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 with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the Association of African Sports Confederation.

African Games
Games
1965 1973 1978 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027
Sports
Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoeing Chess Cricket 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 these Games 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 organizing body for the Games. On 26 July 2013, the Extraordinary Assembly of the SCSA held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on the sidelines of the 5th Session of the African Union Conference of Sports Ministers recommended the dissolution of the SCSA and transfer of all its functions, assets & liabilities 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. In 2023, the 13th edition of the game was hosted in Accra, Ghana.^[5][6] It was aim to use sports for national and continental development, aligning with Ghana's transformative agenda and the African Union's Agenda 2063, "Africa We Want."^[7]

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 Ivory Coast (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

See also: Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa

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 1995 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.^[8][9][10]

Editions

1965, 2015

1973

1978, 2007

1987

1991, 2027

1995

1999

2003

2011

2019

2023

2031

Host cities of the African Games

Games	Year	Host[11]	Opened by	Dates	Nations	Competitors			Sports	Events	Top nation
						Men	Women	Total
1	1965	Brazzaville	Alphonse Massemba	18 – 28 July	30			2,500	10	54	Egypt
2	1973	Lagos	Yakubu Gowon	7 – 18 January	36				12	92	Egypt
3	1978	Algiers	Houari Boumediene	13 – 28 July	38			3,000	12	117	Tunisia
4	1987	Nairobi	Daniel Arap Moi	1 – 12 August	41				14	164	Egypt
5	1991	Cairo	Hosni Mubarak	20 September – 1 October	43				18	213	Egypt
6	1995	Harare	Robert Mugabe	13 – 23 September	46			6,000	19	224	South Africa
7	1999	Johannesburg	Thabo Mbeki	10 – 19 September	51			6,000	20	224	South Africa
8	2003	Abuja	Olusegun Obasanjo	5 – 17 October	50			6,000	22	332	Nigeria
9	2007	Algiers	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	11 – 23 July	52			4,793	27	374	Egypt
10	2011	Maputo	Armando Guebuza	3 – 18 September	53			5,000	20	244	South Africa
11	2015	Brazzaville	Denis Nguesso	4 – 19 September	54			15,000	22	323	Egypt
12	2019	Rabat	Prince Moulay Rachid	19 – 31 August	54			4,386	26	343	Egypt
13	2023	Accra	Nana Akufo-Addo	8 – 23 March 2024	52	1,490	1,154	2,644	23	335	Egypt
14	2027	Cairo	President of Egypt (expected)	20 January – 7 February	Future event
15	2031	Kinshasa	President of DR Congo (expected)	TBD	Future event

Unofficial editions

1. 1925 Algiers, Algeria - Not held
2. 1928 Alexandria, Egypt - Not held
3. 1960 African Friendship Games - Madagascar - French-speaking countries of Africa
4. 1961 African Friendship Games - Ivory Coast - French-speaking countries of Africa
5. 1963 African Friendship Games - Senegal - Not held

African Para Games

Main article: African Para Games

Edition	Year	Host city[11]	Host nation	Opened by	Date	Nations	Athletes	Sports	Events	Most gold medals
1	2023	Accra	Ghana	Mustapha Ussif	3–12 September	18	400	3	7	Morocco
2	2027	Cairo	Egypt

Sports

Main article: African Games 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	2023
Main Sports
1	Athletics
2	Cycling
3	Gymnastics
4	Shooting
5	Swimming
Boat Sports
6	Canoeing
7	Rowing
8	Sailing
Combat Sports
9	Arm Wrestling
10	Boxing
11	Fencing
12	Judo
13	Karate
14	Kickboxing
15	Taekwondo
16	Wrestling
Team Sports
17	Baseball
18	Basketball
18	Beach volleyball
19	3x3 basketball
20	Cricket
21	Field Hockey
22	Football
23	Handball
24	Netball							Dem
25	Rugby sevens
26	Softball
27	Volleyball
Racquet Sports
28	Badminton
29	Squash
30	Table Tennis
31	Tennis
Other Sports
32	Archery
33	Chess
34	Cue Sports (Snooker)
35	Diving					Dem
36	Equestrian
37	Petanque
38	Triathlon
39	Weightlifting
Demonstration Sports
40	Esports
40	Mixed martial arts
40	Nzango
41	Pharaoh Boxing
40	Pickleball
40	Scrabble
40	Speed-ball
40	Sambo
42	Teqball
Para Sports ( from 2019 African Para Games )
43	Para Athletics
44	Goalball
45	Para Powerlifting
46	Para Swimming
47	Para Table Tennis
48	Wheelchair Basketball

All time Medal Table

Main article: All-time African Games medal table

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. 43 NOCs have won at least a single gold medal.^[12]

No.	Nation	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Egypt (EGY)	12	753	551	523	1827
2	Nigeria (NGR)	12	517	461	470	1448
3	South Africa (RSA)	7	429	393	337	1159
4	Algeria (ALG)	12	342	353	447	1142
5	Tunisia (TUN)	12	282	270	316	868
6	Kenya (KEN)	12	142	152	185	479
7	Senegal (SEN)	12	69	78	172	319
8	Ghana (GHA)	12	55	83	111	249
9	Ethiopia (ETH)	12	54	62	80	196
10	Morocco (MAR)	4	48	56	74	178

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.^[13]

See also

• Africa portal

• Sport in Africa
• African Youth Games
• African Para Games
• All-Africa University Games
• Asian Games
  • South Asian Games
  • West Asian Games
  • Central Asian Games
  • Southeast Asian Games
• European Games
• Pacific Games
• Pan American Games
  • South American 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. Graphic, Online (2024-03-11). "13th African Games open in Accra".
6. "13th African Games". www.accra2023ag.com. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
7. "Aims and Objectives". www.accra2023ag.com. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
8. Chanda, Davies M.M (April 15, 2018). "'We ain't ready to stage 2019 AAG'". Times of Zambia.
9. All Africa Games. FEI. Retrieved on 29 January 2018.
10. "Morocco To Host African Games". Around The Rings. 25 July 2018. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
11. ANOCA (archived)
12. "BEST sports DB - All Africa Games". bestsports.com.br. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
13. Elliott, Raffi (2019-08-07). "Pan-Armenian Games Open in Show of Unity". The Armenian Weekly. Retrieved 2024-04-24.

External links

• Background from official website (archived 22 July 2013)
• Medal winners in various events (archived 27 April 2006)
• Event at Ultraviewdirectory (archived 7 October 2011)