Dear executive members of the EGF
We would like to explore the possibility of South Africa, and potentially other African countries, joining the EGF. We feel a keen urge to participate more actively in the global go community, and we believe that joining the EGF would be an effective way to meet that desire.
Currently, Africa has no continental body, and the likelihood of such a body ever being formed is very small. There are only three IGF member countries (South Africa, Morocco and Madagascar) in Africa, of which South Africa is by far the most active country (and by the standards of the larger EGF members even that activity is relatively small). There is at present no point in forming an African body, as South Africa is by far the major influence in African go. For example, when we participated in the Toyota-Densa Oza tournaments (last held in 2008), South Africa was tasked with handling the African aspect of the event.
We currently have about 100 active players, of which about 15 are dan level, the strongest being Victor Chow 7d, who is probably well known to some of you. We believe that having formal access to some of the events that the EGF organises, such as the Pandanet Go European Team Championship, would significantly spur interest in go within our country.
South Africa could also consider hosting some events. While the cost of flights to South Africa would probably rule out using South Africa as a venue for the European Go Congress, perhaps some other events could be considered. We do have experience of hosting significant tournaments such as the Oza mentioned above, and of course, South Africa is an excellent tourist destination with many other attractions beyond Go.
This expansion of the EGF would also be in line with the practice that many international organizations adopt, which is to set up an EMEA division rather than separate Europe and Africa (and Middle East) divisions. This reflects the geographic proximity as well as the time zone equivalence – South Africa’s time zone is GMT+2, the same as Central European Summer Time. Furthermore, we understand that there is already some precedence for flexibility in the definition of European, as countries such as Israel and Kazakhstan are currently members of the EGF.
If this proposal meets with your interest, we would need to discuss the next steps to reach this goal.
We've taken a brief look at your constitution, and it's not clear whether it would allow you to add a non-European country without amendments. We also don't know what the level of support would be within your membership, or how you would gauge that. If direct membership is not feasible or desired, is there any other form of affiliation which you would suggest which could lead to closer cooperation?
There would also be some practical issues to debate, for instance, whether South African players would be allowed to compete for representation at international tournaments as an EGF representative. In this case, it may entirely depend on the organizers and sponsors of the tournament in question. A related topic would be whether South African players would be eligible for the new CEGO Go Academy system.
Further information about South African Go, and in particular, activities of the South African Go Association, are available at http://www.sagoclubs.co.za/saga (the menu item on the left named “SAGA” will expand to show extensive details about our organisation).
This has been mentioned on the boards before. Javaness in particular has asked some pertinent questions:
Javaness2 wrote:I don't think that Europe, by which I mean the EGF, has the ability, or the remit, to develop the game in Africa.
This similar question was asked on the EGF forum (possibly also by Javaness2)
I would be all for allowing South Africa (SA) playing in the Team league - but I would worry that SA joining the EGF would probably not be the best way to encourage the development of Go in Africa. Shouldn't we, or the IGF, be encouraging the formation of an African Go Federation?
I think both are good questions. To some extent they are covered by the initial request. This is not a request to the EGF to take on the burden of growing the game in Africa. It's reflection of the current reality that Go doesn't really exist in Africa, and we in South Africa strongly wish to participate more actively in the Go community.
If the EGF or the IGF want to encourage the formation of an African go federation, that would be fine. I think the best way to do this would be in the form we are proposing - including interested countries within the umbrella of the EGF, at least initially, until there are enough strong members to feasibly separate. The alternative strategy of sending money and people and hoping for the best is another possibility, but there's no plausible way of sustaining something like this at the moment.
Please ask any other questions.
