Today the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy launched “Basketball Diplomacy in Africa: An Oral History, From SEED Project to the Basketball Africa League (BAL),” a SOAS University of London-funded Information and Knowledge Exchange project. It’s been an honor and a privilege to co-direct this alongside Dr J Simon Rofe and our team of Jose Gigante, Fadil Elobeid, Aashika Doshi, and Jacob Loose, who have contributed in a variety of ways.

Research was not a primary focus for this fascinating initiative. Our main objective was to facilitate an exchange of information about the intersections of basketball and diplomacy given the launch of the BAL*, a joint FIBA-NBA venture. As the first pan-African professional sports league, the BAL inherently touches on a multitude of issues involving diplomacy: the communication, representation, and negotiation that takes place in and around the hardcourt.

But a lack of scholarly work about African basketball—to say nothing of basketball diplomacy—provided a unique opportunity to capture first-hand accounts. Thus, this project explores the topic at hand while collecting a diverse set of perspectives from key stakeholders to help us all better understand the sport’s tremendous growth and place in different parts of the continent.

“Basketball Diplomacy in Africa” features 18 separate oral histories with 20 participants across Africa, in Europe, and the United States. We spoke with federation and league officials, coaches and players past and present, agents, grass-roots organizers, storytellers, and more, roughly half of who are female. Their experiences and perspectives provide a critical foundation for understanding basketball’s development, the different forces at work, and why FIBA and the NBA have invested in this ground-breaking endeavor. I cannot thank them enough for their consideration, time, and participation—I have learned so much.

A few points that struck me and will develop more fully in the coming weeks:

In many ways, basketball diplomacy in Africa is about today and tomorrow.

The BAL is forward-thinking, seeks to build an entire sports ecosystem, and can empower Africans communicate in new ways among themselves as well as to the rest of the world. The sport is ever-more popular among the youth, thanks to the sport’s—and the NBA’s—increased popularity in the past 20 years.  

But basketball diplomacy is built on the deeper hoops cultures that already existed.

Particularly in West Africa and Angola where former colonial powers France and Portugal left complicated legacies but developed basketball networks. According to some of our oral history participants, one of the reasons why basketball today is stronger in these parts of the continent is because of these colonial ties to France and Portugal—some of the first European countries to play the game.  That’s not to say that basketball or certain national team successes in the post-1960 era are a result of lingering ties to Europe; but as several point out, the game has stronger foundations in Francophone and Lusophone Africa than in areas formerly under British rule.

The United States has also played a role, past and present.

Present-day programs, like the U.S. Department of State Sports Diplomacy division’s work sending WNBA and NBA players and coaches overseas as sports envoys and its Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP) have helped grow the game in their own ways, as both Kim Bohuny and Belia Zibowa (a GSMP alumna from Zimbabwe) describe. But there were also less formal/non-government related efforts in the past to bring U.S. teams to Africa to play exhibition tournaments (see the account of Carmine Calzonetti and Kenny Grant). Again, U.S. soft power via basketball culture plays a role, but is not the main driver nor does it detract from the work of Africans around the continent to develop the game and the institutions that support it.

The YMCA was basketball’s original globalizing force, spreading the game within the United States, as well as to Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America as part of their educative mission.

Today, there is a range of diverse actors who are continuing basketball’s global growth across Africa, from grass-roots organizers and local initiatives, to international nonprofits like SEED Project and Giants of Africa to the NBA-FIBA Basketball Without Borders. One of the key common denominators, however, is the use of basketball as an educative tool…so in some ways, connecting back to the game’s original growth.

Basketball, while not the most popular or most populous sport (exception: Angola), seems to be generally well-regarded perhaps because it is closely associated with education and the schools.

As FIBA Africa Executive Director Alphonse Bilé points out, there was no option to play the sport professionally in the 1970s and early 1980s in Côte d’Ivoire; therefore, the best players all played while students at university. Many who we spoke with, including Basketball Africa League President and NBA Africa Managing Director Amadou Gallo Fall, played basketball at university. Football (soccer), in contrast, is much more popular yet, because it seems to be associated by many as an economic endeavor, it is not always as highly regarded.

Basketball is a sphere of equality opportunity and inclusion for women and girls.

The sport has not, according to our participants, suffered the stigma of being too masculine for girls or women to play. In fact, it is often seen as a good endeavor for girls and across the board, all of our participants do much work to ensure that whatever hoops development work they do, they ensure that girls and women have equal access, participation, and voices. Among my favorite stories is the one Youcef Ouldyassia recounts of the undisputed MVP at the Algerian basketball camp he and French International and NBA Orlando Magic player Evan Fournier organized. That young player, Meriem, is now playing NCAA basketball thanks in part to that opportunity.

The Internet and technology revolution plays a vital role in any story about basketball and diplomacy across the continent.

But these advances, especially the advent of social media, have also changed the impact, reach, and possibilities of basketball diplomacy. Generations who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s watched VHS tapes of NBA games to learn about the league or watched weekly sports magazine shows like ‘NBA Action’ to get highlights and news; today’s youth rarely sit to watch 2-hour games from start to finish. Instead they watch short clips on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms. This raises a range of interesting questions, which some of our interviewees speak to.

African NBA players and executives play a critical role.

They return home each summer to run camps and clinics, and inspire kids not just to play but to pursue their dreams.

There is more to come, but this provides a bit of background on the project, as well as the first-blush points that catch my curiosity.

 A huge round of thanks to our interviewees for their participation and perspectives. I’d also like to thank the Basketball Africa League, SEED Project, FIBA Africa, NBA Africa, NBA International. The Basketball Embassy, Sports Connect Africa, U.S. Department of State Sports Diplomacy Division, All Parisian Games, B’ball Kitaa, and other basketball stakeholders and colleagues for their willingness to engage and help enhance my understanding of the topic at hand, as well as SOAS University of London.

* The coronavirus pandemic temporarily suspended BAL competition, tipoff of its first tournament season was slated for March in Dakar. But the BAL remains full-steam ahead and continues to serve within the sports-diplomacy framework.