AFRICA AND THE OLYMPICS, winning away from the podium

220pp., illus., map, paperback, Ohio University Press, Athens, 2024

ISBN: 9780896803527

Todd Cleveland on how African states, athletes and officials have engaged with the Olympic Games as a means of achieving non-sporting victories for individuals, communities and nations.

"Meticulously researched, highly readable and clearly argued, Africa and the Olympics steps past Africa’s domination of distance running to explore the multifarious ways Africans engage with the games. African colonies and states used the games to push decolonization, engender national pride and dignity, and demonstrate continental solidarity in the struggle against racism. African olympians parlay participation to improve personal circumstances and to effect social change through charitable initiatives and foundations. Africa and the Olympics is a clever analysis of Africans winning - beyond the podium." Douglas Booth, University of Otago

"Todd Cleveland's Africa and the Olympics is an outstanding, accessible account of African Olympic history that chronicles not only the lives of athletes who emerged as superstars on the greatest stage in sport but also officials’ and activists’ achievement of non-sporting, political victories through their engagement with the Olympic movement." Michelle Sikes, Pennsylvania State University

Todd Cleveland is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. His books include Sports in Africa, past and present; Following the Ball: The migration of African soccer players across the Portuguese colonial empire, 1949–1975; Diamonds in the Rough: Corporate paternalism and African professionalism on the mines of colonial Angola, 1917–1975, and Stones of Contention: A history of Africa’s diamonds.