Commentary
By George Tregson Roberts, Toronto, Canada.
The games are now over and virtually everyone has returned home, with the exception of a few who pulled a vanishing trick and disappeared into the belly of the host country. It is interesting that those who made use of this manoeuvre were African athletes.
However, while some disappear, others did their best where it mattered. But in spite of those efforts, African countries south of the Sahara could only manage just a handful of medals. Nevertheless, whether Africa performed well or not, the entire Olympic spectacle was most enjoyable, transfixing one for days on end, to the extent that, in the immediate aftermath, there was a most disturbing withdrawal effect.
But normal life resumed and, as we settle down, we wonder where athletes find that extra something to perform faster, higher, stronger, articles of faith that drive the Olympic movement. We wonder too, why it is that only a scanty few of us can answer the call. And, especially, why the men and women of tiny Jamaica out-perform so many others in the areas of Track and Field? Much has been written about that but there is another side to that question, too, and that is, “Why do Sierra Leoneans perform so poorly?”
The 12 medals that the Jamaicans collected could be considered small potatoes in comparison to the massive 104 and 88 that the Americans and Chinese, respectively, hauled home. Population statistics might, to some extent, provide the answer. But in the case of Jamaica, the islanders performed above and beyond what their population might have predicted. By the same measure, India, on the other hand, falls miserably below the level that their second-most-populous-nation status would suggest. So, obviously, a big population is not instantly an advantage, nor is a small one necessarily a disadvantage.
What is it then? Perhaps it is money. Money not only talks, but evidently it runs, jumps and lifts as well. Medal positions reveal a clear dependence on national income: the higher the gross national income, or GNI, the more medals a country bags. This is true for most, with the exception of the four countries with the highest medals count. But China disrupts this trend among this gang-of-four, somewhat, by carrying off a haul much bigger than its $7500 GNI would predict. The other anomaly is Jamaica (again) on the opposite end of the GNI spectrum where the island’s purchasing power of only $6500 GNI should have bought relatively little.
But Jamaica won big. And this was not just a 2012 fluke. The Jamaicans have been doing it for years. Because of this, people have come up with all kinds of explanations why they do so well, particularly in the sprint events where they excel so spectacularly. Genetics, slavery, diet and even schooling have all been invoked as potential explanations of the Jamaican phenomenon, not only in the popular press but also among academics as well. The narrative can be summarized something like so. Jamaican sprinters are descendants of African slaves who were forced from their ancestral lands, transported under the most appalling conditions of the “middle passage,” to the Caribbean islands. Here, they had to endure the hardships of plantation slavery. In this school of hard knocks only the very strong, suitably genetically endowed, survived. That supposed survivor gene was robust enough also to establish in its inheritors the desire, the will and the energy to revolt against the slave masters. They grabbed their freedom and ran into the central mountain region of Jamaica where they became the “Maroons.” The English, who had wrested the island from the Spaniards, were never able to defeat them in frontal combat, but instead, used subterfuge to get them to lay down their arms. Most of the Maroons were subsequently transported to Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada. Those who remained on the island thrived on a diet of yams that boosted their considerable genetic endowment, it is claimed. Many still live in a parish called Trelawney where the modern-day Maroon child starts running as soon as he or she gets out of the cradle. Once in school, they follow a regimen of training that culminates, for the cream, in the annual “Champs” secondary schools sports competition. And that is how they come to win.
Now insert that record into the Salone jukebox and press “Play.” The story plays right up to the Nova Scotia banishment, from where the next episode of the drama follows. In 1800, the most bolshie of the Maroons were moved, once again, to Freetown, the newly-established refuge for African slaves, where they were settled in the “Maroon Town” quarter on the western edge of the infant city. Maroon Town Church, Trelawney Street and Westmoreland Street (now Siaka Stevens Street) are just a few of the relics of this reverse migration that brought descendants right back to the place from which their forebears had been taken.
Their descendants still live there, their genes circulating among us. We, too, eat yam as an important part of a diet in which the tuber has attained special rank in the Krio lexicon of phrases: “If you yams white, cobba am,” a saying goes*. The children go to school and, significantly, participate in sport, culminating in the annual secondary schools competition, the Sierra Leone equivalent of “Champs.”
Why do Sierra Leoneans not win medals, then? Why don’t we even qualify? Sure our GNI is low (very low) but Maroon blood runs in our veins and we do everything else that a bona fide Maroon would do. Yes, we also have the Champs, the Annual Secondary Schools Sports, an event that should be the entrance examination for athletes who aim to perform at the higher level. But what has been happening, instead? The emphasis, sadly, appears to be elsewhere.
But to truly understand the calamitous state of athletics in our country, all we have to do is observe the headlines that blaze across newspapers at the beginning of March, each year, the time when the secondary schools sport competition takes place. Here are some direct quotes, with my emphases.
“As Inter-Sec ends today… Kids Advocacy Network call for peace…”
“…assistant Director of PHE (Physical Health Education) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has disclosed that they hope to have a successful sports meet this year that will be free from violence…”
“…he went further that they received a letter from the Inspector General of Police about the violence that always occur after the sport meeting…”
“The Minister of Youths and Sports stressed that violence is no longer accepted in the society...”
You get the drift. One would be forgiven if one asked, “Do we have the right priorities?”
It is true that we have had our measure of disasters, not least a long-lasting civil war, the effects of which still pervade our society. But the inability of school children (for goodness’ sake) to channel passions into useful endeavours is just another symptom of a systemic malaise that afflicts the country, which those in charge would ignore at our peril.
*Translation: Be modest in showing off your good fortune.
Figures for GNI were taken from the UNDP 2011 Human Development Report
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