ASDF

About

The African School Debate Foundation, (formerly the African Schools Debate Council from 2017 to 2023) is an idea that was suggested in 2016 by Soufiane Choubani and Christopher Medina but it wasn’t until 2021 that the idea came to life. The aim of the ASDF is to be a first of its kind continental organization that comes to together in the mutual belief that debate in Africa needs to be promoted and strengthened. The ASDF also aims to help create new national teams in African and strengthen school debates in the continent.

OUR OBJECTIVES

Strengthening debate in Africa

Promote and assist new African WSDC teams

Established ranking system for African national teams

Annually host African Debate All-Star Weekend

Annually award and recognize the best debaters, teams and adjudicators

Established a directory for African national teams

Share thoughts, opinions and concerns

Collaborate with the WSDC board for future events and training sessions

AIMS

  1. Bridge a network between all national & schools teams in Africa to coordinate annual board meetings and determine the host of the annual championship. 
  2. Recognize and award the ones in Africa who have representing their nation as admirably ambassadors and who have achieved excellence in international competitions. The end goal to be able to award these students with partial scholarships for their college fees to assist them in fulfilling their dreams. 
  3. Support new countries in forming national teams and promoting to debate to others to get them on board as well. As a continent of over 50 nations, it is sad that less than 10 nations have ever participated in the WSDC. This is by far the lowest number of any continent in the world. Our aim is to achieve 20 active national teams by 2025.
  4. Host regional training conferences for debaters, coaches and adjudicators. 

ACHIEVEMENTS

  1. Hosted the first ever African Schools Debating Championship since 2010 in 2022. 
  2. Hosted the first ever African All-Star Debate Weekend in 2022.
  3. Established a directory for African national teams.
  4. Saw the increase of African national participation in the WSDC increase to 8 teams. (2021 & 2022)
  5. Awarded the championship of the 2022 African Schools Debating Championship with champions t-shirts.
  6. Obtained a sponsor for the 2022 African Schools Debating Championship.
  7. Hosted an African writing competition in 2023.
  8. Awarded the top African speakers from the 2022 and 2021 WSDCs with medals and certificates.
  9. Awarded the top coaches and teams in Africa with certificates.

2023 Board

Founder & Chair: Soufiane Choubani (Morocco)

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Vice Chair: Edward Shati (Namibia)

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