Kickboxing sport was getting strong and stronger in Africa in mid years 1990. There were many official national federations established in African countries and they had many request from different international organization to be their member.
Usual the national federations are looking to be a member of international federation but in case of African countries it was completely opposite for the simple reason that there were existing various international federation pretending being World governing body and at that time none of them had recognition from GAISF/SPORTACCORD. Accordingly, they were looking for the members and what could better than the members, which are recognized in their respective countries as official governing body of Kickboxing, sport and recognized by their sport authorities and national Olympic Committee.
Some of the International federation almost waive the affiliation memberships and one of the was also WAKO. WAKO had applied for GAISF recognition almost mid of year 1990s but unfortunately, the request was refused and postponed to the next examination.
There were more or less same situation in Asia with a big difference that in Asia, there were existed since 1996 a continental Federation called “All Asian Kickboxing Federation” leaded by Mr. Aleksandr Voinov and Mr. Nasser Nassiri both members of WAKO.
Mr. Nassiri who was active person with great relationships within many countries around the world and also with sport international official, had applied for recognition of Kickboxing sport in Asia within Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). This was happened in 2004. The application was pending but many other Kickboxing organization were looking to obtain recognition as well. Finally on 9 September 2005 OCA General Assembly recognized sport of Kickboxing as official sport in Asia. Mr. Nassiri was working in active collaboration with Mr. Ennio Falsoni WAKO President. They could in that regards consult some professional sport consultant and Mr. Nassiri came with the idea of creation of official continental division in WAKO.
To achieve the goal, the statutes of WAKO need to be revised. Accordingly the two leaders spread the necessary information among the WAKO Board and by decision of the WAKO Board the new statutes were proposed to the general assembly of in December 2005 of WAKO in which were included the continental Federation/Confederation.
Accordingly, Mr. Nassiri took the responsibility together with Mr; Falsoni to establish the 4 other continental confederation as there was only on existed at that “All Asian Kickboxing Federation” despite that in most of the countries in different continents there were existed the national Kickboxing Federation.
In Africa, Mr. Nassiri contacted many existing members as at the same he was preparing the inclusion of Kickboxing in Asian Games, he did also the necessary for inclusion of Kickboxing in African Games. In December 2006, during Asian Games in Doha, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced the inclusion of Kickboxing in upcoming Asian Indoor Games 2007 Macau. At the same with hard teamwork of Mr. Nassiri and African members, we had the announcement of inclusion of Kickboxing Sport in African Games 2007 in Algeria.
Accordingly, the members of African continent agreed the foundation of African Kickboxing Confederation which finally took place on 21 March 2007 in city of Alger in Algeria with the President and executive board members election and finally Kickboxing sport has been included in African Games of 2007 in Algeria for the first time as demo sport.
At the occasion of African Championships held on 27 to 30 Mai 2009 in Yaoundé (Cameroon), the General Assembly of African Kickboxing Confederation was held and Mr. Emmanuel Essissima was elected as new President of African Kickboxing Confederation.
Since African Kickboxing Confederation is growing up and confirm its authorities with official members around all African countries.
During the General Assembly of Association of African Sports Confederation (AASC) known also as Union des Confederations Sportives Africaines (UCSA) held on 22 November 2013 in Brazzaville, Congo, the application of affiliation membership of African Kickboxing Confederation was voted and African Kickboxing Confederation has been granted the recognition as official member of AASC/UCSA in charge of Kickboxing Sport in Africa.
The hard work of Mr. Emmanuel Essissma the President of African Kickboxing Confederation and his team together with our friend Mr Nasser Nassiri the President of Asian Kickboxing Confederation achieved and brought the African Kickboxing successfully to stage of recognition. We would also like to thank Mr. Ennio Falsoni the former President of WAKO, who was supporting all of us for that success until March 2013 when he suddenly became ill and obliged to step out.
Since, we keep continuing our efforts to include Kickboxing as official sport in African Games. We were obliged to restructure our confederation and believe we will be included in upcoming African Games.
We should take note that all these efforts during the past years needed to be financed and unfortunately our confederation dose not has any income as there is not any affiliation paid by our member to African Confederation for their membership and we do not have any financial support from any organization neither WAKO international federation. All cost related to African Kickboxing Confederation is assured by President Mr. Emmanuel Essissima and thanks to our mutual collaboration agreement back few years ago with Asian Kickboxing Confederation which assisting and supporting us when we need.
We would like also to say to all our members in Africa, thank you, for their support and development of Kickboxing sport in their countries.
On 28 April 2018, the last General Assembly of African Kickboxing Confederation (WAKO AFRICA) took place at the headquarters of AASC/UCSA among the adopted decisions by the members, the members decided for election of President and executive board members including the election of the Presidents of different African Kickboxing Confederation Zones.
(To reveiw the list of the President and members of executives Board members please click here)
Emmanuel Essissima
President of Asian Kickboxing Confederation (WAKO AFRICA)
Member of the Board of WAKO