Making African Sports Global
Jepkorir Rose Chepyator-Thomson &
Mike Boit
The Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports has come at an opportune time–African footballers are making their presence felt at World Championships and Olympics and African runners are taking the world by the storm in various competitions, producing high caliber performances that have sparked controversy on nature versus nurture–and so a time has come for a journal of this nature. The era of globalization where electronic revolutions, including media developments and productions have advanced the creation and sharing of theoretical and practical knowledge almost instantly across continents has arrived thereby making the African continent a part of the global arena. Indeed the explosion in technology, including electronic media has become part and parcel of global society, making it possible for African sports to be known globe-wide.
The journal provides immediate and powerful medium for the promotion of sports development, including the economic sectors in African societies with the idea of transforming the lives of people who would otherwise be left behind with information technology, which has revolutionize global connectivity and made possible global interdependency. The journal publications focus primarily on sports from an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from speakers and experts in different academic fields and from conference proceedings and invited lectures and book reviews. The journal embraces diverse theoretical and practical perspectives, and scholars and practitioners from around the world can make their contributions. In many respects, the African continent has been left behind and the journal provides a needed impetus for change that permeates African societies and impacts Africa and global arenas.
Information disseminated through this Journal is useful for researching, policy-making, teaching and curriculum planning, including information for broadening awareness in scholars and expanding knowledge in their respective fields, and for promoting government and private enterprises in education. Making African sports global through this journal brings scholarly writings and participatory opportunities to fruition, thereby creating spaces for scholars and sports participants to engender sustainable development, promote personal and social endeavors, including economic, social and political activities in Africa and beyond. The sport industry is a rapidly growing field and the corresponding need for research publications that reaches the heart of Africa in a timely fashion is greatly needed, particularly given mounting costs for sending journals to Africa. Time is of the essence in the publish or perish nature of the academy, and therefore the employment of a quick turn around in review process and publication, if accepted given the rigorous peer review standards used to filter the best research in this journal, is great. The transmission of the information will happen almost instantly through the journal, which will play and will continue to play a critical role in furthering African sports globally in the 21st century.
The first issue of The Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports comprises refereed articles selected from first conference papers, which were submitted for review by scholars. The articles focus on diverse perspectives and address varying issues in African sports. We look forward to reading future issues that focus on research developments and offer practical solutions to issues involving sports and related areas in Africa.
This journal brings our beloved continent–second only to Asia–to a level of global-local connectivity unimagined before. It affirms development and dissemination of knowledge about Africa at a level unheard off in recent times, and joins scholars and practitioners alike to promote Africa to its former glory in pre-colonial times. As Thabo Mbeki, South African President, once said, “let us err today and say ‘nothing can stop us now’” (Thabo Mbeki, May 8, 1996, Cape Town, on the occasion of the adoption of the constitution Assembly of “The Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996”) in this era of global revolution in information technology. Let us make Africa sports global through The Interdisciplinary Journal of African Sports.
Jepkorir Rose Chepyator-Thomson, PhD
The University of Georgia, Athens, United States.
Mike Boit, PhD
Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
