The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend? A Clash of Anti-Apartheid Tactics and Targets in the Olympic Movement of the Early 1960s

Abstract

Tensions between anti-apartheid activists within the Olympic movement are surprisingly overlooked in the large body of literature on the international campaign to isolate South Africa in sport. Kenya’s denial of visas to South African delegates slated to attend the 1963 International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Nairobi precipitated one such fissure. The South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC) strongly opposed Kenyan politicians’ decision to exclude white South African delegates from this important international gathering. Although both groups shared the desire to confound apartheid, in this situation their means for achieving that goal were diametrically opposed. Kenya controlled the pace of resistance, which culminated in the first call from an African nation for a continental boycott of the Olympic Games. This episode highlighted the growing tensions that the practice of apartheid sparked in the world of sport as well as showcasing the agency of African leaders within that sphere.