About

Purpose

African Table Tennis in Diaspora (ATTD) is an organization or association which was founded by Jonathan Harleston in 2014. Its main focus is to foster the promotion and advancement of table tennis around the world. The organization also aims to bring together table tennis enthusiasts in the diaspora to celebrate past memories of the game that they enjoyed back when they were in Africa. The organization further aims to showcase Africans doing great things in the world of table tennis. It additionally aims to create a platform to showcase African Table Tennis talents to the world –and to create a pool of talented players who will fly high the national colors of various African nations. The association also desires to create a global table tennis network with table tennis organizations and individuals from different countries around the world.

The Spirit of the Organization

To truly understand what African Table Tennis in Diaspora is about, you need to understand the spirit in which it was created and the spirit in which it operates. This is because this organization is not your everyday sporting body or association. It is a unique association which is comprised of extremely passionate table tennis players who –even though they are not the best players in the world –have undying love for the game and desire to see it grow and thrive all over the world –especially on the African continent.

It is necessary to bear in mind that most members of the association play table tennis for fun and not professionally. The association is thus in several ways more like a family of table tennis players who love the sport and want to play their part in promoting it and helping it grow. Believe it or not, some members even know and have been playing against each other for over twenty years! The bonds in the association therefore run deep and very strong because of the beautiful game.

It must be emphasized that table tennis is a powerful, magical and unifying sport. As the game is being played, you completely forget about personal differences, politics, race, gender, class divisions, wars –and even poverty. The only war that matters in that moment is the war going on between the two competitors as regulated by the rules of the game and genuine sportsmanship. For this reason, the ATTD does not pay any consideration whatsoever to perceived differences of class, race, gender, tribe or social background for one to be a member. All you need to be a member is a genuine love for the sport or to be able to play the sport. If you can play and are passionate about table tennis, you don’t even need to speak a single word.

ATTD members merely want to share the joy that table tennis gives them with other people who do not know or appreciate the sport –as well as with those who share and have the exact passion for the game that they do. For this reason, membership to the association is open to each and every one. All races, tribes, classes and creeds are welcome to join. Including the marginalized in society. Membership to the association is also open to all Africans –as the organization has a special dedication toward supporting African table tennis and its players.

The Objectives of the Association

The members of the association are dedicated and committed to showing the power of table tennis as a sport to the world. They do this mainly by organizing tournaments and using them to honour legends in the sport. They also desire to promote a powerful positive image of table tennis players in the world of sport. Ultimately, the members of the association want to do the best that they can for the sport, its players, and people in general. They want to leave a good legacy for themselves while at the same time creating something powerful which will outlive them and continue to grow and promote the sport that they so dearly love and are extremely passionate about.

Embodiment of ‘Ubunthu’ –The Humanitarian and Philanthropic Side of ATTD

ATTD is committed to conducting a lot of humanitarian and charitable work to help table tennis players and other people in Africa. In doing so, it embodies the African spirit of ‘Ubunthu’ (pronounced ew-woon-two) which is a deeply entrenched tradition in most African cultures and their people. The essence of this African spirit is illustrated below.

It is reported that hundreds of years ago, an anthropologist who was foreign to the continent of Africa proposed a game to some African children. He placed a basket full of sweets close to a tree about a hundred feet away from the children and told them that whoever gets there fastest would get all the sweets. When the anthropologist signaled the start of the race, the children surprised him by holding each others’ hands and running towards the tree together. They then divided the sweets equally amongst themselves and enjoyed them together.

Puzzled by what he had witnessed, the anthropologist asked the children why they had done what they did. And they replied, “Ubunthu” (pronounced ew-woon-two). Which means “I am because we are.”

Ubunthu is an African concept which symbolizes a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is best signified by posing and answering the question, “How can one be happy when everyone else is sad?”

Or in a more competitive setting like table tennis, “How can one win if everybody else loses?”

ATTD embraces the concept of Ubunthu through its charitable and humanitarian work by which it tries to aid the underprivileged table tennis players in Africa. Since its creation, the association has donated over $15,000 in cash prizes and trophies to table tennis players. It also recently donated assorted items and sports equipment to African table tennis clubs in Ghana and Nigeria –and it intends to do even more in future to ensure that no table tennis player who it is capable of helping gets left behind.

In this way ATTD sets a wonderful example and demonstrates to the world all the good that can be achieved when the sons and daughters of planet earth join hands and work towards a worthwhile goal or pursuit. In the words of Mr. Charles Olayinka, one of the long-serving members of ATTD, “It’s all about giving, giving, giving and doing good in the world through the love of the sport.”

Achievements

ATTD has scored several successes and achievements since the time it was created. The major achievements of the association are listed below.

The ATTD has hosted five major table tennis tournaments which have featured an average of 100 players. These numbers include some of the best African players to ever play the sport. The said hosted tournaments were generally used as an avenue to honour African Table Tennis Legends.
The ATTD has additionally hosted a considerable number of high-ranking African Table Tennis Players. Including the following big names:

Atanda Musa
Quadri Aruna
Taiwo Hameed Adeyinka
Kazeem Ajagbandi
Yinka Olasoji
Jide Ogundilu
Ojo Onaolapo

ATTD is the only organization that has hosted this number of table tennis tournaments and African Table Tennis legends which is giving back to the community.
The ATTD has donated over $15,000.00 in cash prizes and trophies which were presented and given at its hosted events.
The association also donated table tennis equipment and other materials to two table tennis clubs in Ghana in 2020.
The association further made donations to a club in Nigeria in 2021.
The ATTD sponsored and sent representatives to support African players at the World Table Tennis Tournament which was held in Houston, USA in 2021. At the tournament, members of the association strongly cheered and supported the African players. And as fate may have it, the powerful and relentless support of the members helped to inspire Quadri Aruna’s success at the tournament.

During the tournament, members of the association got to hang out with the African players and took lots of pictures with them. It was a beautiful and heartwarming experience for everybody –and a great celebration of the motherland away from home.

The association also had a virtual meeting with Segun Tariola in October, 2021.

The association is presently in the process of creating an online platform to enhance engagement amongst its members and members of the public. The association additionally owns a professionally designed logo.

Highlights and Amazing Moments

In pursuing its quest and objective to use tournaments to honour African table tennis legends, the ATTD hosted Atanda Musa to one of its organized tournaments. The association flew him down to Atlanta for the tournament. And as fate would have it, Musa proceeded to win the tournament…pure class!

The association also hosted Quadri Aruna, who at the time of this publication is ranked as the world’s number 11 player. As any well-seasoned table tennis enthusiast would know, Quadri Aruna is the first player from Africa to attain that level of ranking. Aruna is also the first African to reach the quarter finals of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals.

During his stay for the event, ATTD honored Aruna and took him out for fun at Lucky Shoals Table Tennis Club. In a shocking turn of events, Aruna stunned everybody at the club by demonstrating great humility –and a true legendary sportsman’s spirit by playing each and every table tennis player who was at the club that day. It was an extremely special and breathtaking moment. Aruna is the highest ranked player ever to have visited Lucky Shores Table Tennis Club to this day.

Challenges

Despite its numerous successes, ATTD has faced several challenges over the years from the time it was established. The challenges faced have mostly been issues to do with its members having busy work schedules which normally render them unable to prioritize and participate fully in the association’s programs and events.

Another challenge is that the association has a relatively ambitious and noble vision which will require more resources, support and finances if it is to be realized. Therefore, an increase in membership and finances would prove extremely handy with regard to achieving the association’s goals and objectives –particularly with respect to ATTD’s humanitarian and philanthropic objectives. An increase in membership and funding would also go a long way in the organizing of table tennis tournaments and events.

Members of the organization also face challenges by virtue of them having busy schedules and family obligations that sometimes prevent them from participating fully in the association’s activities and events.

Further, in the past couple of years, the ATTD suffered a huge blow as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the shutting down and disruption of most of the organizations programs and events. Nonetheless, the association adapted and pushed through the tough times. The ATTD came out of the pandemic much stronger and with even more purpose and a stronger resolve to pursue its goals relentlessly. Coming from the aforesaid generally grim and gloomy backdrop, ATTD now looks toward creating new and better post-pandemic beginnings.

Pride points and Future Plans

ATTD takes pride in the fact that as a result of its existence, its members have experienced and felt sheer joy, love, passion, and the empowering life-changing impact of table-tennis and its multiple benefits. The benefits that the members have enjoyed from their membership to ATTD include improved, physical, mental and emotional health. The members have also enjoyed and experienced a powerful sense of connection, connectivity, and family spirit among table tennis players as a direct result of the association’s existence. Needless to say, although this is an unquantifiable achievement, it could quite easily even be the most important one because it is the precise intention and end-goal that the association aspires to for its members and table tennis players at large. It is precisely this kind of goal that the association dedicates itself to going forward.

ATTD now endeavours to be recognized as a platform which is fostering and promoting the growth of table tennis players around the world. It additionally desires to help identify, raise, and nurture the next African table tennis legends.

Sponsorship

Over the years, the association has been blessed with a good number of sponsors for its events and operations. The association continues to look forward to new sponsors for its future plans and endeavors.

Final Inspiration

As a final inspiration, ATTD would like to end by echoing the perspective of its founder, Johnathan Harleston, and reiterating the fact that the beauty of table tennis is the diversity amongst participants. Harleston, a Thomas Nunes Sportsmanship Award recipient put it simply and beautifully when he said:

“If a game so simple to play and (which) just requires a racquet and a ball could bring people from different countries and backgrounds together, then that same unifying force could propel the group towards achieving any monumental task that can lead to something great, one of which includes humanitarian efforts in helping the youths in the continents rise up and live up to their full potential especially in sports.”

Those beautiful words were the premise upon which African Table Tennis in Diaspora was founded in 2014. Among its other major objectives, the association was established with a vision to unite people of different races through the lovely game we all know as Table Tennis.

“Table Tennis is like an atom. To the ignorant it is merely microscopic and insignificant in existence, but to the dedicated, it is intricate in design and the building block to everything we know.”