logo of the Games
Games
1965 1973 1978 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Sports
Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoeing Chess Cycling Diving Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics Handball Field hockey Judo Karate Kick-boxing Netball Rowing Sailing Shooting Softball Squash Swimming Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling
Organisations
Charter AU ANOCA AASC NOCs

All of the competing nations are from the African continent. The first Games were held in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo. The International Olympic Committee granted official recognition as a continental multi-sport event, along with the Asian Games and Pan American Games. Since 1999, the Games have also included athletes with a disability.[1]

The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) was the organisation body for the game. On 26 July 2013, the Extraordinary Assembly of the Supreme Council for Sports held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast that was held on the sidelines of the 5th Session of the African Union Conference of Sports Ministers that started on 22 July 2013 recommended the dissolution of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa and to also transfer all functions, assets & liabilities of SCSA to the African Union Commission.[2][3] The organization of the African Games is now managed by three parts, the AU (the owners of the game), the ANOCA (occupying the technical aspects) and the AASC (developing marketing policy, sponsorship and research resources).

After running previous 11 editions as the All-Africa Games, the games has been renamed the African Games. The decision for the name change was arrived at, during the Executive Council meeting of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2012.[4] 54 countries were participating in the most recent edition in Morocco 2019.

History

Beginning

Modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin conceived the Pan African Games as early as 1920. The colonial powers who ruled Africa at the time were wary of the idea, suspecting the unifying aspect of sport among African people would cause them to assert their independence.

Attempts were made to host the games in Algiers, Algeria in 1925 and Alexandria, Egypt in 1928, but despite considerable preparations taken by coordinators, the efforts failed. The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first African member, Greek-born Egyptian sprinter Angelo Bolanaki, donated funds to erect a stadium, but still the Games were set back for another three decades.

The Friendship Games

In the early 1960s, French-speaking countries of Africa including France organized the Friendship Games. The Games were organized by Madagascar (1960) and then Côte d'Ivoire (1961). The third games were set for Senegal in 1963. Before they were completed, African Ministers of Youth and Sport met in Paris in 1962; as a few English-speaking countries were already participating, they rechristened the Games as the Pan African Games. The Games were granted official recognition by the IOC as being on par with other continental Games such as the Asian Games and the Pan American Games.

The games

In July 1965, the first games were held in Brazzaville, Congo, now called the All-Africa Games. From 30 countries, around 2,500 athletes competed. Egypt topped the medal count for the first Games.

In 1966, the SCSA was organized in Bamako; it manages the All-Africa Games. The second edition were awarded to Mali in 1969, but a military coup forced the cancellation of the Games. Lagos, Nigeria stepped in as host for the Games in 1971. Those Games were finally held in 1973 due to the Biafra War, which had just ended in Nigeria.

In 1977, the 3rd Games were scheduled to take place in Algeria but due to technical reasons had to be postponed for a year and were held in 1978. Continuing the pattern, the next Games were scheduled to take place in Kenya in 1983, but were pushed back to 1985 and finally took place in Nairobi in 1987.

The four-year Olympic rhythm has not missed a beat since, and the Games have been organized in Cairo, Harare, Johannesburg, and Abuja. In 2007, Algiers once again hosted, becoming the first repeat host. The 2011 edition of the All-Africa Games was held in Maputo, Mozambique in September 2011. Brazzaville hosted the 2015 edition in honor of the Games' 50th anniversary.

Participation

All 53 members affiliated to the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) are eligible to take part in the Games. In history, the 53 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have sent competitors to the Games.

South Africa was banned since the beginning of the games in the 1965 All-Africa Games till the 1991 All-Africa Games because Apartheid officially ended when it was invited for the first time to compete the games.

Morocco was banned from the games from the 1987 All-Africa Games to the 2015 African Games because of a political dispute over Western Sahara. Morocco claims the territory as its "Southern Provinces" and controls 80% of it while the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which claims to be a sovereign state, controls the remaining 20% as the "Free Zone". In 2018, after the Moroccan government signed its treaty of return to the African Union, the country also pledged to return to the African Games. Rabat, Morocco hosted the 2019 African Games.[5][6][7]

Editions

1965, 2015

1973

1978, 2007

1987

1991

1995

1999

2003

2011

2019

2023

Host cities of the African Games

Edition	Year	Host city[8]	Host nation	Opened by	Date	Nations	Athletes	Sports	Events	Most gold medals
1	1965	Brazzaville	Republic of the Congo	Alphonse Massemba	July 18–28	30	2,500	10	54	United Arab Republic
–	1969	Bamako	Mali	Disrupted by military coup
2	1973	Lagos	Nigeria	Yakubu Gowon	January 7–18	36		12	92	Egypt
3	1978	Algiers	Algeria	Houari Boumediene	July 13–28	38	3,000	12	117	Tunisia
4	1987	Nairobi	Kenya	Daniel Arap Moi	August 1–12	41		14	164	Egypt
5	1991	Cairo	Egypt	Hosni Mubarak	September 20–October 1	43		18	213	Egypt
6	1995	Harare	Zimbabwe	Robert Mugabe	September 13–23	46	6,000	19	224	South Africa
7	1999	Johannesburg	South Africa	Thabo Mbeki	September 10–19	51	6,000	20	224	South Africa
8	2003	Abuja	Nigeria	Olusegun Obasanjo	October 5–17	50	6,000	22	332	Nigeria
9	2007	Algiers	Algeria	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	July 11–23	52	4,793	27	374	Egypt
10	2011	Maputo	Mozambique	Armando Guebuza	September 3–18	53	5,000	20	244	South Africa
11	2015	Brazzaville	Republic of the Congo	Denis Nguesso	September 4–19	54	15,000	22	323	Egypt
12	2019	Rabat	Morocco	Prince Moulay Rachid	August 19–31	54	4,386	26	340	Egypt
13	2023	Accra	Ghana	Future event

Sports

35 sports, 2 demonstration sports and 6 Para sports were presented in African Games history until 2019 African Games (also 1991 Diving and 1999 Netball were demonstration).

Number	Event	1965	1973	1978	1987	1991	1995	1999	2003	2007	2011	2015	2019
Main Sports
1	Athletics
2	Cycling
3	Gymnastics	No	No	No	No
4	Shooting	No	No	No	No			No	No		No	No
5	Swimming
Boat Sports
6	Canoeing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No
7	Rowing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No
8	Sailing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No			No	No
Combat Sports
9	Boxing
10	Fencing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
11	Judo
12	Karate	No	No	No	No
13	Kickboxing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No
14	Taekwondo	No	No	No
15	Wrestling
Team Sports
16	Baseball	No	No	No	No	No				No	No	No	No
17	Basketball
18	Field Hockey	No	No	No						No	No	No	No
19	Football
20	Handball
21	Netball	No	No	No	No	No	No	Dem	No	No		No	No
22	Softball	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No	No
23	Volleyball
Racquet Sports
24	Badminton	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
25	Squash	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No	No
26	Table Tennis	No
27	Tennis
Other Sports
28	Archery	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
29	Chess	No	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
30	Cue Sports (Snooker)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
31	Diving	No	No	No	No	Dem		No	No	No	No	No	No
32	Equestrian	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No
33	Petanque	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No
34	Triathlon	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No
35	Weightlifting	No	No		No						No
Demonstration Sports
36	Nzango	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No
37	Pharaoh Boxing	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No
Para Sports ( from 2019 African Para Games )
38	Para Athletics	No	No	No	No	No	No	No					No
39	Goalball	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No
40	Para Powerlifting	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No		No
41	Para Swimming	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No
42	Para Table Tennis	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No	No
43	Wheelchair Basketball	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No

Medal count

50 nations have won at least a single medal in the African Games, from 54 National Olympic Committees participating throughout the history of the Games. 42 nations have won at least a single gold medal. [9]

No.	Nation	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Egypt (EGY)	12	650	504	481	1635
2	Nigeria (NGR)	12	470	428	428	1326
3	South Africa (RSA)	7	397	362	295	1054
4	Algeria (ALG)	12	310	312	400	1022
5	Tunisia (TUN)	12	234	208	242	781
6	Kenya (KEN)	12	134	144	164	442
7	Senegal (SEN)	12	65	71	153	289
8	Ethiopia (ETH)	12	45	54	75	174
9	Cameroon (CMR)	12	41	70	137	248
10	Morocco (MAR)	4	40	44	61	145
11	Ghana (GHA)	9	36	54	95	185
12	Zimbabwe (ZIM)	12	35	43	71	149
13	Ivory Coast (CIV)	12	29	32	65	126
14	Angola (ANG)	9	24	21	41	86
15	Uganda (UGA)	12	22	21	44	87

Legacy

After hearing about the Pan-African Games whilst on a business trip to Congo, Soviet Union-Armenian diplomat Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan got the idea to create the Pan-Armenian Games.

See also

• Sport in Africa
• African Beach Games
• African Youth Games
• Africa Military Games
• Central African Games
• Asian Games
• European Games
• Pan American Games
• Pacific Games

References

1. 9th All African Games Underway in Algeria, International Paralympic Committee (IPC)
2. 27/10/2011 The All Africa Games shall henceforth be organized by ANOCA and the AASC Archived November 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Confederation of African Athletics (CAA)
3. All Africa Games: Popoola hails SCSA dissolution, www.vanguardngr.com
4. "All-Africa Games now renamed "African Games". The Guardian. NAN. September 13, 2015.
5. we Ain’t ready To stage 2019 AAG
6. All Africa Games. FEI. Retrieved on 29 January 2018.
7. Morocco To Host African Games Around The Rings, 25 July 2018
8. ANOCA (archived)
9. https://bestsports.com.br/db/cmppag.php?cmp=79&lang=2

External links

• Background from official website
• Medal winners in various events
• Event at Ultraviewdirectory