ASA Doctoral Researcher, Innocent Batsani-Ncube recently conducted a week-long archival research on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa (SCSA) at the FIFA and Olympic Museums in in Zurich and Lausanne respectively. The main aim of the trip was to access primary data on these two continental sport organisations in order to explore the relationship between sport, pan Africanism and African diplomacy.
CAF, formed in 1957, became emblematic of nation making and as the first pan-African organisation became a trendsetter in African diplomacy through its concerted campaign to ban apartheid South Africa from International football. The SCSA was established by the OAU in 1966 as a specialised agency tasked with coordinating the African Sport Movement and leveraging sport in the decolonisation struggles.
At the FIFA Museum and Library in Zurich, Batsani-Ncube accessed material covering the first 40 years of CAF. These included the first drafts of the constitution of the African Football Confederation (later known as CAF), correspondence between CAF and FIFA leaders, CAF reports and speeches by African football leaders, FIFA officials and government officials.
In Lausanne, Batsani-Ncube conducted archival research on the SCSA at the Olympic Studies Centre situated inside the iconic International Olympic Committee Museum in Quai d'Ouchy.
He obtained primary materials that trace the genesis of the SCSA, its work, key actors, recognition battles with the International Olympic Committee, role in the formation of the Association of National Olympic Committee of Africa (ANOCA) in 1983 and its eventual dissolution in 2013.
As a result of this trip, Batsani-Ncube is now working on a number of academic articles and commentaries on sport governance architecture in Africa. These include a co-authored article on Football and Pan Africanism with Daniel Mulugeta, the political history of the SCSA and conference presentations.