England is in Africa, according to official programme at Commonwealth Games 2018

In an accidental case of the old empire striking back, Commonwealth Games organizers have listed England as part of Africa in the official programme.

The colourful souvenir edition lists the English capital as Banjul (instead of London), locates it in the Africa region and notes its population as slightly more than 2 million.

That mirrors the details listed correctly for Gambia, only recently restored to the Commonwealth Games, directly underneath on Page 97.

The African nation did not compete at the 2014 Glasgow Games after withdrawing from the Commonwealth in 2013. A change of prime minister in 2016 led to the readmission of Gambia last month, and the country has six athletes competing on the Gold Coast.

“We already had everything ready to push the button to print (and) had to do a lot of fast footwork,” Organizing committee chief Mark Peters said, explaining on Wednesday that the error was noticed 10 days ago. “We went and spoke to England and said ‘Congratulations, the Commonwealth is changing and it has since Brexit. A part of you is now part of Africa.’

Mr. Peters said organisers went to England officials and offered to pulp the print run and start again, and even considered putting stickers over the incorrect information in every program.

“They were emphatic that end of the day, they’re so pleased to be here and everything else that has been organised, they implored us not to do that,” Mr. Peters said. “We’re doing a special reprint of 500 to give to the English and the CGF to make sure that in terms of the records, that’s done correctly.”