African agency and soft disempowerment in the Chinese and American sports diplomacy

International Relations scholars are paying more attention to the various manifestations and outcomes of sports diplomacy. The term relates to the power of the private, public and third sectors to harness sportspeople, clubs, associations and events to promote a state’s policy within a global setting. While Western, Asian and Middle Eastern contexts have attracted most scholarly discussions in this regard, less attention has been devoted to Africa. This article addresses this shortcoming by analysing the goals and outcomes of the Chinese and American sports diplomacy in Africa, namely, the former’s stadium diplomacy and the latter’s basketball diplomacy. The examination is based on the analysis of state policies and media coverage of the countries’ sports endeavours in Africa. The article observes the two’s interests alongside the role African actors play in this rivalry, who express their agency as they seek to exploit the global popularity of sports and the American-Chinese competition in the continent to promote their own interests. The article argues that whereas sports enables African countries to draw investments from China and the United States while enabling the two to increase their influence throughout the continent, the two’s sports diplomacies have unwanted outcomes for African, American and Chinese sides.