Bring back Dakar Rally to Africa

The real thing. . . Moroccan Harite Gabari rides the Sahara dunes in his country. Gabari is competing in this year's Dakar Rally, in South America. In the past Morocco was one of the Dakar hosts in Africa.

It’s a misnomer that the Dakar Rally is taking place in South America. Not because there is anything wrong with that part of the world, it’s a beautiful place judging by the TV footage of the event. My gripe is that it is the fifth year now that the Dakar Rally has been taken away from Africa, its original home, for security reasons and that the countries it traversed, as well as the African Union, have been silent.

I trawled the internet looking for statements I might have missed in the news, about Africa expressing the tragedy of losing this iconic motorsport event, and maybe a promise of fixing all that took the event away. There was nothing. Quiet, like the Sahara, the spiritual home of the Dakar Rally.

At this rate, it is adequate to conclude that as far as African leaders are concerned the biggest motor rally is no longer the continent’s business. What are they saying in Senegal, whose capital gave the championship its name? It is still Dakar Rally after all, with the logo still depicting the head of a Touareg man, the desert nomad whose stomping ground used to provide the thrills and spins for the vehicles and motorbikes that compete in this rally.

There’s also a clumsy argument from certain quarters that Africa does not need this event as it is dominated by European drivers. This is backward thinking to say the least, given the fact that Africa loses out on the Dakar at the time international sport is multi-billion dollar industry with direct economic spinoffs experienced by host countries.

How troublesome was is it to the people of Algeria, Morocco, Mauratania, Mali and Senegal that the race used to go through their countries, a positive international exposure that is now being enjoyed by Peru, Argentina and Chile? When coming to this issue, the African leadership stands accused of throwing the bathwater with the baby.

Africa’s daily experience should not be about wars, famine or other forms of strife. The reinstatement of the Dakar Rally in Africa will go a long way to put down a solid statement that Africa is a place to be. But we need visionary leadership to clinch that deal. Wake up AU!

Harite Gabari

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