African Games

The African Games, also called the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a big sports event held every four years for athletes from all over Africa. This event is put together by the African Union along with groups that help organize sports in Africa, like the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the Association of African Sports Confederation.

The first African Games took place in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo. Since then, many countries have taken part in this exciting competition. In 1999, the Games started including athletes with disabilities, making it even more inclusive. The International Olympic Committee recognized these Games as an important event, just like the Asian Games and Pan American Games.

In 2012, the name was changed from the All-Africa Games to the African Games. The most recent Games were held in Morocco 2019, with 54 countries competing. In 2023, the 13th edition took place in Accra, Ghana. The goal of these Games is to use sports to help build stronger nations and a better Africa, matching Ghana’s plans for growth and the African Union’s big dream for the future, called Agenda 2063: “Africa We Want.”

History

Modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin thought of the Pan African Games as early as 1920. But the leaders of Africa at that time were worried, thinking that sports might help African countries work together and want to be independent.

Efforts to start the games happened in Algiers, Algeria in 1925 and Alexandria, Egypt in 1928, but they didn’t happen then. Later, in the early 1960s, some African countries organized the Friendship Games. These were held in Madagascar in 1960 and Ivory Coast in 1961. Then, in 1963, Senegal was set to host them, but before that, leaders met and renamed them the Pan African Games. The International Olympic Committee recognized them as important, just like other big games around the world.

The very first Pan African Games were held in July 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo, and are now called the All-Africa Games. About 30 countries and 2,500 athletes took part, with Egypt winning the most medals. Since then, the games have been held every four years in places like Cairo, Harare, Johannesburg, and Abuja. In 2007, Algiers hosted again, making it the first city to host the games more than once. The 2011 games were in Maputo, Mozambique, and Brazzaville hosted again in 2015 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the games.

Participation

See also: Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa

All 53 members of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) can join the African Games. Over the years, all 53 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have sent athletes to compete.

South Africa could not join the Games from the first event in 1965 until the 1995 Games because of Apartheid. It was invited to compete for the first time after Apartheid ended.

Morocco missed the Games from the 1987 event until the 2015 Games due to a political dispute about Western Sahara. In 2018, after Morocco rejoined the African Union, the country agreed to return to the African Games. Later, Rabat, Morocco hosted the 2019 African Games.

Editions

The African Games, also called the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, happen every four years. They are big sports events where athletes from all over Africa come together to compete. The first Games were in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo.

Here are some of the host cities:

• 1965, 2015 in Lagos
• 1978, 2007 in Nairobi
• 1991, 2027 in Harare
• 2031 in an upcoming host city

There were also some unofficial events before the official Games started, like the African Friendship Games in different African countries.

Games	Year	Host	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
–	1969	Bamako	Disrupted by military coup
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

Sports

The African Games have featured many different sports over the years. Up to the 2019 African Games, there have been 35 main sports, plus 2 special sports shown just for a short time, and 6 sports for athletes with special needs. Some sports, like Diving in 1991 and Netball in 1999, were also shown just for a short time.

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
19	Beach volleyball
20	3x3 basketball
21	Cricket
22	Field Hockey
23	Football
24	Handball
25	Netball							Dem
26	Rugby sevens
27	Softball
28	Volleyball
Racquet Sports
29	Badminton
30	Squash
31	Table Tennis
32	Tennis
Other Sports
33	Archery
34	Chess
35	Cue Sports (Snooker)
36	Diving					Dem
37	Equestrian
38	Petanque
39	Triathlon
40	Weightlifting
Demonstration Sports
41	Esports
42	Mixed martial arts
43	Nzango
44	Pharaoh Boxing
45	Pickleball
46	Scrabble
47	Speed-ball
48	Sambo
49	Teqball
Para Sports ( from 2019 African Para Games )
50	Para Athletics
51	Goalball
52	Para Powerlifting
53	Para Swimming
54	Para Table Tennis
55	Wheelchair Basketball

All time Medal Table

Main article: All-time African Games medal table

Many countries from Africa have won medals in the African Games. Over the years, 50 different nations have won at least one medal, and 43 of these nations have won at least one gold medal.

No.	Nation	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Egypt (EGY)	12	753	551	524	1828
2	Nigeria (NGR)	12	517	462	468	1447
3	South Africa (RSA)	7	429	394	337	1160
4	Algeria (ALG)	12	339	350	448	1137
5	Tunisia (TUN)	12	282	270	316	868
6	Kenya (KEN)	12	142	152	185	479
7	Senegal (SEN)	12	69	78	171	318
8	Ghana (GHA)	12	55	83	116	254
9	Ethiopia (ETH)	12	54	62	80	196
10	Morocco (MAR)	4	48	55	74	177

Legacy

After learning about the Pan-African Games during a business trip to Congo, a diplomat from the Soviet Union-Armenia named Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan came up with the idea to start the Pan-Armenian Games.