When two elephants fight…

When two elephants fight…

By Clem Oluwole

Early this week, the President of Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA), Nigeria’s Abraham Ordia, alerted the Afro-Arab countries as well as those who abhor apartheid in sports of an international conspiracy to mar the forthcoming 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

Mr. Ordia asserted that the conspiracy is being designed because the Games will be hosted by a socialist country for the first time. This may not be far from the truth.

Happily enough, the SCSA boss, who spearheaded the Afro-Arab boycott of 1976 Montreal Olympics because of New Zealand’s sporting link with apartheid South Africa, has said in a clear language that Africans will not join in the conspiracy.

To quote Mr. Ordia, he said: ‘We Africans are fighting on principle and as such, we will not allow anybody to use us to achieve his diabolical aims.’

Going back to the 1976 Olympic Games, observers were made to believe that New Zealand intensified its sports contacts with South Africa as a means of holding off the challenges of African superstars who have dominated the tracks and consequently held tight to world records to the chagrin of their European counterparts.

The Europeans fooled themselves by giving the sporting world the wrong impression that in spite of the Afro-Arab boycott, the 1976 Games were a huge success.

There is no doubting the fact that all has not been smooth between London and Moscow since the Government of Mrs. Margaret Thatcher came to power. It was Moscow that first gave the British Prime Minister a nickname: ‘The Iron Lady’.

Reports quoted the British authorities as saying that they took ‘every practical step’ as required by the Gleneagles Agreement to stop the tour by the Barbarians of South Africa. But at the same time, the government issued permit to the Barbarians (what a name) to tour the country.

Complying with the Gleneagles Accord, the French and Irish Governments refused to issue visas to members of South Africa Springboks during a planned tour of those countries.

Right now, the SCSA is seriously canvassing for the exclusion of Britain from the Games. But I doubt if this move will yield any fruitful result. The Soviet authorities gave the African nations an assurance through its sports minister who was sent to Algeria during the 3rd All-Africa Games that Moscow would not entertain friends of apartheid at the next Summer Games.

Any move to bar Britain from Moscow Games will have to receive the blessing of International Olympic Committee (IOC). And it is obvious that the IOC will not slam a ban on Britain no matter what pressure Moscow brings to bear on the committee.

In the words of an IOC Director and Spokesman, Monique Berlioux, the current British tour by the multi-racial South African Barbarians would present no problem to her committee. She argued that the situation in Britain was different in that the Home Rugby Unions, which supported the Barbarians’ tour, were not affiliated to the National Olympic Committee as their French and Irish counterparts.

It does not matter whether the British Rugby Unions were affiliated to the National Olympic Committee or not. The Gleneagles Agreement is an international accord which discourages sporting contact with South Africa because of the country’s apartheid policy. And Britain is signatory to this agreement.

The battle line is drawn between the two super powers and it is Africa that will be the worst for it. We should make up our minds right away on either to go to Moscow or not. A campaign to bar Britain from Moscow Games will amount to a waste of energy and time. The IOC cannot, I repeat cannot, exclude Britain whose argument is that the National Olympic Committee, which does not number the rugby authorities among its members, has never supported the Barbarians’ tour.

I wrote in this column on June 23, this year, asking whether we would go to Moscow next year should there be any conspiracy to exclude Africa like it was the case in 1976.

If Africa could not effect the exclusion of the smallish New Zealand, so to say, from the 1976 Olympics, I don’t see the possibility of excluding the giant Britain. The worst we can do is to boycott the Games to the delight of Britain, whose plans, as we have seen, are not only to disrupt the Games but also to remove the glamour which African athletes could add. Britain knows how bad Moscow would feel if Africa boycotts the Games. Britain knows fully well that Moscow has a large followership on this continent and it will do all in its power to achieve this aim. Pray, when will politics leave sports alone?

In a nutshell, the conspiracy to exclude Africa from the Olympics seems to be a new dimension being added to the global sports jamboree. And it is left for Africa to reconsider her stand on the Olympic Games. We could possibly widen the scope of the All-Africa Games with an invitation to those countries which believe in our cause.

In my own view, when two super elephants like Britain and Russia fight, Africa

should not be the grass to suffer.

(Culled from Saturday Commentary, first published on October 27, 1979).