Our celebration remains a solemn occasion to pause and look back on this journey, to look towards the future and to scrutinize the mountains we still have to climb.

As we commemorate this historic event around the theme '50 YEARS! Let's begin a new era!', I would like to invite you to have a respectful thought for the Founding Fathers.

Thanks to the tenacity of all involved, the African Handball Confederation was born on January 15, 1973 in Lagos, Nigeria.

A modest start, certainly, but how important because several very dedicated people played a decisive role in this journey.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will all reflect on how faithful we have been to their vision and ideals.

Fifty years of Passion, Friendship and Innovation

This commemoration will be marked by various events on the sidelines of our statutory competitions, culminating in the Congo next October during the 44th African Champions Clubs Championship.

I also invite the National Federations to take this opportunity to embrace this celebration through their own initiatives (symposium, Handball Day, etc.)

During this half-century, our institution has recorded significant successes in strengthening fraternal relations, solidarity among stakeholders, and sporting performance.

Today, I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute:

– To the National Member Federations and various Partners, in Africa and beyond its borders,

– To our illustrious predecessors, several of whom we honor in their memory,

–To technicians of all kinds, technical supervisors, referees

–To the communicators who accompany us,

–To the headquarters staff, who have loyally served the institution throughout all these years.

Some of them are no longer with us, and I invite you to have a pious thought for them all.

Thanks to the work, determination and commitment of all the actors mentioned above, the African Handball Confederation has become an institution of which we can all be proud.

This is what allows us, when we ask ourselves whether we have truly been faithful to our founding fathers, to proudly answer that we have played our part.

The African Handball Confederation has managed to remain a dynamic institution on a continent where our sport is trying to establish itself.

Over the years, faced with the increasing needs of Member Federations, the African Handball Confederation has strived to provide answers.

Throughout this fifty-year journey, we have continually paid attention to our model of working to develop African talent.

We have gone from a rapidly emerging institution to one that matters in international relations.

We have moved from a process-oriented organization to a results-oriented organization.

Always in motion, always in step with its time, the African Handball Confederation has always sought to promote and unite.

Now we need to rethink ourselves, in light of the new challenges and opportunities facing our sport in Africa.

We must seize all opportunities such as the decisive support of the International Handball Federation (IHF), the appreciated support of the French Handball Federation (FFH), the support and political will of some of our state leaders and the strengthening of cooperation between federations.

We must constantly rethink our tools, our systems, and our responses.

We must avoid applying old answers to new problems; all this to say that we must move in the direction of progress.

Let me conclude by thanking you all, and those who preceded you at the head of your respective Federations, because nothing would have been possible without your dedication to our mission.

We still have much to do. There are encouraging prospects. I hope that the conclusions drawn from our deliberations will have the expected impact on African handball.

I hope that the African Handball Confederation will assert itself more through major integrative projects that relate to training and skills development, as well as strengthening the role of women in our leadership structures.

Happy anniversary to all, Happy fiftieth anniversary celebration.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Dr. Mansourou AREMOU

President of CAHB