December 13, 2022 Bissau, Guinea Bissau - Mr. Fernando Arlete, President of the Athlete’s Commission of the Guinea Bissau National Olympic Committee (GBNOC) insulted the country’s greatest swimmer and national record holder in every event, Siphiwe Baleka, asking him to leave an athlete’s workshop being conducted for the country’s athletes.

Mr. Baleka and Ms. Daiana Taborda Gomes, Secretary General of the Guinea Bissau Swimming Federation (FNGB) arrived at the Hotel Malaika for the Forum do Desporto E Olimpismo: Workshop de Atletas that was advertised publicly on Facebook. Upon arrival, they signed in and Mr. Baleka received a badge. “We came to the event thinking it was open to the public,” said Ms. Gomes. “We explained to them who we were and they added us to the list and we were allowed in. The whole time I kept wondering, why weren’t we invited?”

Near the end of athlete introductions Mr. Arlete asked Ms. Gomes to step out into the hallway where they had a private conversation. Upon returning, Ms. Gomes reported to Mr. Baleka that they had been asked to leave quietly. When all the introductions were completed, Mr Baleka stood up and said, “I am sorry. I came here as an athlete, the first swimmer to represent Guinea Bissau in international competition and the number one swimmer in the country. But I have been asked to leave by the President.”

Mr. Arlete immediately stood up and tried to give an explanation, even claiming that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ordered the GBNOC not to recognize Mr. Baleka or the legally-registered FNGB of which he was elected President earlier this year. Said Mr. Arlete, “There is a problem at the level of the IOC that we Nacional committee can't interfere in". The room had already begun to erupt in chaos while Mr. Baleka and Ms. Gomes left peacefully. They were stopped by several athletes expressing their support, however. Upon learning of the possible interference from the IOC, Mr. Baleka stated, “I thought the whole thing preposterous. But then, my friend Kamm Howard, the former National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) who visited me in Guinea Bissau in 2021 said, ‘Ask yourself why did the government out-of-nowhere abandon the forward motion of you swimming in Tokyo. Allowing you to proceed would have been a major blow to amature athletics in general and the Olympics specifically to the tune of $100's Billion. Money that would have been taken from western countries and universities and channeled to African countries and the athletes themselves.’ So now, to hear from Mr. Arlete that the IOC may be involved, it’s just mind-boggling!”

The conflict between the GBNOC and Mr. Baleka stems from the incidents that occurred in the qualifying period for the Olympics in Tokyo. Mr. Baleka would have been Guinea Bissau’s first Olympic swimmer, the oldest swimmer in Olympic History and the first African American to represent his ancestral homeland at the Olympics. Incompetence and possible corruption by the GBNOC and the newly formed GBSF, including sabotage and perjury in a case brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), implicates the GBNOC President Sergio Mane and the former FNGB President Duarte Ioia and Secretary General Aniceto Berardo in possible crimes against Mr. Baleka.

“Apparently, I am exposing the sports Mafia here in Guinea Bissau headed by GBNOC President Sergio Mane,” said Mr. Baleka. “They know what they did and are doing and I have evidence against them and they know it. Other athletes and sports federations can’t speak out too loudly since they are completely dependent on the GBNOC and the Ministry of Sport which control everything. To them I am impudent and a thorn so they want to get rid of me. But I know that impunity and injustice thrive when people are too afraid to stand up and speak out. There’s a reason that Guinea Bissau is rated one of the most corrupt countries in the world. How else do you explain a Secretary General/President of the GBNOC who started with just 3 Olympic athletes in 1996 and managed to increase that to an amazing 5 athletes by the 2016 Rio Olympics and 4 athletes for Tokyo? I mean, how does someone with such a poor job performance retain the position for three decades????”

In October of 2021, Mr. Baleka competed in the 14th African Swimming Championships, the first swimmer to represent Guinea Bissau in the continental championships. Immediately after the competition, the FNGB President Duarte Ioia resigned and named Mr. Baleka as the Interim President until elections could be held.

“I inherited a federation that had no constitution or by-laws, and was not legally registered…. The whole thing was a sham,” lamented Mr. Baleka. “So I spent the next several months drafting a Constitution, registering the Federation with the Ministry of Justice, and complying with all of FINA’s procedures for membership and the GBNOC President Sergio Mane kept interfering in the process at each step, even going so far as to violate FINA rules concerning improper third party interference in Federation activities to prevent me from competing in the CANA Zone 2 West African Swimming Championships and instead using family connections to get a nephew who had only been training for a month, to compete. The swimmer swam only one event, finished third to last whereas I would likely have won a medal, the first swimming medal, in Guinea Bissau history, which would have attracted a lot of media attention and badly needed resources for building the national swimming program.”

As it stands now, the retired former President of the unregistered swimming federation Duarte Ioia initiated a legal action to prevent the legally-registered FNGB headed by Mr. Baleka from proceeding to prepare 1 boy and 1 girl swimmer to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris under FINA’s “Universality Places” qualification system. Mr. Baleka welcomed the litigation in order to finally declare, without a doubt, that the FNGB of which he is President, is the sole governing body for aquatic sports in Guinea Bissau. The case was scheduled for a hearing on October 17. Mr. Baleka showed up but neither the Judge Guierra Ribeiro Infada nor Mr. Ioia showed up for the hearing.

According to Mr. Baleka, “we showed up for the hearing but nobody else did. Since then we haven’t heard anything from the judge. It’s beginning to feel like it's impossible to get any kind of justice here in Guinea Bissau, which is why all the athletes are complaining and leaving the country. We notified FINA of the situation, but FINA is giving the presumption of integrity to the GBNOC and its President Sergio Mane. That’s like entrusting the wolf to guard the chicken coop!”

The overall situation in Guinea Bissau is deteriorating as critics of the government are being kidnapped, tortured and shot at. “I don’t know how far up the chain this goes, but I definitely am starting to have concerns about my safety. If anything happens to me, at least the world will know where to start the investigation,” said Mr. Baleka.