In Cape Town, the South most point of South Africa, the Aikido Federation of South Africa (AFSA) celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Hayato Osawa Shihan was sent from Hombu Dojo as the main guest instructor on behalf of the Doshu, and the AFSA officials had mixed feeling of nervousness and excitement for welcoming him. In the 30 years of AFSA’s history, no one from the Hombu Dojo had visited the country, and the leaders were all concerned about the quality of the techniques and the directions that they were heading on.
The gym of Cape Town University was used for the seminar and the students’ dormitory was provided the accommodations for the participants.
The classes were held for five days from November 28 to December 2 with the middle day for rest and sightseeing. On the first day of the seminar, five classes were held, six on the second day, three on the third day with a public demonstration in the afternoon and a celebration party in the evening, and three more on the last day.
The instructors were nicknamed “The Big Five”. They were:
Hayato Osawa Shihan 7 dan Hombu Dojo
Yoji Fujimoto Shihan 7 dan Aikikai Italia
Mutsuko Minegishi 6 dan Guam Aikikai
Franco Martufi 6 dan Aikikai Italia
Paul de Beer 5 dan AFSA
Mr. Kenneth Cottier who had played a crucial role for AFSA was also scheduled to join the event, but it was deeply regretted that due to his health, he could not witness the happy occasion.
AFSA has 16 members all over the vast country of several thousands of miles from the South to the North and from the East to the West. The president lives on the South and the General secretary lives on the North, and it is extremely difficult for them to meet each other in person except for the annual Summer and Winter seminars on the national level. All the planning and the administration have to be done by phone calls or e-mails.
The number of the participants for the seminar was approximately 130. Among them, 40 were from abroad including Russia, Australia, Canada, Guam, Italy, Germany, Scotland, England, the Netherlands and Serbia。 The reason that the number of the local participants was relatively small was because the country was so large and the expense for traveling was not so easy for the majority of the members. Some drove for eight or twelve hours to reach Cape Town. In South Africa, even the white people do not make a high income, and the cost for the seminar was amounted as much as one third of their monthly income. It was impossible for most of the non-white members to attend the seminar.
When I visited AFSA for their 20th anniversary in 1997, I toured to eight dojos out of 16 all over the country. At that time, there was one female black belt, shodan. During the seminar after 10 years, another female student was presented a certificate of shodan. In 30 years, these are the only two female black belts. To this day, Aikido seems to attract mostly men.
For the last ten years since my first visit to AFSA, I have been advocating to introduce Aikido to women and children. At present, to my greatest joy, 7 out of 16 clubs have children’s classes. Local Rotary Club funds AFSA for purchasing mats and cover sheets to cover the floor. Many clubs are benefited by the funds.
During this trip, I had a chance to visit four dojos before and after the event. My special interest was to go back to the black primary school in Paarl where I had persuaded the local instructor, Elroy, to introduce Aikido exactly one year before and we had given the first demonstration. This school is located in a village which is considered as one of the poorest areas of South Africa. Elroy selected 50 children among the 1200 of the school, and continued practice once a week. Thirty five children continued practice for one year, and 40 more children were waiting to start from January.
These children gave a demonstration in front of the public during the anniversary. The children who had never left the village, who had never got a ride on a bus arrived at the hall on a bus provided by the school. To my surprise, all of them came with brand new uniforms on.
When their parents heard that the children were giving a demonstration in Cape Town, they requested to school to provide uniforms for all of them. Their joyful smiles brightened the audience, and their well organized demonstration with high level techniques and well behaved manners and attitude received an applaud that echoed the hall. Such an exciting and memorable moment was the very thing that I had been dreaming about for South Africa, and tears filled my eyes with joy and happiness. I strongly hoped that more instructors would take interest in these young children.
Another precious experience during my trip this time was the visit to a village named Limpopo that was another poorest area in South Africa. Limpopo was located on the Northern end of the country near the border to Hungary, and it took four hours to drive from Johannesburg. There was a Japanese woman sent from the International Volunteer Center in Japan working for preventing HIV and AIDS among youth in the village. Her name is Ms. Tomoko Mizuyori, and she was a black belt in Aikido.
She was begged to teach Aikido by young boys aging from 18 to 22, and seven of them started practice three months prior to our arrival. She borrowed mats and cover sheets from AFSA, and they were put on the floor of the Youth Center. Mr. Umesh, the second president of AFSA, Sonya, one of his students, Ramon from Guam and I were the four who visited them.
We practiced four hours on Saturday and two more on Sunday. Where did such interest and energy for Aikido come from for the young men who did not even have enough food? They were still free from AIDS or HIV, and Aikido should be able to do something for them to continue their healthy and happy life. I kept thinking about what I could do and what I should do for her and her students for the future.
It has been over 13 years since the Apartheid was over in 1994. It cannot be said that there have been rapid social changes, but gradually the people’ lives are changing and improving in many ways. The whites may not be able to continue ruling over the non-whites as before. The non-whites who occupy about 90 % of the entire population have started taking leadership even in the world of Aikido. If Aikido starts to be introduced to more children immediately, we will be able to see a surprising result in ten years.
During the event, three reporters from the Japan Airline’s monthly magazine “AGORA” followed me to feature me to their March issue. I sincerely hope that the AFSA activities will also be introduced in the article to the 600,000 Japanese readers of the magazine.
In Guam,
Mutsuko Minegishi
2008.1.21