Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman apologized yesterday for joking that he was afraid of going to Africa because he could see himself in a pot of boiling water with natives dancing around him.
Mr. Lastman made the statement earlier this month just before he left for Kenya to help pitch the city's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games at a meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa. The comments were not made public until yesterday, when a Toronto newspaper published them.
"What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa?" Mr. Lastman was quoted as saying.
"Snakes just scare the hell out of me. I'm sort of scared about going there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."
In an attempt to try to limit possible damage to the city's Olympic bid from the remark, the mayor issued a written apology, but his office distributed it only to those reporters who asked about the quote.
The apology tries to minimize the impact of the statement by characterizing it as an off-the-cuff joke that was not intended to hurt anyone.
"I should not have made this comment," the mayor's apology said.
"I wish to extend my apologies to anyone who was offended by my comments. I am sincerely sorry for any offence I have caused. My visit to Kenya was a most enjoyable one. The people of Kenya were very hospitable to our entire delegation, and they treated us wonderfully during our stay."
The remark was typical of the often outrageous things that the flamboyant mayor says, but city officials still fear it could harm Toronto's Olympic bid.
The International Olympic Committee decides on the games July 13 in Moscow. African delegates are seen as the swing voters who will determine the outcome of the IOC vote.
Toronto lawyer Charles Roach said he would judge Mr. Lastman unfit to be mayor "if I thought those were his true feelings rather than just an off joke."
Mr. Roach, born in Trinidad, is vice-chairman of the World Pan-African Movement, which seeks to rally people of African descent against European influence in Africa. He was inclined to forgive Mr. Lastman.
"I know the mayor, and I don't think that he is a bigoted person or anything like that, but he makes a kind of humour sometimes that is off-base."
Councillor Sherene Shaw, city council's diversity advocate, said she hoped that the mayor had not hurt the city's bid. "The comments are insensitive and wrong. However, the mayor has apologized. I consider the apology a sincere one. I think we need to accept that and move on."
But Councillor Pam McConnell said that she was shocked by the remarks and that they probably violated the city's own human-resources policy, which does not allow groups to be stereotyped.
She added that not only does it offend Torontonians of African descent, it also shows people in Africa that Mr. Lastman does not care for them. "I think a statement like this to African delegates could sink the bid totally," she said.
Sean Hawkins, a University of Toronto history professor who specializes in modern African social history, said the mayor's remarks "sound like something that somebody would say in a novel. Extraordinary."
He said that the view of Africans as cannibals who stew people in pots over fire go back to the beginnings of the European exploration of Africa and are a projection of European's deep-seated fears of Africa.
"They percolate so deeply in Western culture that they crop up everywhere."
However, for the Mayor of Toronto to say such things is "totally unforgivable. If this was said in the United States, the person would have to resign, and they should."
The mayor's spokesman Jim Warren said, "The mayor has apologized for his comments. That speaks for itself."