Skip to main content

African Champion

An image of a pre fight stare down between UFC Welter weight champion Dricus Du Plessis and former champion Isreal Adesanya
Image source:punchng.com


Stumbling on a news snippet of the most recent interaction between Israel Adesanya and defending UFC middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis, at a pre-fight press conference, it cast my mind back to an earlier take on identity. Du Plessis became champion by defeating Sean Strickland whom Adesanya had lost the belt to in 2023.

Du Plessis has described himself as the first African UFC champion, side stepping Israel Adesanya, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, other previous UFC champions whom he says are only of African decent. Du Plessis, for explication is caucasian South African while the others mentioned are black with Nigerian and Cameroonian heritages. He backs up his claim with the explanation that not only is he born and raised in Africa but he also trains with his team in Africa and has always lived and still lives in Africa. This is in contrast with the others, Israel Adesanya for instance who fights as a New Zealander in the UFC.

The two fighters, Adesanya and Du Plessis had been going at each other, particularly in the build up to their fight, trying to establish who is more authentically African. The South African champion had repeatedly teased Adesanya about his ‘privilege’, striking a nerve and causing Adesanya to tear up during their pre-fight conference.

The whole drama got me re-examining what it means to be African today, indeed what identity is comprised of today. While dual citizenship doesn’t overrule heritage, it appears some feel as though some sovereignty is ceded when one takes up another nationality. When asked if he would visit Africa in the near future, and Adesanya responded affirmatively, Du Plessis jibed, asking if he would be coming with his servants implying Adesanya's privileged standing.

Many people of different heritages often from the global south continue to struggle and fight for acceptance in the lands where they have found themselves in - often in the global North - where either their ancestors were sold to as slaves or their families have moved to in search of a better life. Perhaps then it shouldn’t be too bizarre to many that a white man lays claim to being an authentic African champion. After all, the legitimacy of Caucasian Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders or even Americans is no longer questioned as they have laid claim to lands which were ‘stolen’ by their forebearers after largely running off the original inhabitants.

No matter the role one’s forebears played in where they are today, many still fight to find and consolidate their identity. Identity today isn’t what it used to be just a hundred years ago; who can tell what it will be in a hundred to come? 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Few Good Men

Image: Livguard I had barely left my street heading to church one Sunday when my car started to act up. Sparking sounds emanated from the engine; an issue my auto electrician had just assured me was resolved only the day before. It didn’t take long for me to decide that it would be safer to park and investigate the issue further. On the opposite side of the road from where I stopped was a truck driver backing his long container truck into an available parking spot there. Now, this fault is something that had damaged the brain box of my car in the past, (or at least that’s what I was told was responsible) and so I was not willing to take any chances. The day being a Sunday, I wasn’t likely to get a mechanic easily and so I approached the truck guy parked on the other side of the road for some help. Thinking about it now, I’m wondering why I felt he could help; I guess I felt driving a truck implied that he was more technical than the average driver.   As I approached h...
Post a Comment
Read more

of illusions and resolutions

Image: Fenderbender Overtime, I have come across two important lessons with respect to achieving goals. It is a still a struggle for me to imbibe the inherent truths in the lessons but I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that they hold the key to commitment to specific objectives 1.     1. You will never be good enough – We all have been blessed with fantastic ideas that can change and re-engineer our world. We are literally busting at the seams with life changing concepts and initiatives. But our mind never seems to agree with us. It tells us not to delude ourselves; great ideas are the preserve of an exclusive few and we are most certainly not part of that few. Even when we are convinced that we are on to something special or that has potential, our will is quickly worn down by the thought of the effort required to actualize the goal.     The excuses then begin to pour in, reason after reason why we are not qualified to chase that dream. And it doe...
Post a Comment
Read more