The Games of the XXXI Olympiad, and branded and commonly known as The Rio Olympic Games or more simply, Rio 2016 have now concluded. While many listeners will be reflecting on the athletic exploits of the likes of Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson and even Mo Farah, others saw different causes to celebrate. Freelance journalist Lyndsey D’Arcangelo writing for the ThinkProgress.org news site declared on the eve of the games: “This year’s Olympics will have the most openly LGBT athletes ever.” She continues:“With a continued state of emergency in Brazil, the Olympic Games in Rio haven’t exactly been a public relations win for the country or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). But there is at least one positive story worth highlighting: the record number of LGBT athletes participating this summer on the world stage.
The last three Summer Olympics clearly reveal the progress made. In 2008, 12 LGBT athletes participated in Beijing. In London in 2012, that number rose to 22. Now, in Rio, there are 43. And that number is expected to grow even higher in the future.” (1)
The article proceeds to name some of the athletes including African-American baller Brittney Griner and South African runner Caster Semenya.
Whatever might be thought of the claim, it could be argued that the cited development over the last three Olympics is merely taking the games back to their Grecian origins.
The original Olympics were founded in Olympia, Greece around 776 BC in honour “father of Gods and men,” Zeus. It’s worth noting that initiation into the religion of Zeus (as well as the military) was characterised by pederasty, (2) that the Oxford online dictionary defines as “Sexual activity involving a man and a boy.” Such proclivities were deeply embedded into Greek culture with there being more than fifty examples of young men who were the lovers of gods such as stic love affairs are ascribed to Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Orpheus, Heracles, Hercules, Dionysus, Hermes, and Pan. (3)
Held every four years, the original Olympics were regarded first and foremost as a religious event games allowed only male participants, naked or near naked, engaging in running and later wrestling and boxing. Such were their importance that a moratorium on war was enacted during the games. (4) In addition to the religious aspect, American biological anthropologist and science blogger Greg Laden, outlines the social significance:
“The original Olympics… were all about watching naked men. Sure, it was a sporting event, but it was also a softly pornographic group voyeuristic tournament.” (5)
Elsewhere, different perspectives on these Olympian endeavours emerged. Journalist, author and filmmaker Stefan Lovgren, explains:
“But other cultures, like the Persians and the Egyptians, looked at these Greek men oiling one another down and writhing in the mud, and found it very strange. They believed it promoted sexual degeneracy.” (6)
The original Olympics continued until 393 A.D. when they were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I as part of the process of instituting Christianity as the state religion. (7)
They were revived, in 1896 by Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin (two years after founding the International Olympic Committee – IOC) who established the Olympic Charter which states: “The practice of sport is a human right… [Everyone should be able to play sport] without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” Such “human rights” were denied Afrikans at the time who were still colonised in Afrika and living in peonage in the Americas. It being less than a decade after the notorious Berlin Conference, it was a state of affairs that de Coubertin was wholly at ease with.
“The theory that all human races have equal rights leads to a line of policy which hinders any progress in the colonies… the superior race is fully entitled to deny the lower race certain privileges of civilized life.” (8)
But it got even worse with the third Olympic Games in 1904, with the advent of “The Savages’ Olympics,” now described as “a shameful stain on history – pygmies, cannibals and tribesmen forced to compete at 1904 Games in order to prove white supremacy.” (9)
David Jones reports that as a prelude to the main games, director, racist Irish New Yorker James Edward Sullivan, included what he termed “Anthropology Days” but has come to be known as the “Savages Olympics.” Sullivan brutally conscripted Afrikans and other indigenous peoples for his white supremacist experiment that was designed to prove their natural athleticism was inferior to that of ‘civilised’ white Americans. Sullivan sought to achieve this by placing the conscripts in a foreign environment, without context and bellowing at the “savages” and “cannibals” (as the popular press referred to them) to perform. In many respects “Anthropology Days” was an extension of the ‘Human Zoo’ phenomenon, developed in the European context by the Vatican in the 16th century. Human Zoos, as their name suggests were showcases where Afrikans and others were caged and displayed as freaks of nature as they were animals. (10)
Thus political agendas are replete throughout Olympic history – on occasion coupled with Nazi-ism and fascism. Most are aware that the Berlin games of 1936 were designed as a Nazi showcase of “Aryan supremacy” (although Jesse Owens destroyed this myth), fewer know that the Olympic torch relay was also established at these games and is in fact a Nazi invention. (11) Add to this the fact that the two longest serving Presidents of the IOC, aside from Pierre de Coubertin have said to have been notorious Nazi-sympathisers like Avery Brundage (IOC President 1952-1972) (12) and card carrying fascists Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980-2001). (13)
Consequently, there are some who have looked at the history of the Olympic games and can see little benefit to the Afrikan world. Renowned Pan-Afrikan scholar Baba Chinweizu opined:
“Does the Black world need the Olympics? I think not. It is my contention that the Olympic Games are neither in fact or name the world games they pretend to be…the Olympics are a Western institution in which the rest of us are half-tolerated paying guests… Inspired by an ancient Greek festival, founded by a Frenchman and headquartered in Switzerland. All presidents of the IOC have been Westerners; all the Olympic events, except judo, are either Western in origin or are played in their Western versions.” (14)
Baba Chinweizu proposes three possible options in response. 1) Use the existing structure to reform from within in order to “dilute its Eurocentrism” (e.g. hosting it in the Afrikan world); 2) Conditional withdraw until the structure is satisfactorily reformed; 3) Unconditional withdraw and initiate a separate, non-racist world games structure.
It could be argued that the reliance on high profile Afrikan stars over the years to help market the games (e.g. Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt, etc.) is evidence of reform as well as bringing inspiration and hope to many as they perform and succeed on a world stage and symbolic of what Afrikans can do when the playing is levelled.
(1) D’Arcangelo, Lyndsey (03/08/2016) his Year’s Olympics Will Have The Most Openly LGBT Athletes Ever. https://thinkprogress.org/this-years-olympics-will-have-the-most-openly-lgbt-athletes-ever-5bab73312f5f#.fu99rgm05(2) Koehl, Robert B. (1986) The Chieftain Cup and a Minoan Rite of Passage, Journal of Hellenic Studies 106. p 99–110. Jeanmaire, H. and Willetts (2007) R.F. The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece, in Deborah Kamen, The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, Cambridge University Press. pp. 104–105(3) Rice, Eugene (2005) Greece:Ancient. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/sshindex.html, Grant, Preston (01/08/2012) Gay Myths: Zeus/Jupiter. http://www.gayexplained.com/gay-myth-zeus-jupiter/. Sergent, Bernard (1986) Homosexuality in Greek Myth, Beacon Press.(4) Lovgren, Stefan (13/08/2004) Ancient Olympics Mixed Naked Sports, Pagan Partying.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0809_040809_nakedolympics_2.html(5) Laden, Greg (16/08/2008) Olympic Voyeurism: The Naked, the Nearly Naked, The Prideful, and The Annoyed. http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/08/16/olympic-voyeurism-naked-pride/(6) Lovgren, Op cit.(7) Santoso, Alex (02/08/2008) 10 Fascinating Facts About the Ancient Olympic Games. http://www.neatorama.com/2008/08/02/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-ancient-olympic-games/(8) Boykoff, Jules (2011) The Anti-Olympics. New Left Review 67. https://newleftreview.org/II/67/jules-boykoff-the-anti-olympics(9) Jones, David (10/07/2012) The Savages’ Olympics: It’s a shameful stain on history – pygmies, cannibals and tribesmen forced to compete at 1904 Games in order to prove white supremacy.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2171686/The-Savages-Olympics-Its-shameful-stain-history–pygmies-cannibals-tribesmen-forced-compete-1904-Games-order-prove-white-supremacy.html#ixzz4Ii9ICpCE(10) Ibid.(11) Socialist Alternative (25/08/2008) The Olympics, big business, and dictatorship. http://www.socialistalternative.org/2008/08/25/the-olympics-big-business-and-dictatorship/(12) Carlos, John with Dave Zirin (2011) The John Carlos Story, Haymarket Books. p. 79.(13) Garber, Greg (12/07/2001) Samaranch’s legacy: controversy, corruption. http://a.espncdn.com/oly/columns/garber_greg/1225329.html(14) Chinweizu (1987) The Olympic Games and The Black World in Decolonising the African Mind, Pero Press. p. 201-202.
So tonight we ask the question:
Do we really need the Olympics?
1. Are you aware of the history of the original Olympics?
2. Is the increasing LBGT involvement merely taking the Olympics back to its origins?
3. Did you know the modern Olympics have been founded and managed by colonialists and racists?
4. Are any of Baba Chinweizu’s proposals viable?
5. How do the Olympics benefit Afrikan nations?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.
Bro. Olatunji Heru: is part of the leadership of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement, journalist, broadcaster and cultural critic. He is editor in chief of The Whirlwind newspaper and producer of Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio. Bro. Olatunji is also a proud member of the UNIA-ACL and is the President of Mosiah Division #304.