Written by the WWLA Founders
Edited by Michelle Mocumbi
Every FIFA World Cup seems to surface the same contradiction. We watch players with deep African roots transform games for some of the world’s most successful national teams, and many of us cannot help but feel a tension that goes beyond sport. As one voice in our conversation reflected while watching stars like Kylian Mbappé and other players of African descent dominate on the global stage: ‘You’re on the wrong team. What are you doing?’ Yet beneath that emotional reaction lies a more profound question about opportunity, belonging, and the structures that continue to shape African talent.
This year’s World Cup has been a reminder of a much older pattern. Just as Africa’s wealth and natural resources are extracted from the continent, so too is its sporting talent. The issue is not where individual athletes choose to play. These athletes have often made the best decisions available to them and for the financial stability of their families and their futures. The deeper challenge is why those opportunities so often exist elsewhere.
The question before us is, what would it take to create the conditions for African talent to thrive on African soil? What would it mean to build sporting ecosystems strong enough that the continent’s athletes, coaches, administrators, storytellers, entrepreneurs, and innovators could fuel local communities, industries, and economies? What would change if the pathway to success did not require leaving, but could increasingly be built at home?
This is precisely why the work of Champs for Change (C4C) matters. Their vision extends far beyond developing athletes. They are focused on ‘building the sports ecosystem’ and strengthening ‘the whole value chain around sports’. They understand that sport is not only about what happens on the field or court. It is about creating an industry, an infrastructure, and a culture that can support talent at every level.
At the heart of this vision is a powerful act of reclamation. As we reflected in our conversation, building the sports ecosystem in Africa is about creating the conditions for that talent to stay here and to fuel the countries, communities, and families those people are part of. It is about shifting from a model of extraction to one of ownership. Or, as we put it, using the familiar but fitting phrase: for us, by us. The work African sports leaders are doing to build the African sports ecosystem from scratch is often thankless. But it is critical to nurturing youth capacity and talent on the continent – and not by external actors. It is also critical to the holistic rebalance of mental, physical, and spiritual well-being in our current digital age.
We are thrilled that we’re part of celebrating these leaders. The stories in our sixth volume, A Sports Volume: Purpose, Perseverance, Passion, invite us to imagine a better future. They bring into view the leaders, builders, organisers, and changemakers working every day to ensure that sport does not remain a continued avenue of extraction of Black bodies, but a source of inspiration and a platform for employment, leadership development, community well-being, and lasting transformation across the continent.
We are thrilled to be part of this ecosystem development in partnership with C4C, whose shared belief in storytelling as a vehicle for building capacity for African futures made them perfect partners. We also share the story contributors’ purpose, perseverance, and passion for Africa’s advancement. We are building on our shared vision through We Will Lead Africa (WWLA) representation on the inaugural C4C Advisory Board.
For us on the WWLA team, this volume stands out as the first to be completely delivered by another editorial team. It allowed us to test our plans for partnership and the scaling and franchising of the WWLA model for publishing volumes. It has also planted the seeds for how we must continue to grow in the next 10 years, and we are excited to see where this journey leads.
Congratulations to the C4C team on the launch of the paperback copy of A Sports Volume: Purpose, Perseverance, Passion after the initial hardcover book. You can now order the physical paperback through Amazon, Lulu, or DotDot or purchase it at the following Exclusive Books stores in South Africa:
- Cape Town, V&A Waterfront
- Durban, Pavilion
- Johannesburg, Mall of Africa, Clearwater
- Mpumalanga, Nelspruit.
Check out photos from the Johannesburg launch below.
