Dear executive members of the EGF

We would like to explore the possibility of South Africa, and potentially other African countries, joining the EGF. We feel a keen urge to participate more actively in the global go community, and we believe that joining the EGF would be an effective way to meet that desire.

Currently, Africa has no continental body, and the likelihood of such a body ever being formed is very small. There are only three IGF member countries (South Africa, Morocco and Madagascar) in Africa, of which South Africa is by far the most active country (and by the standards of the larger EGF members even that activity is relatively small). There is at present no point in forming an African body, as South Africa is by far the major influence in African go. For example, when we participated in the Toyota-Densa Oza tournaments (last held in 2008), South Africa was tasked with handling the African aspect of the event.

We currently have about 100 active players, of which about 15 are dan level, the strongest being Victor Chow 7d, who is probably well known to some of you. We believe that having formal access to some of the events that the EGF organises, such as the Pandanet Go European Team Championship, would significantly spur interest in go within our country.

South Africa could also consider hosting some events. While the cost of flights to South Africa would probably rule out using South Africa as a venue for the European Go Congress, perhaps some other events could be considered. We do have experience of hosting significant tournaments such as the Oza mentioned above, and of course, South Africa is an excellent tourist destination with many other attractions beyond Go.

This expansion of the EGF would also be in line with the practice that many international organizations adopt, which is to set up an EMEA division rather than separate Europe and Africa (and Middle East) divisions. This reflects the geographic proximity as well as the time zone equivalence – South Africa’s time zone is GMT+2, the same as Central European Summer Time. Furthermore, we understand that there is already some precedence for flexibility in the definition of European, as countries such as Israel and Kazakhstan are currently members of the EGF.

If this proposal meets with your interest, we would need to discuss the next steps to reach this goal.

We've taken a brief look at your constitution, and it's not clear whether it would allow you to add a non-European country without amendments. We also don't know what the level of support would be within your membership, or how you would gauge that. If direct membership is not feasible or desired, is there any other form of affiliation which you would suggest which could lead to closer cooperation?

There would also be some practical issues to debate, for instance, whether South African players would be allowed to compete for representation at international tournaments as an EGF representative. In this case, it may entirely depend on the organizers and sponsors of the tournament in question. A related topic would be whether South African players would be eligible for the new CEGO Go Academy system.

Further information about South African Go, and in particular, activities of the South African Go Association, are available at http://www.sagoclubs.co.za/saga (the menu item on the left named “SAGA” will expand to show extensive details about our organisation).

I don't think that Europe, by which I mean the EGF, has the ability, or the remit, to develop the game in Africa.

I would be all for allowing South Africa (SA) playing in the Team league - but I would worry that SA joining the EGF would probably not be the best way to encourage the development of Go in Africa. Shouldn't we, or the IGF, be encouraging the formation of an African Go Federation?

Africa, of which South Africa is by far the most active country [...] We currently have about 100 active players

How to measure this activity and what is it? For comparison, I have heard that Madagascar has ca. 200 active players.

Charles Matthews taught the game to a lot of people in Uganda - I wonder if anyone ever followed up on his work...

That Madagascar has 200 active players is quite hard to believe. Do you recall where you heard this?

From Madagascar's representative at the KPMC 2009 or 2010. However, I do not know how "active" those players are. Maybe most of them are just playing friendly games.

They were probably pupils of Wimmer and so had pro lessons, unlike most of us.

Or perhaps a pro father?

Does South Africa's go community have any sort of requirements that they need to meet before the EGF can let them become a member? If so, what are they?

I don't understand why the main requirement would not be to be in Europe.

There is this... http://www.eurogofed.org/egf/questions.txt

I think this is an excellent idea. As more and more of the go world moves online, time zone distances are becoming more and more important, relative to physical distance. I would love to see a similar move in the Americas, with North and South America running joint internet events. E.g. the AGA city league could be reformed/expanded to accept teams from South America.

South America is actually quite far East: most of Brazil and Argentina are GMT-3 which is closer to central Europe (GMT+1) than West coast USA (GMT-8).

Supposing the EGF would adopt African members at all (I do not know when - i.e., BEFORE the motion mentioned below - and how such can be decided, except that there is a deadline of 3 months for major motions by already EXISTING EGF members before the Annual General Meeting of the EGF), it will be necessary that a South African representative (proving his delegation right) of the SA Go Association will be present at the Annual General Meeting of the EGF when the motion shall be voted. Of course, such a written motion must be sent to the EGF Committee (or its secretary) in time, and I guess that the EGF should confirm that the form of the motion is sufficient.