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 Bolanachi, 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==