Decolonizing the Pitch: Exposing Western Intrusion in African Sports

“They have no cause, no effect in the upcoming games in Russia, and they should not purport to talk on behalf of African countries. IOC ought to be a neutral body, an independent body and [a] non-political body. I hope that Thomas Bach should stare away from politics and focus on the integrity of the games," Professor Netswera explains.

“If the president of the IOC emerged from a third-world country or another country in West Asia, I don’t think he would have been swayed to say or articulate matters in the way that Thomas Bach did. So it is very obvious that Western nations and European nations have got their own perceptions and agenda of how international institutions should operate and how other countries from the global South should just follow in the footsteps of their masters and leaders,” he stresses.

“The West is in disarray, and it has lost its legitimacy, its credibility, and of course, their power worldwide. That is why we are witnessing the birth of new countries, new great powers, like Russia and China and so forth. And the whole political system in the whole world is going through a dramatic change with the emergence of the multipolar system, [which] will affect the whole process in politics, economics and in sports. Therefore, if they continue like that, we expect to have different games in different parts of the world,” Professor Zaghlami says.