Leading Esports convening body, the Global Esports Federation (GEF) through the African Esports Development Federation (AEDF), has held its first marquee event in Africa with the inaugural African Esports Championships – Southern Africa Region (AEC22) held at the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games in Lilongwe, Malawi.
The event featured GEFcon – a session of keynote speeches and panel discussions featuring thought leaders in sports, Esports, business and entertainment, GEFestival a showcase of the beauty of Esports, the values of the GEF (equality, diversity, fair play, inclusion & innovation) and networking session as well as the AEC22 Finals played on the eFootball and Street Fighter titles.
In his welcome address, GEF Vice President and AEDF President, Tommy Sithole stated that it is time for Africa to rise to the Esports wave which is gaining momentum globally and through the GEF, this is just the beginning of great things to come.
Also in his keynote speech, AUSC Region 5 CEO, Stanley Mutoya commended the region’s Council of Ministers who gave the nod for Esports to be added to the Games starting with Malawi this year and future games showing that the region leads in innovation among its peers.
The event which was hosted by Nigerian-born Sayo Owolabi who is the Secretary General of the AEDF also had in attendance leading figures from the AUSC – Dr. Decius Chipande, Coordinator of the AUSC, Ms Lina Paul Kessy, Snr. Sports Officer African Games and Marketing as well as LOC Chairman, Dennis Mombera and Esports Zambia Federation President, Dickson Jere.
Hosts Malawi and Zambia were the big winners on the night as Jones Masiye Jnr. won gold in eFootball for Malawi and Peter Chilembo the youngest athlete at the Championships beat all comers to gold for Zambia in Street Fighter.
