A Black Boycott?

The row that erupted last week, virtually on the eve of the XX Olympiad in Munich, was potentially the most disruptive in the troubled 76-year history of the modern Games. The governments of eleven Black African nations, notably Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, declared that they would not permit their countrymen to compete if the Games remained open to athletes from white-supremacist Rhodesia.

Threatened or actual boycotts are not new to the Olympic Games. U.S. participation in the 1936 Berlin Games was in doubt for months as many Americans urged a boycott to protest the anti-Semitism of the Nazi hosts. In 1956 Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon withdrew from the Melbourne Games because of the British-French occupation of Suez; that same year Spain and Holland refused to compete because of Russia's invasion of Hungary. Threatened withdrawal by Black African nations from the 1968 Mexico City Games resulted in the exclusion of black athletes from racist South Africa.

The situation last week differed from the 1968 dispute in that the consequences of a Black African boycott this time are much more alarming. Before the 1968 Games, Black African athletes were not regarded as a major factor in international competition. But Kenya, in particular, emerged in Mexico as a world superpower in men's track events, winning more medals than any other nation except the U.S. This year the Kenyan team looks even stronger, with budding new stars to support defending Olympic Champions Kipchoge Keino (in the 1.500-meter run), Naftali Temu (in the 10,000 meters) and Amos Biwott (in the 3,000-meter steeplechase). Ethiopia too has potential gold medalists in defending Marathon Champion Mamo Wold and Miruz Yifter, a specialist in the 5,000-and 10,000-meter runs. In short, if Black Africa is absent, some of the medals awarded at Munich will seem slightly tarnished.

The potential long-term consequences are even worse. Overreacting to the threat with characteristic irritability, International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage made a threat of his own: if any teams obeyed their governments' orders to withdraw from Munich they would be expelled from future Games. Brundage rationalized his warning by citing an I.O.C. rule that national teams must be independent of their governments. Brundage was being unfairly selective in issuing his threat; he has never chosen to enforce the rule against Communist teams, which are clearly under their governments' control.

Even the argument over Rhodesia's right to participate was not without its elements of hypocrisy. Rhodesia, which declared its independence from Britain in 1965, was not permitted to compete in the 1968 Games because its existence as a separate state was not recognized by Mexico. But the I.O.C. agreed last September to let Rhodesia enter the Munich Games if the members of the team (which includes both blacks and whites) would pretend to be British subjects. The team would have to march under the old Southern Rhodesian flag and stand to attention for God Save the Queen. At the time, the Black African nations voiced no opposition to the proposed charade. By delivering last-minute ultimatums, the African governments were being fair neither to the German organizers nor to their own athletes, most of whom were already on hand. At week's end 18 U.S. black athletes hinted at a sympathy walkout "with our African brothers," and pressure grew for some sort of settlement.

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