Last week, my Twitter timeline was accosted by, what it seemed like, an unending stream of videos and photos of former basketball stars and celebrities, schmoozing and enjoying the Paris nightlife. And to be honest, I didn’t like what I saw. Not one bit. Not because I had an issue with celebrities enjoying themselves (they have every reason to have a good time if they so wish). Rather, it was because of the reason they were partying. The second ever BAL (Basketball Africa League) combine. A two-day event aimed at giving BAL teams the opportunity to scout talent from Africa as well as the rest of the world, in order to potentially add these players to their rosters. This Paris event, I felt, raised a very obvious question. Why did they (the BAL) feel the need to hold this event in Europe? I mean, didn’t anyone in the organization ask themselves, ‘what message were we giving to the millions of African basketball fans, as well as the BAL teams, by holding one of the key events of the AFRICAN league in another continent’? The much-needed conversation that the brainchild behind the BAL started on the continent was this, ‘why not create an African league that highlights the best of African talent?’ This timely concept was one that I, and the millions of African basketball fans, had no choice but to fall in love with. This was then followed by African organizations such as the Rwanda Development Board (under its ‘Visit Rwanda’ brand), as well as private sector players, putting their money where their mouths were and making the BAL a reality. As I watched the BAL grow over the last two seasons all I could feel was pride. Pride in not just how Rwandan teams performed, but also pride in the fact that the league was supported and led by people who called Africa ‘home’. It was something that was, I felt, truly ‘ours’. However, the fact that they held the first major event of the 2023 BAL season in France has forced me to reevaluate this feeling of ownership. Would the US-based National Basketball Association have held a major combine outside North America? No way in hell. It wouldn’t have even been up for debate. Would the Chinese Basketball Association hold anything outside the Chinese borders, never-mind a combine? No way in the world. So why us? Why the Africa league? With investment and good leadership, we put paid to the old excuses that ensured international sporting events avoided our continent i.e. poor sporting venues, visa issues, bad air connectivity, the lack of international level accommodation and the like. Today, you can find world class venues in Dakar, Cairo, Kigali and other cities. We have great airlines and top class hotels. I mean, if the three cities were deemed good enough for the actual BAL competition, they were certainly good enough for the ‘mere’ combine. So, again I must ask, what exactly was BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall, trying to tell us? That we didn’t deserve this showpiece event? That catering to his ‘partners’ was more important than drawing a line in the sand and saying that BAL is FOR Africa? I know that many people joked during the just concluded FIFA World Cup that the French team was ‘African’ due to the number of black players it had. But I also remember them singing the ‘La Marseillaise’ at the start of the final game and not the African Union anthem, ‘Let Us All Unite and Celebrate Together’. Furthermore, beyond even that messaging, I must ask this, are the BAL honchos living in such rarified air that they think that everyone else has the same visa privileges they do? That they have the same access to Western capitals? Just this past Saturday, The Guardian newspaper published a story with the headline ‘Ritual humiliations’: African music stars struggle to get visas to Europe’. The story highlighted the challenges, rejections and humiliations that Africans face while attempting to get the almighty Schengen visa. I’m 100 % sure that there were fans, journalists and even BAL team officials who weren’t able to travel to Paris due to not only visa issues, but costs as well. It is my hope that this Paris combine will be seen more as a mistake made by a nascent league still trying to figure itself out rather than something to be repeated year after year. So, to Paris (and any other place outside our beautiful continent) I say, as any self-respecting African should, “non merci. No thank you”. The writer is a socio-political commentator
