The Sports in Africa group’s decade of knowledge production and dissemination has significantly deepened our understanding of African experiences across time and space. Ohio University has provided Africanist sport scholars from the humanities and social sciences, business, communication, technology, health sciences, and other fields with rare opportunities to share ideas on and discuss the impact of individual and team sports on the everyday lives of men, women, and youth across the continent. The widespread popularity of sports around the world has also provided a powerful framework through which to explore how and why Africans actively engage with and shape contemporary forms of global culture.
The Sports in Africa group at Ohio University has been at the vanguard of research in its field. Not only has it brought high-profile presenters to Ohio University; it has also served as an academic incubator for research on this important topic. One of the most fruitful outcomes from the conference has been the dialog initiated between between sports practitioner and academic researcher. The use of sports as a instrument of development has become en vogue and the academic debates fostered by the conferences have contributed a critical analysis of this approach. While the research and reach of the conference has extended around the globe, the hospitality and warmth of the hosts continues to be one of the program's cherished cornerstones.
Matthew F. Kirwin, Ph.D. Africa Analyst Office of Opinion Research Department of State
The Institute for the African Child, the Center for Sports Administration and Latin American Studies hosted the 10th conference on “Sports in Africa and the Global South: Ten years—What's next?”. It took place April 10-12, 2014, in Ohio University’s main campus.
Late Mr. Manute Bol and Thierno Ndao, a conference participant
The first edition of the conference “Sports, Youth and Africa” in February 2004 was attended by participants from fourteen institutions from Africa and the United States. The following nine conferences addressed a variety of themes such gender, health, communication, politics and globalization invigorated Ohio University's leading position in the field of Sports in Africa among US universities and contributed to the credibility and the development of the champ of African sport studies as a valuable interdisciplinary arena. The conference has also hosted known African sport achievers such as the late Manute Bol (former NBA legend), Amadou Fall (Vice President NBA Africa) and Lee Evans (USA Gold Medalist Olympics Mexico 1968) along with several accomplished scholars and leaders in the field of Sport and Development.
Among the major outcomes of the conferences are the following:
The launching of the electronic sports journal, IMPUMELELO, (Zulu word for Vision)
The establishment of a network database of more than 80 scholars from US, African, and European Universities.
The bringing together of practitioners from various organizations and foundations in the US, Africa and Europe.
Mr. Lee Evans (Gold Medal 400m Olympics Mexico 68)
- Organization of and participation in panels devoted to sports in Africa, and the consolidation of the study of sports in Africa as a credible academic research field with an increasing attention and discipline and interdisciplinary publications:
- Publications various journals such as the Journal of Sport and Society, Soccer and Society, Sport in Society and book chapters on Sports in Development and Sports in Africa.
- An edited book, Identity in African Football: Fans, Communities, Clubs, Nation, and Trans-nation including chapters by several of the conference participants(in Press, release scheduled in March 2014)
- A youtube channel with more than 80 videos featuring 9 years of presentations on African Sports.
With the determination and passion of a group of scholars and practitioners of from Ohio
Mr. Amadou Fall (VP NBA Africa) with Khalid El Hassan and De Nyango Tafen (2005 Conference)
University, other academic institutions and organizations across the US, Europe and Africa the Sports in Africa conference is an established reference for African sports in the US. The organizers invited and welcomed scholars, policy makers, practitioners and with a passion, programs and interest in Africa to join and contribute the conference panels, discussions an reflection
Scholars from France, Israel, Denmark, Ghana and various academic institutions and NGOs in the US presented their research and projects at the conference in 2014.
