Dr Arèmou Mansourou as part of the 50 years of CAHB: “Our celebration remains a solemn occasion…”

15 January 1973-15 January 2023. The African Handball Confederation (CAHB) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. In this context, President Arèmou Mansourou through a message launched the process of celebrating the Golden Jubilee which marks the half-century of the continental body.

Read below, the message of the president of CAHB.

Dear friends of Handball

ladies, gentlemen,

This message launches the process of the celebration of the Golden Jubilee which marks the 50th anniversary of the African Handball Confederation (1973-2023). Turn fifty, it is an important stage in the life of a man as in that of an institution. Our celebration remains a solemn occasion, to pause to look back on this journey, to look to the future and, to scan the mountains we have yet to climb. As we commemorate this historic event around the theme " 50 ANS ! Let's start a new era !», I would like to invite you to have a deferential thought for the Founding Fathers. Thanks to the tenacity of each other, the African Handball Confederation was created on 15 January 1973 in Lagos Nigeria. Humble beginning, certainly, but how important because several very dedicated people have played a decisive role in this journey In the weeks and months to come, we will all reflect on how true we have been to their vision and ideals.

Fifty years of Passions, of Friendships and Innovations. This commemoration will result in various events on the sidelines of our statutory competitions and the culmination of which will be that of Congo next October during the 44th African Championship of Champions Clubs. I invite the National Federations at the same time to appropriate this celebration on their own initiatives (symposium, handball day, etc…). During this half-century, our institution has recorded significant successes in strengthening fraternal relations, of solidarity between the actors, and athletic performance.

Today, I would like to pay a vibrant tribute :

To the Member National Federations and various Partners, in Africa and beyond its borders,

To illustrious predecessors, of which we honor the memory of many of them,

To technicians of all kinds, technical supervisors, Referees

To the communicators who accompany us,

To headquarters staff, who have loyally served the institution for all these years.

Some of them are no longer of this world and, I invite you to have a pious thought for them all. Thanks to work, to the determination and commitment of all the players mentioned above, the African Handball Confederation has become an institution of which we can all be proud. This is what allows us, as we question whether we have been truly faithful to our founding fathers, to respond with pride that we have played our part.

The African Handball Confederation has remained a dynamic institution in a continent where our sport is trying to make a name for itself.. Over the years, faced with the growing needs of Member Federations, the African Handball Confederation has endeavored to provide answers. Throughout this journey of fifty years, we have continuously paid attention to our model of working for the emergence of African talent. We have gone from a strongly emerging institution to an institution that counts in international relations. We have moved from a process-oriented organization to a results-oriented organization. Always moving, always in tune with the times, the African Handball Confederation has always sought to promote and bring together. Now, we have to rethink ourselves, in view of the new challenges and opportunities facing our sport in Africa. We must seize all opportunities such as the decisive support of the International Handball Federation (IHF), the appreciated support of the French Handball Federation (FFH), the support and political will of some of our state leaders and the strengthening of cooperation between the federations.

We must constantly rethink our tools, our systems and responses. We must avoid giving old answers to new problems, all this to say that we must go in the direction of progress.  Let me conclude by thanking you all, you and those who preceded you at the head of your respective Federations, because nothing would have been possible without your dedication to our mission. We still have a lot to do. Encouraging prospects exist. I hope that the conclusions that will come out of our reflections will have the expected impact on African Handball. I hope that the African Handball Confederation will assert itself more through major integrating projects that affect training and skills development as well as strengthening the role of women in our governing structures..

Happy Birthday to all, Happy fiftieth anniversary celebration.

thank you for your kind attention.

Dr Mansourou AREMOU

CAHB President