Africa’s giants are inspiring thousands on the continent. “Victory in Unity”, the campaign that seeks to motivate and direct sport towards a more equitable and inclusive model, played a leading role in the last Pan African Games.
The campaign is promoted by Sports Equity Lab (SEL) and aims, among others, to promote a more inclusive sport. To do this, they have highlighted several African sports figures in what they called the Giants of Africa. There are six athletes whose stories serve to motivate and be models for future athletes on the continent.
The Egyptian karate fighter Feryal Abelaziz, the Ghanaian para athlete Raphael Botsyio, the Mauritanian para athlete Noemi Alphonse, the South African athlete Mpumelelo Mhlongo, the Kenyan athlete Hellen Obiri and the former Ghanaian football player Abedi Ayew Pele were the highlights at the “Victory in Unity” dinner , held last March. According to the project, they were recognized for representing African essence and excellence in sports.
“Victory in Unity” was executed in two phases. The first consisted of a 10-meter LED screen installed in Accra, headquarters of the Pan-African Games, showing images of African culture alongside the African Giants.
Dr. Yetsa Tuakli-Wosurnu, founder of Sports Equity Lab, said the goal is to “change two assumptions. The first is that elite athletes look a certain way” and the second with respect to the place that athletes occupy within society. “With these stories you can see that athletes are human too and that we are all parts of each other’s story,” he commented and added: “We want to expand the concept of unity and the concept of inclusion,” pointing out the closeness that athletes they have with people.
The second phase of the project consisted of a dinner with more than 300 people and 24 countries represented in what they called “The Game Changers Networking Dinner”, in which ideas were exchanged around the objectives of “Victory in Unity” in order to continue to inspire inclusion in sport. Something that the organizers classified as a success due to the media coverage and the interest it produced in the African public.
