The United States of America and the Francophone African Countries at the International Olympic Committee: Sports Aid, a Barometer of American Imperialism? (1952–1963)

In 1952, the new American president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Avery Brundage, was confronted by the emergence of the Third World. This new development challenged the influence of the American and Soviet blocs. On June 6, 1962, the Committee for International Olympic Aid (CIOA) was created. The objective of this new institution was to lead the newly-independent African countries into the Olympic movement and to assist in the development of their sports institutions. The aim of this article is to analyze American policies towards the CIOA, in light of the independence process in the francophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa between 1952 and 1963. From the concept of power, we attempt to show the extent to which American sports aid within and outside the IOC constitutes a barometer of American cultural imperialism. For this purpose, we make use of a large corpus of archives, derived mainly from the Olympic Studies Centre in Lausanne, and the records of French cooperation over the period in question.