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Africa At The 11^th World Sport For All Congress in Havana Cuba in 2006/ relating it to promotion of Traditional Sports in Africa.

TAFISA, means Trim and Fitness International Sport For All Association. It is the International umbrella body of which Sport For All Nigeria is a member. 

TAFISA is an affiliate of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and had what was called IOC Sport for All Commission under the then chairmanship of Walther Troger of the IOC as at 2006, I can understand, the structure required in organizing congresses of TAFISA, was that there were two types of congresses. First, there was a biennial congress of TAFISA under the auspices of IOC. Then there was also a congress annually by TAFISA itself (as at 2006).

The 2006 congress of TAFISA was the 11^th World Sport For All Congress in Havana Cuba and was held under the auspices of IOC.

This 2006 congress in Havana Cuba, had its main theme as: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGIES with papers presented and compiled into a form of book containing all the papers presented at the congress.

According to the records of the organizers of the meet, not less than one hundred and five countries from the five continents of the world, participated in the congress

In Europe, countries like Albania, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy etc. attended.

In Asia countries like China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, Malaysia etc. participated at the congress.

In North America, countries like the United State of America (USA), Canada, Mexico etc. attended.

In South America, Cuba, the host, was enthusiastically supported by Venezuela which had the largest number of delegates from outside Cuba to attend the congress. Countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina etc. were present. Australia was also there.

In Africa, eighteen countries attended. They were as follows, with the number of delegates from each country.

1. Angola 8 delegates.
2. Botswana 3 delegates
3. Burkina Faso 1 delegate
4. Burundi 1 delegate
5. Cote D’voire 1 delegate
6. Eritrea 1 delegate
7. Ghana 1 delegate
8. Kenya 1 delegate
9. Lesotho 1delegate
10. Mauritius 1 delegate 
11. Morocco 1 delegate
12. Namibia 1 delegate 
13. Nigeria 3 delegates
14. Seychelles 1 delegate
15. South Africa 8 delegates
16. Swaziland 2 delegates
17. Tunisia 1 delegate and
18. Zambia 1 delegate 

Yes, I heard you. You were wondering aloud, “how is TAFISA CONGRESS related to “African Traditional Sports” yes, they relate with the following background.

In 1992, TAFISA organized the first world Festival of Traditional Sports in Bonn, Germany.

In 1996 the second World Festival of Traditional sports was organized by TAFISA in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2000, TAFISA organized the 3^rd World Festival of Traditional Sports in Hannover, Germany in which I was one of the 11 man delegation that represented Nigeria. Nigeria presented some Nigerian traditional dances at the festival.

In 2004, TAFISA’s 4^th World Festival of Traditional Sports billed for Montreal, Canada was cancelled. TAFISA later organized the quadrennial festival in Bussan, Korea in 2008. Before the cancellation of the 2004 festival billed for CANADA, TAFISA had already approved two Nigerian Sports, Abula and Africa Billiards as recognized events for the festival.

The participation of the Africa countries in this 11^th World Congress of Sport for All, created opportunities for the Nigerian delegates to mobilize delegates from Africa for the then brand new  www.afrotradosport.com and the Sport for All training program coming up in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2007. The African delegates who related with the Nigerian delegates enthusiastically, cordially and brotherly promised to assist in mobilizing African traditional Sports in their countries for placement in the Afrotradsosports website. We had very good discussions with the South African delegates, Eritrean, Kenyan, Ghanaian, Seychelles. Lesothoan and almost all the delegates from the 18 countries from Africa hoping to partner with www.afrotradosports.com. After a few years, afrotradosports went off. It however came back with renewed figure in recent past..  

Giving you this information from my position, I am very aware that Mrs. Comfort Nwankwo, a Nigerian, the then Secretary-General of Sport for All Nigeria, was the Chairman of Traditional Sports Committee in TAFISA. This was a great advantage to Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. However, it was also a big challenge for Africa and Nigeria to give her support in making the 4^th World Festival of Traditional Sports coming up in Busan, Korea a wonderful success. As the Chairman of the committee in Traditional Sports and as a Vice Chairman in TAFISA, she had a lot to do by attending all the meetings necessary to justify her choice in those two positions in TAFISA. She needed to have home support financially and logistically. 

The trip of the three delegates for this World Congress was able to get support in terms of two free air tickets for to and fro Cuba to support Sport For All Nigeria to  attend the congress. It was highly appreciated that this great support was from Air France. Bravo Air France and bon voyage always. Amen.

Let us look at the performance of the African delegates at the congress. Really Africa did not go to the congress as a regional group. They went as individual countries. In fact some went through Sport for All of their countries. Some went as members of their National Olympic Committee, some went representing their sports councils, Ministries of Education and all that. The African delegates had one thing in common, AFRICA, their motherland. So the delegates had affinity and affection for one another. They met in cafes to appreciate themselves. They went together and shared ideas together. They also mixed freely and happily with other delegates from all parts of the world. 

At the congress seminar, Nigeria had a good show, because the second paper presented at the seminar mentioned Nigeria and the leader of the Nigerian delegation was wonderful in responding to issues raised.

During the question and answer session, some journalists sought audience to interview the leader of the Nigerian delegation. The leader of Nigerian delegation to the congress was Mrs. Ize Matebeze. The second delegate of the Nigerian contingent was not just an ordinary Executive member, she was a Vice President of TAFISA. She was highly involved in the boardroom firework, of TAFISA which started this congress from board meeting of TAFISA in Buenos Aires, Argentina just before the congress proper kicked off in Havana, Cuba.

She was not in the congress for the congress sake, but there for executive work to cross all the’t’s and dot all the ‘i”s to ensure the reality of the 4^th, World Festival of Traditional Sports and Games and to finalize arrangements for TAFISA Certified Leadership Course billed for the first quarter of 2007 in Nigeria. That certified course took place and was very successful. The third delegate from Nigeria, your Afrotradosports man, Mallam Elias Yusuf. 

First, he was the only man among the three. Secondly, he is traditional sports biased and thirdly, he read Physical and Health Education at the University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria. Fourthly, it was in Cuba that he actually confirmed the website of www.afrotradosports.com which his web man was working on before he left Nigeria for the congress in Cuba. 

So, being a sport practitioner, the congress was a great challenge to him. I am  writing about him, otherwise this report will not be complete. So in summary, he asked three questions, on three separate papers, he was addressed as African man when the moderator was trying to clarify, that he was the one given the authority to speak when many hands were up in the area of the hall, where he was sitting. He was probably one of the most sought after for photographs because of his African Traditional attires.

All African delegates made great impact as some of them presented papers at the congress.       

By the level of participation of Africa in this congress few years ago in a sport event that was not football, athletic, basketball or the likes, it is possible for Africa to get together to promote our African Indigenous Sports in the spirit of New Africa Initiatives and “wakie wakie”, the theme of the Mascot of 8^th All Africa Game, Abuja 2003.

This “wakie wakie” junction so to say, now propels afrotradosports.com to break the great news on this platform. At longlast, THE GREAT EXPECTATION, this time around is not the one by Charles Dickens but by African lovers of Indigenous Sports of Africa that have been longing to see African Traditional Sports in the right perspective of this modern era, now have their dreams materializing.

I am fantastically happy to welcome the arrival: UNION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SPORTS AND GAMES (UATSG), the continental body to govern, administer, control, organize, promote etc African Traditional/Indigenous Sports and Games. UATSG, Welcome! Welcome!! Welcome!!! You are heartily welcome by afrotradosports.com. Bravo AFRICA! 

A humble and great salute to all EXECUTIVES of UATSG. You are welcome. Afrotradosports.com is using the write-up on AFRICA AT THE 11^TH WORLD SPORT FOR ALL CONGRESS to announce the arrival of UATSG and to deduce a logic that if Africa could participate that very much at that conference that took place in the continent of South America in the year 2006, now been at home inside our own continent, we must do better. No more slumbering, no-sit-down-look and no antagonism. Certainly, by the internet post of 22^nd April, 2020 from the contact person: Chief Michael Shamsu Mustapha, The Secretary General of UATSG, from the Secretariat of UASTSG in Sierra Leone, West Africa, African Traditional Indigenous Sports and Games are no longer sheep without shepherd. We in Afrotradosports say: We congratulate you, we congratulate ourselves. 

Without any doubt, this is one of the wonderful breakthroughs for African Traditional Sports in this decade of growth, development and progress for our African Sports.     

I hereby dedicate this write-up to the announcement of the arrival of UATSG on this afrotradosport platform as the real “welcome party” write-up is coming in no distant time.

Thank you.
Mallam Elias Yusuf  

MAY AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SPORTS AND GAMES RECORD WONDERFUL
BREAKTHROUGHS IN THIS 2020 – 2030 DECADE (PART 4)
PART A:
INTRODUCTION
In 1997 – 2001, I was the Vice Chairman of Nigerian Association of Traditional
Sports (NATS) and the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the
Association, enthusiastically working under the leadership of dynamic, very
understanding, highly approachable and forwarding looking Dr. Haskee
Dantanee, the third Chairman of NATS. An innovative idea was evolved as we
worked in a conducive atmosphere, cordial and progress laden relationship
with our very hardworking, indefatigable and highly devoted Secretary
General, Mrs. Rose Adiole.

A form of working and standing order came up. As we normally have our
National Sports Festivals in Nigeria biennially, we mobilized the group to have
coaching clinics for Coaches and Technical Officials biennially too. The coaching
clinics to precede the National Sports Festivals while the year in between the
biennial Festivals should hold a National Seminar/symposium which would
treat our policy formulation by using intellectual capacity to drive giant strides
for the rapid progress of our lovely association on the basis of both general and
specific issues. We dreamt great for our association.
Then came the year 2000 which was a festival year and Olympic Games’ year
and the TAFISA year for the 3 rd World Festival of Traditional Sports which
dovetailed into EXPO 2000 in Hannover Germany. We supposed to have only
coaching clinic as our standing order, obeying our calendar for the year.
However, as the year 2000 Olympic Games, taking place in Sydney Australia
was fast approaching, an organization simply called NASCA approached us in
(NATS) for a symposium to commemorate the Olympic Year. Initially, we
looked at it as not following our standing order, but as the pressure piled up
and we discovered that the first Chairman of the NATS, Alh. Dr. G.N Hamza was
going to be the Chairman and Guest of Honour of the opening day of the
symposium and it was not an everyday affair to be that lucky to have a
Presidential Aspirant in your country to be the Chairman of your occasion, we
gave in. I was given a topic to handle and some important dignitaries were
given their own topics too. I can still vividly remember that the Secretary of
Nigeria Universities Games Association (NUGA) was among the dignitaries that

delivered paper. A VIP from National Council of Arts and Culture was also billed
to deliver a topic too. The symposium became a national and international
event instantal. It held at the National Institute for Sports National Stadium,
Surulere, Lagos Nigeria for two days. At the opening day, I delivered my paper
in the presence of a Presidential Aspirant to the seat of Government, Aso Rock,
Abuja Nigeria.
Around November 2020, I bumped into the copy of my topic of the symposium
from my archives. I was amazed when I went through it. I thought what should
I do with it? A twenty-year anniversary of the write-up came up in my mind
and the desire to put it on afrotradosports.com was it. Incidentally the Olympic
Games for 2020 in Tokyo had moved forward to 2021. So I decided that I was
going to release it on afrotradosports.com word-for-word. Not only that, I
would not re-type, I would scan it and deliver it like that as this paper must
have been waiting in inter regnum to be featured on afrotradosports.com
Please see one of our humble contributions to the growth and promotion of
Traditional Sports in Nigeria and Africa, 21years ago.
Here it is, featuring as Part 4 of “May African Traditional Sports and Games
Record Wonderful Breakthroughs in this 2020/2030 Decade”(as PART B of this
episode. See it below).

PART C: UPDATES ON THE PAPER      

Definitely, a paper delivered twenty-one years ago must have some updates. I will only treat very few that are very obvious especially in keeping the records straight.

1. The Nigerian National Sports Festival originally billed for Kano was at the last moment shifted to Bauchi and it became BAUCHI 2000 for the best reasons known to the organizers of the festival. BAUCHI 2000 was very peaceful and successful. It was there we started Ayo doubles and mixed doubles on the freestyles Ayo, rules and regulations. 
2. The Indomie ABULA CLUB was launched with pomp and pageantry. It was very successful. Shortly after the launching, there was a change of guard at the management level of the group which brought a lull on the activities of Indomie ABULA CLUB. This became a bit enlongated and stretched to link and ancor with the would be second edition of the Lagos Abula League which was going to enlist the Indomie ABULA CLUB as a team. This second edition would not go on as there was no sponsors. Those who carried out the first edition did so through volunteering and many of those who volunteered then got Abula jobs as coaches outside Lagos State and environ. The teams were also made up of secondary school boys that were mostly assisted to transport themselves to and from National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos from wherever they were living around Lagos and metropolis of Lagos.

Now, Abula is now a household name in Nigeria and African Traditional Sports Plans are now underway to resuscitate Lagos Abula League and to institute Abula National League.

When these plans materialize, the Indomie Group will be re-connected to rekindle, the light of friendliness/friendship that lit between Abula and Indomie that led to the formation of INDOMIE. ABULA CLUB. Bravo indomie, you remain our friend-in ABULA GAME.

3. Abula a no-contact game

This paper presented in the year 2000 is a clear evidence that Abula had been designated as a “no-contact game” 21years ago. 

When Abula was designated as a no-contact game, nobody envisaged Covid-19 that entered Nigeria in the year 2020 which accorded some favours for sports to be classified as no-contact sports. Social distancing is inbuilt in the abula court and the surface of the abula bat is the only surface that makes contact with the ball when the ball is already in play. Although the no-contact designation is not perfect like the other no contact sports too. So Abula, in four by four or two by two qualifies as a no-contact game. 

“Hello Lagos, SPORTS IS BACK!” Organized by Lagos State Sports Commission on 9^th – 10^th of September 2020 to arouse the sports live of Lagos despite the COVID-19 hurdles placed on sporting activities of the people in our environment and society. 

Abula was one of these selected no-contact rackets sports we had for the program, Abula, Badminton, Squash and Table Tennis. There were five board games that took part in the program. They were Ayo, Chess, Darts, Monopoly and Scrabble. This is a great credit to Lagos State Sports Commission  for promoting our African indigenous Sports of Abula and Ayo just like their developed counter parts side by side, shoulder to shoulder. This is great in our society. This also gives credence to the slogan on Abula in this recent time: ABULA MOVING STEADILY ACROSS BORDERS. Abula is actually penetrating steadily, the sport live of our societies and across physical, sychological, social, cognitive etc borders since it was approved for the school curriculum in Nigeria together with other indigenous sports of Ayo, Kokawa/Gidigbo (traditional wrestling) and Langa more than fifteen years ago. 

In the “African we want”, our African indigenous sports should be promoted shoulder to shoulder with other sports of the world. 

Just like football has its main game of 11 aside and have other derivatives like 5-aside, volleyball has her own six aside, the main game and has the beach volleyball of two aside, as another entity so Abula has the main game of four aside and other varieties, one of which is the two aside called two by two Abula.  

With these three major updates on the paper, the paper remains as fresh as ever and as relevant as necessary. The paper also gives us the idea that sensitization on waking up our African environment in the promotion of African Traditional Sports had started to gain ground in Nigeria for quite sometime now. The platform: afrotradosports.com is a great medium to update us in what had been done in recent past on this. This is a sense of history on the growth and development of our African Traditional Sports. There are still some papers of the past that will still come on stream as they are as fresh and relevant in mobilizing and mentoring all of us as regards African Traditional Sports and Games.

As this being part 4 of May African Traditional Sports and Games record wonderful breakthroughs in this 2020/2030 decade, afrotradosports.com hereby consolidates on the main goal of the paper which was to commemorate year 2020 as Olympic year and Olympic Games of Sydney Australia (2000), this release of the paper on afrotradosports will now be used to commemorate the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan in this 2021 even though it was originally scheduled to be TOKYO OLYMPIC 2020 as a kind of TRUCE had to be observed as a result of COVID-19 PANDEMIC. 

We in afrotradosports.com sincerely wish all of us on earth HAPPY TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES IN ADVANCE. As a great lover of the Olympic Games, I admire a lot, the contributions of every participant but I am particularly attracted to the Africans and their fabulous performances. Certainly the Africans wherever countries they represented, have made great contributions in raising the standard, glamour, colour, strength, speed, style, sychic, tactics, skills etc connected with the Olympic Sports of the Olympic Games. I urge the Africans to increase the tempo, the volume and goodness of their contributions with spirit of fair play and excellent sportsmanship.

Just like anytime I met Chioma Ajumwa in a function, what always came to my mind was how she “run up like cheetah, planted her foot accurately on the board (take off board) like a post office stamp man stamping the middle of the stamp on a letter, she sprang up from the board like falcon, flew and landed like a dove and glided forward off the danger zone beautifully, making the assurance doubly sure, that she did not fall back to diminish or destroy the great jump she had just made. There and then the white flag sprang out and history was made at Atlanta 1996. If I were a trainer, the athletes I am training on long jump would have nicknamed me “get me a “Chioma Jump” because the emphasis and frequency of the request would have made that phrase become a slogan for the group. 

That style of jump is unique and it deserves to be labelled “Chioma Jump”. That is the level in which Africans and Africans in Diaspora have contributed to the growth and development of the modern Olympic Games and the Olympic Sports. Hence, Africa should become a PRODUCER of a good number of Olympic Sports like the other continents of the world Q.E.D.

Thank you.

Mallam Elias Yusuf 

NB:          

Happy birthday to Abula too on 08-02-2021. Abula was first fully and successfully played on 08-02-1984 at Idi-Araba high School, Mushin, Lagos Nigeria. 

PART A: OUTLINE OF SUGGESTED TEMPLATE OF AFRICAN INDIGENOUS SPORTS IN THE SPORTS’ POLICIES IN EACH  OF ALL THE COUNTRIES IN AFRICA 

MEMORANDUM FROM MALLAM ELIAS YUSUF ON SPORTS INDUSTRY POLICY OF FEDERAL MINISTRY OF YOUTH & SPORTS (NIGERIA)

1. Promotion of Traditional/Indigenous/Ethno Sports in all our schools from Kindergarten through primary, secondary, colleges, polytechnic to university, obeying “UNESCO” Verona Declaration (2015) on Traditional Sports in schools.
2. Promoting TSG through tourism e.g through Royal Fathers, Traditional festivals, e.g The Olojo Festival of Ooni of Ife, Argungun Fishing Festival, Osun-Oshogbo Festival, Ofala Festival etc Promoting through V.I.Ps.
3. (a) Patriotism Agenda for Africans: (a) To be in agenda 20/30 & Agenda  2063 with the theme: REPLACING THE GUNS WITH OUR INDIGENOUS SPORTS 

(b) Promoting our sports to be:

(i)  In the (All) Africa Games

(ii) In the Commonwealth Games 

(iii) In the Olympic Games 

4. National Agenda: e.g National Sports Festivals of each of the countries (in all the 54 countries in Africa)
5. Recreation and Leisure 
6. Decoration, Exhibition, especially in International Expos, Ministry of Interior Parks, forest reserves and reformation premises, National Day Events etc..  
7. Infrastructure: In schools, stadia, parks, gardens etc
8. To be part of High Profile National Sports Bodies e.g Army Sports, Naval Sports, Airforce Sports, (Armed Forces Sports) Police Games, NUGA, NACEGA, NIPOGA YOUTH GAMES, NSSF etc
9. Research Chairs/Awards etc
10. Adopting and adapting our sports for fitness training & national fitness program (index)  
11. Production of Coaches and Technical Officials through Train the Trainers Coaching Clinics, Routine Sports Association Clinics/Institutes etc
12. (a) African Confederations on each sport and Multisports Federation for African Indigenous Sports. Regional Sports Bodies e.g ECOWAS 
13. Standardization of Rules and Regulations to continental level and world exports level for our Traditional Sports.
14. Promotion of local leagues e.g Lagos Abula League, National and Continental Leagues.
15. Writing of Books especially compendium or encyclopedia of African Traditional Sports and Games.  
16. Sports Museum or creating a section for our indigenous sports in existing museums.
17. Sports Institute(s) on African Traditional Sports and Games (TSG).
18. Encouraging film makers to promote African Indigenous Sports through their films.
19. Hosting of Traditional Sports Festivals, championships at Regional, Continental and World levels. 
20. Modernization of the sports for greater acceptability and promotion.
21. Budgeting to really promote these sports to world level (standard)
22. Appointing Minister of State, Sports to handle our Traditional Sports  for each country in Africa etc. 
23. Mentoring: Let us have mentors i.e. elders and sponsors to mentor on our indigenous sports 

Thank you.

Mallam Elias Yusuf 

President of TSFN (2001 – 2005) 

The Jury, Traditional Sports 

Demonstrated at the 8^th

All Africa Games, Abuja 2003

The inventor of Abula Game

And African Billiards 

Blogger: afrotradosports.com

08023289082, email: abulaman1984@gmail.com

16/10/2020

PART B: (LET US EXPANTIATE ON THE OUTLINE) 

1. Promotion Through Education Sector 

The template of (Afrotradosports) African Traditional Sports in our Schools. Let each and every country in Africa obey “2015 UNESCO Verona Declaration on Traditional Sports and the Antananarivo recommendations on TSG. By so doing every country will practice and promote Traditional Sports on a more consistent global/uniform standard, thereby carrying out the followings (i.e each country):

1. Prevents extinction of our Traditional Sports 
2. Promotes existence (each country identifies their TSG 
3. Promotes documentation of her indigenous sports 
4. Promotes improvement 
5. Promotes popularity 
6. Promotes daily practice and usage 
7. Promotes history of the sports
8. Promotes knowledge of the sports 
9. Promotes pride of the sports
10. Promotes solving problems of the sports
11. Promotes modern version of each of the sports 
12. Promotes advancement of the sports
13. Promotes researches on the sports 

UNESCO’s Verona Declaration Wants: 

O Promotion of Intral mural competitions inside each school 

Promotion of inter school competitions at the local, state and national school competitions on Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) 

P Each country will promote cognitive development on the sports through school internal and external examinations.

Q Promotes curricular (i.e knowledge) of activities on the sports 

R Promotes recreational activities in the school with the sports wherever possible.

S Promotes inter-country championships.  

T Promotes provision of facilities on the sports.

U Promotes standardizing facilities on the sports and have agenda/plan of number of years to promote particular sports before promoting them to a higher level. 

V Grouping the sports for promotion 

W Books on the sports

X ICT on the sports

Y Streaming on the sports

Z afrotradosports TV etc 

2. Using Tourism Outlets To Promote Our Traditional/Ethno Sports (In Nigeria As An Example)

These tourism outlets are varied and dynamic. A good number of them include:

1. Through Traditional Rulers or through traditional events/festivals. These two-in-one outlets always or in most cases go together e.g 

1. Olojo festival of the Ooni of Ife in Osun State, Nigeria. The Ooni could adopt Ayo, Africa Billiards, Traditional  Wrestling or multiple traditional Sports to go with the festival. Could start a week to the festival proper. (However, the Royal fathers can host the sports championship separately).
2. The Osun Osogbo Festival could adopt any of the Traditional Sports as part of the festival and provide a permanent pavilion for the arena of the championship.
3. The Igue Festival of the Oba of Benin or The Oba of Benin Traditional Sports Championship which debuted in 2001
4. The Oba of Lagos Ayo National Championship which debuted in 1997 
5. The Ofala festival, of the Obi of Onitsha, Anambra State, Eze Njamanze Traditional Sports, Owerri, Imo State etc 
6. The Argungun fishing festival  had already started having some traditional sports during the fishing festival. However, this need to be highly stepped up. We also have the Yawuri Emirate Festival etc the other countries in African should identify the structured platforms that can accommodate and promote Traditional Sports like those stated above.

2. (i) V.I.P: Traditional/Ethno Sports Festival e.g Current Heads of State’s cup, Governor’s cup, Chairman of Local Government Traditional Sports Championship, Senators, House of Representative Members etc

(ii) Former HeadS of States living or dead, sports philanthropists etc

Companies e.g Conglomerate brands, International Brands, Up and coming companies etc, country clubs e.g Club De Royal, Ayegbaju-Ekiti. 

3. Patriotic Agenda:

Patriotism: Pride: This is putting our Traditional/Ethno Sports to be in flagship champions e.g

1. Be in the (All) Africa Games 
2. Be in the Commonwealth Games 
3. Be in the Olympic Games 

This is very important for the children of Africa because as at today (2021 January), none of African Indigenous Sports is even a scoring event at the (All) Africa Games not to talk of Commonwealth Games or the Olympic Games. We should note that the five interlocking rings with five different colours depicting the five major continents of the world as the symbol of the Olympic Games, our own black ring, placed in the centre is a barren ring so to say as there is no African Indigenous Sports in the Olympic Games. 

4. National Agenda:

Each of our (54) countries in Africa (as at today 2021) should have sports policy that will not just accommodate her own Traditional/Indigenous/Ethnosports but should be ready to seriously document, develop, promote and modernize the sports for easier and attractive acceptance by the youths and for export to other African countries and the world over. The sports should be actively engaged in the National Sports Festivals of such countries and be widely and actively publicized. Intellectualism should be actively used to develop and promote the sports.  

Our Traditional Sports should be segregated into classes and be graded too. Some will be on high priority list and some on reserved list or preservation list and depending on the seriousness of the countries that have them.

The classification will be on (a) combat/martial arts (b) ball games (c) seed games (d) mat games, recreational games, games of low organization etc or leisure games etc. Experts on taxonomy of sports could be involved.

5. Recreation And Leisure

Some of our indigenous sports are very good for recreational activities apart from their quality for high quality championships. It is just like as you can recreate with football, yet it is a very high flagship championship sport. Table tennis is also used for recreation yet it is in class of the very high championship, in fact, flagship championship. We have sports like Ayo, Abula  African Billiards, Langa etc in that group in Nigeria and many African countries have theirs too.

6. Decoration and Exhibition

The genre of our indigenous sports should be among the junctions/round about decorations. They should be included for Exhibitions at International Expos etc. They could also be at the headquarters of our foreign missions e.g Ayo Boards with seeds, African Billiards boards with seeds etc.

7. Infrastructure: 

The infrastructure of our indigenous sports in Nigeria should be constructed at the centres of our National Parks for visitors to recreate with e.g Ayo Boards and pavilion, African Billiards Board and Pavilion, Abula courts (and equipment). Traditional wrestling and Dambe Boxing courts and open field for Langa. Other countries should also exhibit their own sports at such spots in their countries.

Just imagine you are a Nigerian, you are in Nairobi and find your way to Nairobi National Park, you bump into “PAVILION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SPORTS” on an acre of Land. You pleasantly further discover, the stand of Ayo  and African Billiards in the pavilion or you are from South Africa and you get to Lagos Nigeria and you are told there is a secondary school nearby where they play Dibeke or you are a Ghanaian and you are taken to DRAFT PLAYING CENTRE in Surulere Area of Lagos or you are a Kenyan and you find yourself inside the Millenium Park, Abuja in Nigeria, you find yourself face to face with FIX THE RESERVE, guess how you will feel? These feelings can be brought to practical existence if we Africans, I mean our leaders, include our African Traditional Indigenous Sports in the ubiquitous bilateral relation agreements and implement the agreements faithfully and without delay. Certainly we can enjoy them practically not through imaginations. It will not be a day dreaming matter. We can make it happen when we are finally up and doing on our indigenous sports. 

So our National Parks can be very veritable sources of promoting African Traditional Indigenous Sports. 

For our indigenous/Ethno Sports to grow and develop there must be infrastructure for them especially in our schools, stadia, parks, gardens, our homes and specially dedicated centres or institutes for them.

If they have no facilities, the interested individuals would have no chance to practice and master them. Their facilities in our Tourist centres like forest reserve parks, Ikogosi warm and cold water tourist park, (Ekiti State) cultural centres like National Arts Theaters, Iganmu National Park, Abuja  etc. Definitely, the number one place to put their facilities are our schools. However the monuments in their best form will be the pavilions for them, stadia for them or the institutes for them. 

These sports are to be included or embraced by High Profile Sport Bodies such as Army Sports, Naval Sports, Airforce Sports (Armed Forces Sports) Police Games, NUGA, NIPOGA, NACEGA, NSSF, YOUTH GAMES etc. This will make our indigenous sports to be fully embedded in our society and communities all over. I can tell you with absolute confidence that Abula and Ayo featured as scoring events at the 7^th NAVAL GAMES at Abeokuta

in 2005. It is Bravo! To The Nigerian Navy. 

 

9. Research Chairs/Awards:

Awards for researches on our indigenous sports should be instituted in our universities to encourage researches and academic activities for excellent advancements in our indigenous sports. It is just very necessary for us to go the extra mile if we are going to move very fast in moving our indigenous sports forward. We are for both the usual and extra plus ways to get there because we are too much behind others as regards sports development on the globe, especially our ethno sports/TSG.  

10. Indigenous Sports For Fitness Program: 

Adapting and adopting our indigenous sports for fitness training and national fitness program should be worked upon. Some sports of low organization may just be amalgamated to become fused together in order to be used as fitness sports. This is also where we need the universities to research into our Traditional Sports and adapting some of them as hybrid with sports from within the continent of Africa. It is possible to make fitness index for Africa by wedging these sports together from Africa indigenous background.

11. Production of Coaches:

Production of Coaches and Technical Officials through projects like (1) Train the Trainers. Some years back when the Federal Ministry of Education (Nigeria) approved Traditional Sports to be in the National School Curriculum by the 48^th Session of National Council on Education, a train the trainers to train Teachers of PHE on the approved indigenous sports, was planned but later abandoned.

All Africa countries should be able to Train their coaches and Technical officials to be versed on the theory and practice of their sports. 

1. Encouragement of continental confederations on sport to sport basis and Multisports continental bodies should exist to multiply proficiency on our Traditional Sports. The multi-sports body will organize a kind of continental Olympics for many African Traditional Sports while each confederation will be the inbuilt organization to control the standard of such specific sports that have been able to graduate to have confederations in Africa. Such progress are also dynamic and political and the bodies will view such to decide for the next level of such sports.

12. African Confederation for each sport and Multisports

Continental bodies of African Traditional Sports will accelerate the growth and development of the sports. 

13. Standardization Of Rules And Regulations     

At continental level and world level. Definitely, some sports/games will be at continental level and their rules would have to be moderated and upgraded 

Some sports have gotten very standard rules and regulations that would not give Africa continental body any headache to moderate while some need serious moderations to upgrade them. The six sports in the Rule Book of Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria are very advanced and standard. Nigeria must work on the others that have not entered the rule book. 

The number one problematic sport in Africa may be our Traditional Wrestling that can be taken care off with the marging of their divigent rules together and removing contradictory ones and give them a name like done at the Olympic Games where we have Grecoroman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, so Africa can have Afrotrado wrestling. Doing this may make African Wrestling get to the Olympic Games faster than expected.

Regional Sports Bodies e.g ECOWAS and others will help us to grow faster. Technical bodies on such selected sports should be very dynamic but caring in making rules that will make the sports go forward and retain their uniqueness.

Really, there are some sports in which their rules and regulations had already reached topmost perfection e.g the rules and regulations of Draft (which is said to be a Ghanaian Game which I also know to be very homely in Nigeria over the years. The rules of Draft are very few and may not be easily subjected to serious changes. So may be other sports. However, new good ideas can be accommodated and the technocrats on these rules must be highly knowledgeable and experienced on the sports in which they are involved and can also injects other good ideas as they say “a good reason must give way for better”.

ATTESTATION: The players, Technical Officials, Coaches, Stakeholders and Fans will attest to changes if they are better by comparisons.  

We must look forward for ideal people that will give us idea rules that will make our Traditional indigenous Sports move up and forward but should retain their uniqueness, identity, good flow and the joy in them being magnified. The intellectual property where applicable should be respected.   

14. Promotion Of Local And Continental Leagues 

This is important for our sports to be alive all the year round. Our Youths will be usefully engaged in them and this will promote peace and progress in our Youths and with our own indigenous sports of which they will be very proud of.   

15. Books On Our Traditional Sports:

Books are great sources of Documentation and Knowledge. Let there be encouragement on writing books on our Traditional/indigenous Sports. The first book on our Nigerian/African Indigenous Sports was on ABULA and AFRICAN BILLIARDS written by Mallam Elias Yusuf and published in 1990 and eventually the compilation and publishing of three editions of the Rules and Regulations of our Traditional Sports in Nigeria (1998, 2000 and 2003 respectively), there is the book on Langa by Alhaji Bako Abdu. Many PHE teachers, writers and publishers have used the sources of our rule books to write texts on traditional sports for the secondary School Education level in Nigeria along with other sport topics. Traditional Sports being in our school curriculum encourages writers to write texts on Traditional Sports as they write on other Global Sports. Even far from that, I have seen Social Studies and English Language textbooks writing on our Traditional Sports in Nigeria. This is great, we should be looking forward towards African Encyclopedia on African indigenous Sports in the near future. This can and should happen in this decade 2020/2030 for Africa Traditional/Indigenous Sports as ECOWAS Specific Regulations for African Traditional Wrestling was released in 2011. 

16. Sports Museum 

Let have sports museums or let have parts of existing museums devoted to our own Traditional Sports or we create department for our Traditional Sports in the existing museums. It is  possible. When I visited Tanzania, through EKO PROJECT of Lagos State Government, Nigeria (2013) I saw something that is like Ayo board (Mbao) in the museum where the motor cars used by President Julius Nyerere were in display. This was very encouraging to me because I am a follower of African Traditional Sports. In Nigeria, do we have Ayo Boards and seeds in our Museums? 

17. Sport Institutes On African Traditional/Indigenous Sports

Individual countries in African should set up such institutes in their own countries to take care of the peculiar situations in their countries and there should be international institutes of African Traditional Sports at least in each Region of Africa or any country that can do it. In Nigeria, we have a good number of our Indigenous/Traditional Sports that have grown beyond Nigeria and I am very much aware that the National Institute for Sports in Lagos Nigeria is already producing Higher Diploma Graduates in Traditional Sports, but it is not too much for us to have a full fledge/Indigenous International Institute for African Traditional/Indigenous Sports. Nigeria is a great leader in African Traditional Sports and must not relent on such an idea.  The economy, population, background knowledge and general interest of Nigeria can conveniently accommodate it. 

18. Encouraging Film Makers to promote African Traditional/indigenous Sports in their films. This is a great way to encourage the populace in Africa and other parts of the world to emulate our sports. They will get the picture of our sports in standard forms. Writer of films should create beautiful scenes and in fine sceneries/environment on our Traditional Indigenous sports to give us satisfaction and education (knowledge)

19. Hosting African Traditional Indigenous Sports And Games Festivals/Championships/Seminars etc

These should be done by states, countries, individuals and companies,  VIPs to support and sponsor the hosting. We should have continental championships, festivals and world festival of Traditional Sports. As we have TAFISA which has organized world festival of Traditional Sports in 1992 in Bonn (Germany) in 1996 in Bankok Thailand, in 2000; Hannover in Germany (the 2004 festival in CANADA was counseled), 2008 in Busan Korea etc. This is a sign that Africa is alreading lagging behind in hosting Traditional Sports again. We must wake up. 

By hosting our own Traditional Sports, we will get great upward development and progress and our Youths will be employed empowered, and their spirit will receive high elation. It is something great to be looking up to in Africa. This will arouse the enthusiasm of our Youths. 

We should note that countries that host African Traditional Indigenous Sports are making great contributions in helping to remove Africans from the dismal  level in which we are carrying other peoples’ sports on our heads and sadly dragging our own sports with our feet on the ground. As we have embraced other peoples sports, we should equally practice ad promote our own sports. 

In 1930, the City of Hamiton (in Canada), which is now recognized as the first host of the Commonwealth Games, provided $30,000 as traveling costs for the eleven British Empire countries that participated in the 1^st Commonwealth Games which was then called British Empire Games. This is History. African countries should jostle to host and pioneer the promotion of African Indigenous Sports. In ancient Greece, the Greek city states used to declare TRUCE during wars to allow the Ancient Olympic Games to take place. This shows how they placed their sport above any issue. 

20. Modernizing Our Traditional Sports In Africa

Football finally entered its modern age and stage in 1863 when it splits into two- Association Football and Rugby Football after entering Britain as Harpastum from Rome 

The transformation of football was extra-ordinary among all sport that had traditional backgrounds. So our traditional sports in Africa can go into great transformation through modernization with injection of modern rules and regulations. However, it is not all our Traditional Sports that will receive transformation. Therefore some will remain documentated and remain in the cooler until their luck will finally shine or their useful purposes will come into the open i.e discovered.

21. Budgeting To Promote Our Traditional Indigeneous Sports   

This is very important. However, our Governments are not viewing our own indigenous sports as such. Our people also have been indoctrinated that our own things are inferior, so they are not important. So we need a more positive mindset to believe in ourselves. With good allocation of fund for the promotion of our Traditional Sports in our schools especially on making their facilities, equipment, teachers, coaches, technical officials competitions, tournaments and championships (frequently and sufficiently) available, will go a long way to change our Traditional Sports from the present moribund and abandoned wealth of our nations. 

22. Special/Spectacular Appointment e.g Minister of State (Sports)to handle our indigenous sports will not be too much. Creation of National Traditional Sports Commission in each country in Africa will do a lot of magic in uplifting our indigenous sports in Africa. We need urgent action to counter what our Africa Indigenous Sports had suffered in the past. They need reparation, yes our Traditional Sports require great compensation for the neglect of the past.   

23. Mentoring    

Leaders in the promotion of our Traditional Indigenous Sports in Africa should engage in serious positive mentoring of both young and old. They need balanced positive mindset. 

Yes, the importance of mentoring cannot be over emphasised. Some high profile mentoring have helped in bringing major breakthroughs in technology in which competitors have been brought together to combine beautifully to produce lasting high quality brands. The production of Mercedes Benz is a great example. 

This suggested template is one of the ways of mentoring ourselves in promoting our Traditional/indigenous Sports in Africa. 

I like to advise that this suggested template should be used with open mind in order to obtain the desired outcome in moving our African Traditional/Indigenous Sports from red ocean of neglect and backwardness to shift to blue ocean of goodness and popularity. 

In brining this write-up to a close, I hereby quote a paragraph from BLUE OCEAN SHIFT by W.CHAN KIM/RENEE MAUBORGNE (2017):

“We are now ready to deduce the mindset of blue ocean strategists and the distinctive ways their thinking departs from red ocean logic. The aim here is for you to understand how blue ocean strategists think so that you can embrace this logic as you embark on your own blue ocean shift journey. This mindset acts as a compass to guide your strategic direction. Without getting it right, the market-creating tools, however good, may be misapplied in action and fail to produce your intended shift. As we go through each guiding principle, think about how it allows you to begin to see opportunities where before only constraints were visible.”  

Thank you.

Mallam Elias Yusuf 

AFROTRADOSPORTS 

Congratulates AfCFTA as Her torch being lit today 20/01/2021.

Very soon, the torch of African Traditional Indigenous Sports will be on too. 

NB:

I must acknowledge and express my gratitudes to Mrs. Abiola K. Ogunbiyi, the current Chairman of Lagos State Traditional Sports Association for being the motivating factor for this write-up.

I received a phone call from her, inviting me to accompany her to a one day seminar organized by Nigeria Economic Summit Group which took place on 11-02-2020. The seminar was on sports industry policy in Nigeria. I was highly elated to be part of such a great gathering. 

That particular seminar was mainly for the Tourism Sector and she was given an opportunity to bring somebody along with her. 

For her being very objective in picking me for the seminar, speaks volumes as I see her as being an asset to the progress of her community. She did not only select me, she also supported my transportation to and fro Etiosa-Alimosho in this expansive city of Lagos that is fastly transforming to a SMART CITY. All these put me under a compelling pressure that I must not disappoint her great gesture in believing that, inviting me would yield a good dividend for our community. 

I just want to believe that I have been able to do something useful to justify her hands of fellowship.

Thank you Ma. 

I am equally glad that I was able to submit the above memorandum to Nigeria and also developed it to a suggested template for Africa not withstanding the tedious constraints of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Everybody on earth today says: COVID-19 MUST GO. 

   

At the beginning of every new year of the Gregorian calendar, the tradition of wishing ourselves “Happy New Year” is a permanent tradition in our own society in Nigeria, here in Africa. It is spontaneous, automatic, pandemic and even somehow mandatory to wish all your people “happy new year” especially on the first day of the year and up to the end of the first month of the new year.

 

Closely related to this, is making new year resolutions i.e you resolve on your own volition, that you would do or not do certain things in the new year as a means of correcting the past misdeeds, misdeminous, failures, or even mistakes of the just out gone year or that of several years as the case may be.

 

The Gregorian year which we have just entered into, is  2020. This figure connotes, that the year is the beginning of a new decade. And “decades” have become working “tools” in planning and executing plans in this modern era. It is a very popular periodic benchmark of measuring progress of plans over the years. 

 

Probably, the most popular beginning of a new decade was the year 2000 which was also the beginning of a new millennium followed by 2010 and this 2020 year.

 

So for this, www.afrotradosports.com is now going for a prayerful wish and resolution for African Indigenous Traditional Sports and Games by saying MAY AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SPORTS AND GAMES RECORD WONDERFUL BREAK THROUGHS IN THIS 2020 – 2030 DECADE, amen. Yes, now we have put God first and I know it is not that we have prayed, then the task we now do itself. No, far from it. The prayer is like our theme; our vision and our mission towards achieving this goal for this new decade as embedded in our prayer. 

 

We started the process of promoting African Traditional Sports, running to over three decades now. In the year 2000, Nigeria participated in the 3rd World Festival of Traditional Sports organized by TAFISA in Hannover Germany. Nigeria’s delegation was from Sport for All Nigeria, an affiliate of Nigeria Olympic Committee that relates to the International Olympic Committee. The team was made up of eleven members who presented Nigerian dances at the festivals. A few other African countries that participated did not present anything spectacular or as distinct as Nigeria’s presentation. Nigeria would had participated at the second World Festival of Traditional Sports hosted by Thailand in Bankcock in 1996 but for lack of sponsors as Sport for All Nigeria gave the opportunity to Nigerian Association of Traditional Sports (NATS) to handle, but NATS could not secure sponsors for the trip. In the 1990s. Traditional Sports in Nigeria were promoted by three different distinct groups without disturbing each other. They were:

 

1. The Federal Ministry of Education which organized the first National Seminar on Traditional Sports in Nigeria with the theme: Popularising Nigerian Indigenous Games in Nigerian Schools (1993) and National Committee Workshop setting and harmonizing Rules and Regulations to guide the teaching and playing of Traditional Sports in all Educational Institutions in Nigeria. Then the National Council on Education (NCE), approved Traditional Sports for the National School Curriculum (2001) in Nigeria.  

 

1. The Sport for All Nigeria (SFAN) group which secured three International Olympic Committee patronages for different Traditional Sports events in Nigeria. 

1. Abula Ball Game in 1994 
2. National Traditional Sports Festival (1998)  
3. Trado/Cultural Sports Carnival, (2003) and

 

SFAN also attended the 3rd World Festival of Traditional Sports which dovetailed into Expo 2000 in Hannover Germany, then the 4th and 5th editions in Busan, Korea (2008) and Siaullai, Lithuania (2012).

 

1. The Nigerian Association of Traditional Sports (NATS) which was inaugurated as a National Sports Association (on Traditional Sports) by the National Sports Commission in Nigeria (1993), organized the first National Traditional Sports and Games Festival in Nigeria in 1994. When it later transformed to Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria (TSFN) in 2002, she became the first Sports Federation in Africa to demonstrate Africa Indigenous Sports at the All Africa Games since the inception of the All Africa Games in Congo in 1965. The demonstration of African Traditional Sports at the 8th All African Games in Abuja 2003 had this evolutionary slogan: All Africa Games is not complete without African Indigenous Sports. 

 

 

 

 

The Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria (TSFN) presented Abula Game, Ayo, Dambe and Kokawa to COJA for the demonstration. However, a para game which was also invented in Nigeria had to be added, so the sports actually demonstrated were: Ayo, Dambe, Kokawa and Para Soccer. That made Nigeria to be the first country to demonstrate Africa Indigenous Sports at the All Africa Games. Nigeria equally seized the opportunity to organize a continental conference at the 8th All Africa Games for the Formation of Confederation of African Indigenous Sports (CONAIS) but some intrigues did not allow the confederation to function. 

 

The demonstration done in 2003 supposed to have been followed up at Algiers 2007, alas! it was not. However, there was another demonstration of African Traditional Sports at the All Africa Games in Congo. The two sports demonstrated were Nzango and Pharaoh Boxing by Congo and Egypt respectively (2015).

 

Alas! again, at Morocco (2019) no African Sports participated at the African Games. Alas! none was demonstrated anew and none of those earlier demonstrated featured. That’s the disjointed promotion of African Traditional Sports at the All Africa Games. Should it continue like that?  

 

However, there have been some regional championships or invitational championships in which some countries have become very popular for. Foremost is the Dakar Wrestlings, EKOWAS Games, Niamey, Garbon Wrestlings. Other parts of Africa have their isolated championships in the last three decades in trying to promote African Traditional Indigenous Sports and Games locally.   

 

Between 2001 – 2005, there was a serious articulate preparation to host first African Festival of Traditional Sports in Lagos Nigeria. This did not pull through too. There were practicing of our African Indigenous Sports in isolated, unrefined and not the desired level of inspirational celebrations in the countries that have them to the expectations of this modern era.

 

In this new decade of 2020 – 2030, these are some of the main problems to tackle on and to resolve in favour of African Traditional indigenous Sports.

 

Some of the Main Problems of African Traditional Indigenous Sports and Games:

1. Not being  in the Olympic Games
2. Not being in the Commonwealth Games 
3. Not being in All Africa Games   
4. Not being organized as a World Cup e.g Abula World Cup, African Billiards World Cup, Ayo World Cup, Langa World Cup, Nzango World Cup, Pharaoh Boxing World Cup etc. 
5. Not in many National Sports Festivals in the individual countries 
6. Not being played in the schools of their countries of origin 
7. Not in the national school curriculum of the Education Systems of the African Countries 
8. The universities do not show interest in them at all (no experts)
9. No facilities for them in their countries of origin
10. They have been suffering from perdition since the advent of slave trade, colonialism, neocolonialism and now at the verge of extinction and in fact, some have probably gone on extinction against the value enunciated by UNESCO tagged “Verona declaration of promotion of Traditional Sports in schools” (2015).
11. Being ignored by Governments 
12. Being rejected because of crude/poor presentation as in the binocular of neocolonialism 
13. Being sidelined by power of foreign sports through colonialists
14. Not very accessible to the youths 
15. Electricity has electrocuted those of them done under the moonlight.
16. Lack of written materials on African Traditional Sports
17. Written History of African Traditional Sports, no encyclopedia on them as on Western Sports
18. Since universities are not involved, no modern researches on them.
19. Hardly used in African films
20. No teachers, that will teach children on Traditional Sports
21. Specialized coaches that will train athletes 
22. Training of coaches i.e train the trainers.
23. Making the sports attractive with money in it. 
24. Waiting indefinitely etc.

 

What is Africa waiting for in promoting her African Traditional Sports? May be 

1. Foreign investors
2. Foreign sponsors 
3. Foreign rules and regulations 
4. Foreign motivators 
5. Foreign instructors 
6. Foreign equipment 
7. Foreign facilities 
8. Foreign coaches 
9. Foreign Technical Advisers
10. Foreign Designers
11. Foreign Media etc.

 

Waiting! is Africa actually waiting?

No, Africa is virtually starting to wake up from a deep slumber on African Traditional Sports. The mindset of our current elite leaders in Africa has started  transiting from neocolonialism of only eagering to collect medals from flagship sports championships into contributing medals in the new Africa initiatives. “Henceforth, equal energy would be spent on the development of our traditional sports and the alien sports” (Chief Alex Akinyele, 1993). As we collect medals, so also we should contribute medals. That should be the spirit and goal of 2020-2030 decade. So in this new decade, Africa should now work to produce gold medals as well as to collect gold medals. It should be symbiotic.      

 

May be, it is not too wrong to postulate that Africa needs to develop her traditional indigenous sports and games so that she will develop very well like the other continents of the world. 

 

It should be noted that for the past three to four decades when attention started on waking up African traditional sports and Games, a good number of the sports that gained some attention are just crawling. They are yet to stand up and walk not to talk of running or flying. For the sports to rise up and fly, deafening campaigns and very deliberate and determined efforts on the paths of the leaders in Africa to effect such efforts that will ensure terrific progress for African Traditional Indigenous Sports through flagship projects and championships in this 2020 – 2030 decade should be put in place now. 

 

May African Traditional Sports and Games record wonderful breakthroughs in this 2020 – 2030 decade, amen. 

 

Happy New Year,

Better New Decade 

 

For all of us and,

Our Traditional 

Sports and Games 

 

Mallam Elias Yusuf 

 

 

 

ADIEU,MAMA AYO GAME, MRS FUNKE YUSUF

 

As I welcome you to the second half of this write-up, let me ask you a very salient question on Russia 2018.

 

Yes, what is the number of Russia 2018 on FIFA WORLD CUPS? I am sure so many fans of Russia 2018 might miss the correct answer to this “simple” question.

 

Well, it is the 21^st FIFA WORLD CUP. From Uruguay 1930 to Russia 2018, 21 world cups have been held.

Remembering that the world cup is held once in four years i.e. in periodic table of Olympiads, as dictated by the Olympic Games. It alternates the Olympic Games. Now, if you missed that “simple” question, rest your mind. Take it easy. It is not fully your fault, it is because of the over flowing popularity of the FIFA WORLD CUP which title is usually entwined or meshed with the name of the host nation(s). And also, when you say world cup, or when you hear Journalists saying “the world cup”, people mostly refer to FIFA WORLD CUP. It is for football only they simply call THE WORLD CUP. When they refer to any other world cup rather than FIFA football (senior) world cup, they prefix it with the name of the sport(s), that you may have e.g.

 

1. ABULA GAME WORLD CUP
2. AFRICAN BILLIARDS WORLD CUP
3. AYO WORLD CUP
4. LANGA WORLD CUP
5. TRADITIONAL WRESTLING WORLD CUP
6. PHARAO BOXING WORLD CUP
7. NSANGO WORLD CUP
8. EKUMERAN WORLD CUP
9. MUDESI WORLD CUP
10. BOJUBOJU WORLD CUP
11. PARA – SOCCER WORLD CUP
12. KEKEYIYI WORLD CUP etc.

 

Association football has been able to register the phrase “The World Cup” in the minds of the people on the globe, billions of them, that with or without official “COPY RIGHT” the phrase “THE WORLD CUP” is FIFA WORLD CUP.

 

“THE WORLD CUP” seems to have been conceded to Association football. It is already built in the minds of the people just like UNESCO builds peace in the minds of the people.

 

I want to say, many more people enjoyed watching the world cup, Russia 2018 on their television sets in Nigeria this time around. These was mainly because there was better supply of electricity from the public source much higher than before and free viewing centers were made available by some government apparatus in Nigeria. This and others were great indications that even though we were far away from the theatre of action at Russia 2018, we too also contributed to the huge success of Russia 2018.

 

Even the dead contributed to the success of Russia 2018. How? Yes, the great inventors, like the inventors of Television, light bulb, ICT, Radio, Automobile, the Airplane etc. contributed to the success of Russia 2018 in their areas of specializations and ingenuities. That is the human heritage and legacies through the history of man. We must appreciate them. So we can translate that in the promotion of our Traditional Sports. That means, we need modernism to boost our Traditional Sports. When poonah, (precursor of Badminton) harpastum, (precursor of footballs), “game played with curved stick” (the precursor of hockey) were exposed to perspective modern touches in England, the sports transformed and translated to become competitive (global) sports, so our African Traditional Sports need such touches and transformation in this modern era so as to gain the impetus/acceleration of becoming (global sports). As at now, none of the sports that originated from Africa is in the Olympic Games, none is a world cup sport, worse still, there is none as a scoring event at the (All) Africa Games. Unlike that, the 2018 Asian Games has the following Sports of Asian Origin, Judo, Kabaddi, Karate, Sepak Takraw, Taekwondo, Martial arts like Wushu, jujitsu etc. as scoring events in this great energy games. Africa must do something to promote her own sports as they say “charity begins at home.” Our sport may be our catalyst for us to make giant strides in developments.

 

Sound mind in sound body may lead to having sound developments. Afrotradosports observes that Africa has not been gingered to do this, we have been very comfortable as consumers of other peoples’ sports as a result of neo-colonial mentality and our fitness had been tied to our subsistence farming methods that naturally promoted our physical fitness without recourse to prescribed physical fitness exercises. It is time for us to wake up and do something in promoting our own sports in the spirit of “wakie wakie” the mascot of the 8^th All Africa Games, ABUJA 2003.

 

This discourse on World Cups/International Championships has triggered up a nostalgic feelings in me in our own sphere of sport where I had attended a “World Cup”. Yes, a world cup. Your afrotradosports.man had attended a world cup in Traditional Sports! Yes, for your authentic information, there have been World Cups in Traditional Sports with the brand name “World Festival of Traditional Sports.” The first one was in 1992 in Bonn, Germany organized by TAFISA: Trim and Fitness International Sport for All Associations. The second edition was in Bangkok, Thailand in 1996 and the third edition, in 2000 at Hannover, Germany. This 3^rd Edition dovetailed into Expo 2000, in Hannover Germany. This was the edition in which your afrotradosports.man physically attended “live and direct” through Sport for All Nigeria (through the Nigeria Olympic Committee) and I was in charge of Technical for our contingent.

 

I will just touch this briefly just as related to the World Cups. Our contingent presented Dance at the Festival. I remember vividly, that after our performance at the opening ceremony, Pr. Dr. Jürgen PALM came to visit our contingent. He humorously used his hand, pointing a finger to mimic how I rhythmically drummed my own part of our beat.

 

Yes, that is it, when you find yourself in a World Cup, you just have to play your part well, no matter how small or big, then people will appreciate you as small or as big as possible i.e. you will be recognized. Dr. Jürgen PALM was the then President of TAFISA.

 

THE TAFISA NEWSLETTER 2/2000 captured the essence of the festival as follows: “Noting that the World Festival of Traditional Sports to be celebrated in June 2000 under the auspices of “Trim and Fitness International Sport For All Associations” [TAFISA] and with the patronage of UNESCO, in connection with Hanover world exhibition “Expo 2000” will help to create a worldwide awareness of traditional sports and indigenous games and physical activities, thus making an important contribution to their preservation:

1. Requests the member states to organize and support festivals of traditional sports and games at both national and regional levels and to provide opportunities for participation in the world festival of Traditional Sports.

 

2. Requests CIGEPS, with the help of the relevant regional and national bodies and networks and the support of NGOs, associations and institutions concerned to prepare a worldwide list of traditional games and sports…”

 

The TAFISA NEWSLETTER 2/2000 excerpts on the 3^rd WORLD FESTIVAL OF TRADITIONAL SPORTS 2000, interview with the managing directors of the World Festival 2000 GmbH, Klaus Witte and Horst Westphal, further educate on the festival as follows:

 

Question: How can this festival counteract the extinction of traditional sports?

Klaus Witte: The enormous response from the visitors in the last two World Festivals of Traditional Sports clearly demonstrated that there is huge interest in these games and sports. This makes us very confident. When we demonstrate the games and sports and invite people to join in, large numbers of people are filled with genuine enthusiasm. We must use the week of this international festival in the year 2000 to revitalize forgotten cultural treasures. And because of the close collaboration with EXPO 2000 Hannover GmbH, we will also be able to show that these games and sports play a vital part in bringing people together and fostering international understanding.

Question: What is the role of the Olympic Games which takes place in Sydney in 2000?

Horst Westphal: We want to show that there are many other different and very interesting types of sport in addition to the competitive sports featured at the Olympic Games. Our festival has the objective of maintaining traditional sports which are particularly endangered in industrial countries. One of the reasons for this is that these countries tend to concentrate on competitive sports.

 

The Seminar & Symposium of the festival had these slogans: Games of the past-Sports for the future, Globalization, Diversification, Transformation.

 

Yes, participants came from nooks and crannies of the globe. I hope I have been able to convince those who had not known about this before, that, there is “World Cup” in Traditional Sports and that the 7^th edition of it is coming up in Lisbon, Portugal in 2020 as “TAFISA WORLD SPORT FOR ALL GAMES.” Wow! I am salivating for it. What of you? May be in your own sports! Or our Traditional Sports! 

 

Well, let us go back to soccer. “Soccer” is more popularly used in Nigeria when you want to buy the boot for playing football. It is “a pair of soccer boots” not “football boot”. However, when talking of football field and not soccer field. It is just like the African Billiards; when you want to play the African Billiards game, you would hear, bring out the African Billiards Board. When you want to set up the seeds for playing it, you would hear, put the “aarin” on their spots. This is because the original name i.e. the native name for the marble seed for playing the game is called “aarin”. So the name “aarin” is still more homely with the local elder players than the name African Billiards, but the generality of the new generation playing the game go with African Billiards. However in soccer, the name football and soccer are used interchangeably from time to time without any of the too sounding inferior or illegal.

 

By the volume of this write-up, we should now be entering its EXTRA TIME!

Football got to Nigeria during her colonial days under Britain. Today football is the most popular sport in Nigeria. The governing body for football in Nigeria was established in 1945 and named Nigeria Football Association (NFA) now called Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Nigeria has been part of world cup for a while now. The first player to score a goal for Nigeria in the world cup was Rasheed Yekinni and the captain of the team that won Gold Medal for Nigeria in football at the Olympic Games is Nwanko Kanu. Nigeria has won the world cup in the junior category. In fact, she was the first to win the under 17 male category World Cup (1985). Even, she is the current leader in this grade; haven won it five times (1985, 1993, 2007, 2013, and 2015) including a back to back. Great! The captain of our Team, the Super Eagles to Russia 2018 is John Mikel Obi. The player that has scored the largest number of goals for Nigeria in the world cup up to this moment, (August 2018) is Ahmed Musa. In fact his fantastic goal at Russia 2018 where he displaced the goal keeper (falling down) and two defenders defending desperately fell within the best ten goals of Russia 2018. Well done Musa.

 

Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt represented Africa at Russia 2018. Unfortunately, no one of these our five representatives went beyond the preliminary stage at Russia 2018. According to fifa.com, the eight countries that have won THE WORLD CUP so far did so as follows:

1. Brazil: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002
2. Italy: 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006
3. Germany: 1954, 1974, 1990 2014
4. Uruguay: 1930, 1950
5. Argentina:1978, 1986
6. France: 1998, 2018
7. England: 1996
8. Spain: 2010

 

IN ALLTIME RANKING, Nigeria stood like this (2018) Nigeria was ranked 32 and has played 18 matches won 5, drawn 3 and lost 10 since 1994, 1998, 2002, 2014, 2018 – 5 times

 

As the world cup was hot-up, the Nigeria House was displaying our culture in Russia. The Nigerian House should at least be displaying or exhibiting Ayo, African Billiards etc. and show the videos of African Traditional Sports at such occasions to spread the information to popularize African Traditional Sports. The Nigerian House planning for Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, should include this idea in their program and the Expo 2020 in Dubai should include this in their exhibition.

 

Putting everything about RUSSIA 2018 in the right perspective, verily, verily, the 21^st World Cup was a theatre of fantastic performances. Tourists were seen on the television to be in great affable spirit, highly hilarious, indicating that they were enjoying hospitality extra-large inside Russia especially at the RED SQUARE. The stadia were full to the brim with spectators oscillating from one pensive mood to another jubilant mood as dictated by the performance of the team they were supporting at each moment. The coaches were absorbing the tension of both failures and successes. The referees were on extra-alert exerted on them by ‘authorities’ conferred on VAR (Video Assistant Referee). The super performing volunteers, especially those who spread the horizontal flags on the fields of play popularly referred to as flag bearers. The flags were spread so flat that you could not see any ruffle or undulation. The flag bearers stood round the flags like pegs as they used the wing-attachment-handles to exert stretch-tension on the flags and made each flag to assume the semblance of a huge trampoline rather than an ordinary flag made of cloth. Certainly, those who made the flags put extra touches and the volunteers who executed this assignment, played a trump.

 

Then, the final match between France and Croatia summarized the magnificent attainment of Russia 2018 in all ramifications. It was REGAL with all the players, spectators, officials and the V.I.Ps performing their functions at world class level, fantastic celebrations, leaving everybody far and near salivating for more WORLD CUPs.

 

That there is salivating for the world cup is confirmed with this short drama between an imaginary fan of Afrotradosports and your afrotradosports man.

Fan:                 Mr. Afrotrado, did you see what I saw on the Television?

Afrotrado:      What did you see?

Fan:                 Hah! I saw a very high V.I.P giving a red card to another Very High V.I.P, and the red card was collected as a mark of honor and was spontaneously and humorously displayed with a stance suggestive of “I hold the red card, you know!”

Afrotrado:      Was that so?

Fan:                 Hah, more than that, the V.I.P that gave out the red card brought out another surprise, a jersey, code named ………26.

Afrotrado:      Alright, alright, I have gotten what you are driving at. Really that scenario was one of the major preliminary stages of gunning for THE WORLD CUP, 2026.  Yes, my dear afrotradosports fans, all over the globe, do you now agree with me, that, high or low, people are salivating for the world cup all over the world?

 

Yes, you can’t beat THE WORLD CUP. Football is already up there. All football should do now, is to show charity/thanksgiving by picking at least one indigenous sport from the five major continents of the world for special support or development. Football should be his brothers’ keeper.

Thank you.

Mallam Elias Yusuf

 

N.B:

Happy 58^th Independence Anniversary to Nigeria, October 1, (1960 – 2018). You saw our banner in the photograph at Hannover 2000. Fine, that is one of the things that our Traditional Sports can do for Africa (projecting our identity, image, heritage etc.).

 

 

In part one of this topic, we narrated Ayo facilities up to 2003 when Ayo debuted as a demonstration sports at the 8^th All Africa Games in Abuja, we will now move to ABUJA 2004 which was the 14^th National Sports Festival in Nigeria.

 

At ABUJA 2004, Ayo secured another high class and high sounding arena. Ayo was played at International Conference Center, Abuja. It was a great pride for our local Ayo players and officials to find themselves inside the one and only International Conference Center of which the nearest they ever got to it was viewing President Olusegun Obasanjo presiding over a function there on their television sets. The facilities were also very fascinating that, many Television stations covered our Ayo over and over again. In fact, the Osun State Traditional Sport group organized a mini studio for me as the then President of Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria for a local program that was aired weekly in Osun state. I was specially recorded so that they would relay it on that their weekly program. Yes, that is the multiplier effects of good facilities and effective leadership.

At Abuja 2004, not only that we used the excellent facilities well, we also extended our versatility to the Radio House. We went to participate in live-broadcast program inside the Radio Nigeria House, communicating to the world on Traditional Sport to the pleasant surprise of the officials of the Sports Ministry, the general public and the envy of other Sports Federations that were seen to be higher than TSFN on the “pecking order” of the Sports Ministry.

 

This is the essence of having qualitative, committed and productive leadership in place for a sport federation. Our Secretariat under the then Secretary General of TSFN, Mrs. K.A Adekola was very effective with her assistants like Mr. James Eakyns and others, working harmoniously to get excellent results. Equally, the then chairman of technical Committee Mr. S.A. Daudu, highly experienced and knowledgeable, oversees the technical aspect of the competitions with utmost attention, astute and devotion to ensure honest, accurate results. The technical judges in our five scoring sports (Abula, Ayo, Dambe, Kokowa and Langa) knew that the President together with the Chairman of Technical would not tolerate compromise as many of the matches were video recorded randomly. It must be stated that right facilities will produce right results provided the people at the helm of affairs do the right things. Facilities are basic. Right usage is another thing when the two are properly entwined; they produce excellent results as we had at ABUJA 2004.

 

The Radio is another separate facility, but we were able to use it to produce a great effect on our Traditional Sports. There are connectivity and convertibility of facilities and their usage to enhance what you use the facilities for. However, the resultant effect of the usage of a facility may depend on the leadership style and the environment.

 

At Gateway 2006, Ayo was played in a classroom of a secondary school. Normal classroom, concrete floor, normal ceiling, large windows, well ventilated.

 

Really, the dream Ayo facilities at the level of Nigeria National Sports Festival should be to provide a good sports hall or a good hall, if possible with terrace and divide the hall into three segments; the first segment for the players, a gap between the first and the second segment, the second segment is for the spectators and the third segment is the space for a big screen whereby the live video coverage of the players will be transmitted through projector with cool commentary being ran into it, to carry the spectators along. This will give live and good spectatorship to Ayo. It’s large spectatorship that would attract corporate sponsorship to Ayo. It is conservative to believe that the 0.8m to 1.2m long Ayo board is the only attraction for Ayo. It is much more than that. It is true that the Ayo board is the nucleus of the Ayo equipment; the other parts of the nucleus cannot be neglected or taken for granted. So any State bidding to host the National Sports Festival should take this article very seriously in providing appropriate facilities and equipment for our sports in adequate quantity and quality and in a very accessible location.

 

At Kada 2008, Kaduna, Ayo was held in a School Hall too as in Edo 2002. It was well ventilated, lit and decent. At PortHarcourt 2011, Ayo was in a medium-sized hall at the Civic Centre, a great facility for sports. It was quite conducive and high sounding centre too. It was designed to be air-conditioned hall. It was well lit. In fact the Ayo venue at Port Harcourt and Eko 2012 were very similar in size and arrangement. They were like identical twin sisters. Ayo was held in one of the decent medium sized hall at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere Lagos, Nigeria.

 

The scenario described above about “the dream Ayo facilities” was finally and practically experimented by your afrotradosports man Elias Yusuf at Eko 2012 in Lagos Nigeria. It was very successful. However, the arrangement was slightly amended as the medium sized air-conditioned hall with two opposing entries for Ayo was divided into four segments to carry out the competition. First segment was the controlling table for officials controlling the competition (with its own terminal entry door). Officials were located where they could oversee the whole of the hall where the competition was taking place without any hindrance. The second segment was the competitors’ and judges tables and chairs, then there was a small gap before the seats of the spectators were arranged to back the competitors and to face the projector screen in one corner to avoid it interfering with the on-going “playing” but allowing the spectators (and other competitors and officials not competing) to watch the competition going on live. The athletes, their coaches and spectators entered from the opposite door to the official’s door. The dream which your afrotradosports man had been having on the idea over the years, finally materialized and it was very successful. So it is expected that this arrangement will now be followed whenever we have standard championship in Ayo until when a bigger dream on Ayo which is tagged “Afrotradosports Ayo infrastructure” will be made available as Ayo and African Billiards Arenas are basically similar.

 

It was also observed, that it is very important, essential and of great necessity that we should use very standard, neat and pleasing-to-see Ayo boards for our competitions being videoed. It was very shabby viewing some Ayo boards on the screen. It belittles the championship when watched on the television, seeing shabby ayoboards is annoying, displeasing and producing poor effects on the championship.

 

Also, the athletes/players must dress well and have a way to indicate adequately, the groups/states they represent. And if double athletes, the two players should wear the same jersey even if it is male and female in mixed doubles.

 

Also, the officials must show alertness all the time, demonstrating their efficiency and effectiveness in judging the competition when viewed on the screen. They should also wear their official judge’s dress well and each displaying demeanors and dispositions of an incorruptible judge without displaying long-face.

 

If our sports are to be respected, the way they are projected on the screen is very important to us especially in this age of ICT/Internet usage. Any of our competition can go viral worldwide anytime-anywhere, any day and anytime in the future years too.

 

As this write up is going to end on a very un-conventional note, because we started with definitions and we are closing it up with another definition, it is just to further entertain you on afrotradosports, if you do not mind. Do you? No never, I believe. It just a play on words. Afrotradosports sees the word “infrastructure” as the “mother” of the word “facilities” so, when things look up well for African Billiards and Ayo, we are dreaming a great infrastructure that will be built specially for African Billiards and Ayo as “African Billiards/Ayo Arena(s).

Thank you.

 

Mallam Elias Yusuf.