Debate At Africa

Africa….

The very name conjures up images of vast yellow plains, elephants and hippopotami, gazelle being run down by lions. A place of primal strength and beauty.

However, Bishop’s Diocesan College, near Cape Town, South Africa, was home to a different kind of strength and beauty in the week that ended March and began April. The strength of thought, and the beauty of words. The 2007 World Individual Public Speaking and Debating Championships.

Wasatch Academy was lucky enough to be able to send one student to this most prestigious tournament – Alex, who happens to be writing this, and should probably stop talking in the third person. I was accompanied by our Dean of Students and speech coach, Dr. Gary Emmons. We braved long overseas flights and lost luggage to arrive in South Africa for the tournament.

There were representatives from eleven countries at the tournament, including the United Kingdoms, Germany, Cyprus, Korea, and Pakistan. The cultural diversity of the competitors made for great social and competitive interaction. For instance: in an odd twist of fate, a representative from India was paired with a representative from Pakistan in debate. Instead of causing any sort of fuss, they overcame their cultural difficulties and worked amazingly as a team. It was this spirit of international cooperation amid competition that made the tournament such a pleasure to participate in. Overall, there were 82 competitors, all already champions on the national level. This was a gathering of the best of the best.

The competition comprised four events. First was Interpretive Reading, in which the competitor reads aloud a literary piece, adding voice inflection to create a powerful performance. Second was Prepared Speaking, which is actually two separate events: After Dinner Speaking, in which the competitor gives a humorous speech addressed to a fictitious audience, and Persuasive Speaking, in which the competitor speaks to persuade the audience about a specific problem. Next was Parliamentary Debate, which is debate between two teams of two people. Last, but not least, was Impromptu Speaking, in which the competitor is given two minutes to prepare a speech from a randomly selected prompt.

After the first three days of competition, consisting of two rounds of each event, the competitors were given a tour of the attractions around Cape Town. This included a trip up Table Mountain and a visit to the penguins at Boulder’s Beach.

The final day of competition held, fittingly, the final rounds. Although I did not make it into any finals, I had great fun watching my teammates and the competitors from other countries as they competed. The Grand Finals were held that night at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, after a lavish meal. The next morning, we packed our bags and left for home, encountering a large number of traveling woes along the way, but we did eventually make it back.

Overall, I very much enjoyed competing at the Worlds. It was a great experience, both for debate as well as for culture. I was very pleased that I managed to do respectably, and glad that I was able to represent Wasatch on the world level at this most prestigious tournament.

Alex ’08 (Palo Alto, CA)

Wasatch Academy Speech and Debate (captain)

Tass Bey
Debate Coach