ALL AFRICA GAMES

The All-Africa Games, sometimes called the African Games or Pan African Games, are a regional multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA). The competing nations must all be from the African continent.

The first Games were held in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo. The International Olympic Committee granted official recognition as a continental multi-sport event, along with the Pan American Games and Asian Games.

History

Modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin conceived the Pan African Games as early as 1920. The colonial powers who ruled Africa at the time were wary of the idea, suspecting the unifying aspect of sport among African people would cause them to assert their independence.

Attempts were made to host the games in Algiers, Algeria in 1925 and Alexandria, Egypt in 1928, but despite considerable preparations taken by coordinators, the efforts failed. The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first African member, Greek-born Egyptian sprinter Angelo Bolanaki, donated funds to erect a stadium, but still the Games were set back for another three decades.

In the early 60's, French-speaking countries of Africa organized the Friendship Games. The Games were organized by Madagascar (1960) and then Côte d'Ivoire (1961). The third games were set for Senegal in 1963. Before they were completed, African Ministers of Youth and Sport met in Paris in 1962; as a few English-speaking countries were already participating, they rechristened the Games as the Pan African Games. The Games were granted official recognition by the IOC as being on par with other continental Games such as the Asian Games and the Pan American Games.

In July 1965, the first games were held in Brazzaville, Congo, now called the All-Africa Games. From 30 countries, around 2,500 athletes competed. Egypt topped the medal count for the first Games.

In 1966, the SCSA (Supreme Council of Sport in Africa) was organized in Bamako; it manages the All-Africa Games. The second edition were awarded to Mali in 1969, but a military coup forced the cancellation of the Games. Lagos, Nigeria stepped in as host for the Games in 1971. Those Games were finally held in 1973 due to the Biafra War, which had just ended in Nigeria.

In 1977, the 3rd Games were scheduled to take place in Algeria, but due to technical reasons, it had to be postponed for a year and was held in 1978. Continuing the pattern, the next Games were scheduled to take place in Kenya in 1983, but were pushed back to 1985 and finally took place in Nairobi in 1987.

The four-year Olympic rhythm has not missed a beat since, and the Games have been organized in Cairo, Harare, Johannesburg, and Lagos. In 2007, Algiers once again hosted, becoming the first repeat host. Lusaka, Zambia has just (Dec. 2008) withdrawn its offer to host the next edition of the 2011.^[1]

Host cities

Order	Year	City	Country	Date	Top Medalling Country
1	1965	Brazzaville	Congo-Brazzaville	July 18 - July 25, 1965	United Arab Republic
-	1969	Bamako	Mali	Disrupted by Military Coup
2	1973	Lagos	Nigeria	January 7 - January 18, 1973	Egypt
3	1978	Algiers	Algeria	July 13 - July 28, 1978	Tunisia
4	1987	Nairobi	Kenya	August 1 - August 12, 1987	Egypt
5	1991	Cairo	Egypt	September 20 - October 1, 1991	Egypt
6	1995	Harare	Zimbabwe	September 13 - September 23, 1995	South Africa
7	1999	Johannesburg	South Africa	September 10 - September 19, 1999	South Africa
8	2003	Abuja	Nigeria	October 5 - October 17, 2003	Nigeria
9	2007	Algiers	Algeria	July 11 - July 23, 2007	Egypt
10	2011	Lusaka	Zambia

The host city of the 2015 All-Africa Games is to be decided soon. Accra, Ghana and possibly Kenya have been mentioned as possible hosts.

All-time medal table

The table below gives an overview of the all-time medal count of the All-Africa Games.

All-Africa Games medal count
Pos	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Year of first medal
1	Egypt	431	328	320	1079	1965
2	Nigeria	303	277	256	836	1965
3	South Africa	198	174	137	509	1995
4	Algeria	132	152	189	473	1965
5	Tunisia	123	106	133	362	1965
6	Kenya	90	97	104	291	1965
7	Senegal	40	40	73	153	1965
8	Ghana	26	38	64	128	1965
9	Ethiopia	23	29	34	86	1965
10	Cameroon	20	42	81	143	1965
11	Zimbabwe	18	26	57	101	1987
12	Uganda	17	19	33	69	1965
13	Côte d'Ivoire	17	18	33	68	1965
14	Madagascar	10	15	33	58	1965
15	Morocco	9	12	15	36	1973
16	Angola	9	7	17	33	1987
17	Lesotho	8	3	8	19	1991
18	Mauritius	6	19	27	52	1987
19	Libya	6	8	16	30	1978
20	Namibia	4	10	15	29	1991
21	Tanzania	4	8	10	22	1965
22	Zambia	4	4	22	30	1965
23	Mali	4	4	7	16	1965
24	Gabon	4	4	19	27	1965
25	Botswana	4	4	10	18	1991
26	Mozambique	4	2	1	7	1987
27	Eritrea	3	1	2	6	2007
28	Sudan	3	1	3	7	1973
29	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2	3	6	11	1965
30	Congo-Brazzaville	1	7	15	23	1965
31	Central African Republic	1	2	2	5	1991
32	Guinea	1	2	1	4	1973
	Sierra Leone	1	2	1	4	1991
33	Swaziland	1	0	9	10	1973
34	Chad	1	0	9	10	1965
35	Cape Verde	1	0	2	3	1999
36	Burkina Faso	1	0	1	2	1987
37	Somalia	1	0	0	1	1973
38	Seychelles	0	13	18	31	1987
39	Burkina Faso	0	3	7	10	1965
40	Togo	0	2	10	12	1965
41	Niger	0	2	6	8	1965
42	Benin	0	2	3	5	1973
43	Gambia	0	2	0	2	1973
44	Rwanda	0	2	0	2	1987
45	São Tomé and Príncipe	0	1	1	2	2003
46	Malawi	0	0	2	2	1987
47	Guinea-Bissau	0	0	1	1	1999