Reflections on Past and Future of African Games

Africa's biggest multisport event - the African Games - get underway in Ghana tonight, with 49 nations competing in 29 different sports.

This is the 13th edition of the games – which are held every four years, usually one year before the Olympic Games.

But this time they’ve been delayed by 8 months - since August 2023 - because of a disagreement over marketing rights which delayed the completion of facilities.

It’s part of an ongoing dispute between the Africa Union (AU) which owns the games, the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations – all of which are meant to work together to put on the event.

In this episode of Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja re-lives his childhood memories from the fourth edition of the games held in Nairobi in 1987 as he talks to Africa’s former queen of sprints Nigeria’s Mary Onyali Omagbemi who lit up the games with phenomenal speed.

But with the standards of the games appearing to have dropped, he also talks to Ghanaian Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif, asking if there is a future for the Africa Games.