A Pan African Olympics
By Michael Boyajian
The idea for the Olympics is to use sports to bring the diverse nations of the world together for a moment of peace every two years. The idea goes back to 776 B.C. when the games began in Ancient Greece and were used to bring together all the independent Greek city states until 393 A.D.
The modern Olympics began in 1896. And instead of one location for the games, as was the case in ancient times, they decided to move the games’ location around the world. Now the idea with the modern games is to promote places and even to raise the standard of living in poorer host nations. They are also inclusive.
These goals can be accomplished with a pan African Olympics. Arguably no single nation there could afford to host the games by itself but a group of countries could pull off an Olympics. A cooperative of nations would allow for resource and cost sharing while lifting up standards of living and changing the very nature of the continent.
So, we have gone from one site location, to different locales to regional Olympics based on an Africa wide games. It is beyond the imagination to think what the games would do for Africa. Take it a step further and think of what future games will do for other global regions like the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucuses, Southeast Asia or Central America.
Regional Olympics would require a slight change to the events schedule for the games. The opening ceremonies would have to be followed by a travel day as the closing ceremonies would be preceded by one. The logical place for the opening and closing ceremonies would be Johannesburg while games would be spread over the continent with say track and field in Kenya and swimming in South Africa just to name a few locales.
Some would say Africa is a risky location. Perhaps, but security can be enhanced through the resource sharing scenario and with contributions from nations who will attend the games. If the entire world pulls for Africa then the games will succeed there and the torch will bring hope to a beleaguered land.
Will they be a perfect Olympics? The key thing to remember in this case is the Olympic creed which reads that the important thing is not to win but to take part.
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