SEPARABILITY AND INSEPARABILITY OF SPORT AND POLITICS: THE REALITY IN AFRICA TODAY

Abstract

The widely known argument by sport sociologists that sport and politics must remain water and oil that should never mix is the philosophy that has led this study to be undertaken to assess the truth in the sport fraternity to date. News is awash with incidents when politicians and the state influence the administration of sport and national sports associations survive on political support, leaving the sport-politicization matrix so complex that one could believe that the two cannot be separated. On that course, sport should be free from political interference, and politics should only support sport development. This study aims at assessing the separability and inseparability of sport and politics from a qualitative worldview and adopted a case study as a deemed appropriate study method. Data generating instruments such as interviews, observations and group discussions were used in this study. The objectives of this study are i) to identify supporting evidence of incidents where politics lead sports activities, ii) to explain how sport is weakened by political interference,  iii) to show how politics support sport development, iv) to describe the modern relationship between sport and politics. Research participants involved were seating political constituencies’ members of parliament, ward councilors, sport administrators, youth in sport and sport clubs in communities. Data were analyzed through thematic approach and transcriptions of verbatim. This study has found out that sports and politics in African perspective are same sides of the same coin, one cannot thrive without the other. It is difficult to separate sport from politics since sport or politics is benefiting much from each other for development and success. However, it emerged that there is misconception in the definition of “intervention and interference”. From these findings the research highlighted these recommendations: sport administrators should redefine political interference and intervention, governments must establish sport techno-parks in districts, sport administrators should take advantage of politics that support sport participation, sport integrity should be protected and finally it is not necessary to separate politics from sport.