Tag: Eoin Redahan
Adeyinka Makinde E-Mail Interview on African Boxing
by Guest Writer on Mar.09, 2010, under Boxing News, Guest Columnists
by Eoin Redahan
Eoin Redahan: There are countless American boxers of African ancestry in boxing’s Hall of Fame. Why do you think Africa has so few boxers in the Hall of Fame?
Adeyinka Makinde: Perhaps you could ask a similar question as to why the African Diaspora in North America produces the men and the women with the fastest recorded times in sprinting. Most of them, I’d wager, would be able to trace their ancestry to parts of West and Central Africa, yet there is no corresponding success among their contemporaries from the ‘Motherland’. It’s likely to be down to the nurturing they receive in the early stages of their careers. Many African athletes do not have proper and adequate facilities in their home countries. Some go further to postulate genetic improvement. The forebears of those sold into slavery centuries before were often times captured warriors. Then only the strong survived the horrors of the middle passage. Maybe there’s an inkling of truth there, but I think it is more a case of having an environment within which training and nurturing expertise marries with latent talent and ambition. (continue reading…)