Middle East and Africa | Shooting for the hoops

The National Basketball Association is making a big bet on Africa

The world’s second-favourite sport is taking off on the fastest-growing continent

A game during the 2023 Basketball Africa league Championships.
Photograph: Getty Images
|DAKAR

Sport occupies a hallowed place in the history of pan-Africanism. The Confederation of African Football (CAF), which runs African football and, in particular, the African Cup of Nations (Afcon), was founded as far back as 1957. That was six years before the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union. Over the years the CAF lent its support to anti-colonial liberation struggles across the continent, including against apartheid in South Africa.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Shoot for the hoops”

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