South Sudan's basketballers qualify for the Olympics

Up until last week, the biggest sporting achievement of South Sudan was qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

That was no mean feat for the world's youngest country. Years of investment by former NBA star Luol Deng has seen the national basketball team reach the pinnacle of the sport with a core of players recruited from the South Sudanese diaspora, many of whose parents were displaced by the war of independence from Sudan and the civil war that emerged after South Sudan became independent in 2011.

The team topped that achievement by booking a ticket to the Olympic Games at the FIBA World Cup, causing celebrations in the streets of the capital Juba, and surrounding towns and villages.

Their 101-78 victory over African powerhouse Angola handed them the automatic African ticket for Paris 2024. The fans watching inside the Nimra Talata Basketball Stadium danced and waved the national flag in celebration.

"I am so happy that it is happening," Deng told DW at a welcome reception in Juba on Wednesday, where the team was feted for its impressive performance. "We play for more than the game. That's because of the love that we get and what it does to everyone."

Deng, who moved to the United Kingdom with his family as a young refugee and represented the UK at the 2012 Olympics, was once an All-Star in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls. But even he says that the accolades that the Bright Stars have received are unique: "I played in the NBA, but I was never loved like that." 

A diaspora of talent

Blessed with the height and love of the game — Manute Bol and Ring Ayuel being two of the most famous big men from the country — Deng saw the opportunity the sport could offer for national growth and rejuvenation as he gathered players from the diaspora to represent their homeland.

South Sudan played their first official international game only six years ago. In 2021, they qualified for their first continental competition, the Afrobasket, and finished seventh of 16 teams.

The Bright Stars fought through a stacked African qualification field and made it to their first World Cup this year. However, as the team prepared for the tournament, allegations of corruption dogged the sports ministry, which was accused of mis-spending funds meant for transporting fans to support the team. But in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, the team won three matches, including against China and the hosts, to finish as Africa's best team.

"We have gone from not being recognized in the world to using basketball to change the belief of so many people about our country," said Deng. "I'm not saying that everything is 100% sweet; there are a lot of holes that still need to be filled, and we recognize that."

Support needed for sustainability

The 28-year-old forward Nuni Omot, who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp after his parents fled the Second Sudanese Civil War before settling in the United States, described the unbelievable experience. "I'm just very blessed and honored to be able to do this with my brothers. There's no other feeling like being able to bring positivity to the country," he told DW.

"The media portrays South Sudan as a bad place, but for us to lift the flag and show the positivity, obviously for the next generation and generations to come, is historic and something that can't be taken away from us."

South Sudan has just four outdoor basketball courts, with 11 more currently under construction. It is the only country, which does not have an indoor court at all, to have played at the World Cup. The civil war took its toll on sports and cultural activities, but the South Sudan flag will now fly high at the next Olympics.

Much work still needs to be done to create a sustainable basketball program in South Sudan, said Busara Rajab, a South Sudanese basketball expert who has coached several teams and players for 16 years. He hopes schools can be the pathway to growing the sport: "Any sport needs big support. If you want a player to train for six hours a day, you cannot find it here in Juba because we don't have many basics to help us," he told DW.

'We need infrastructure'

The national team's captain, Kuany Ngor Kuany, 29, who was raised in Australia, where his parents fled to when he was nine, said that proper facilities would help players. "Hopefully, soon, we will see the infrastructure that the federation built (across) the 10 states," he said. 

"But to get to that level where we have homegrown talent, we need a lot more infrastructure and indoor basketball courts for us to be able to compete at the elite level."

Deputy Secretary General of the South Sudan Basketball Federation Arou Ramadan Chan said there were plans to ensure the game grew at home. "We will continue pushing for that because we know that the same crop of players playing for our national team has the same DNA with those kids in Rumbek, in Torit and Bahr el Ghazal," Chan said.

As Deng and his young team continue to enjoy their celebrations, they are already creating more progress than South Sudan's politicians have achieved for the country.

Edited by: Michael Da Silva