At the dawn of the new millennium in Uganda, basketball represented the highest form of urban youth expression. Leading brands like Sprite took interest in the culture and launched nationwide campaigns that created basketball experiences. For many in high schools, they were getting the first taste of basketball, a game that would become one of their lifelong passions. The lure to basketball became a cultural wave for the urban youth. This expression was largely emboldened in the fashion, Art, in language and slang, and also in hip-hop music.
When it came to hip-hop music, there was a sense that basketball and hip-hop were inextricably connected. This connection was so brazen that DJs could not play any other genre outside hip-hop at any basketball related event. Growing up going to Bushcourt in Kololo, I was an eyewitness to this Hip-Hop-Basketball fusion. The big-boys labored to always carry a CD player so that they could play basketball while jamming to the hottest hip-hop sounds.
Several years ago, I pondered what would highlight the growth of basketball in Uganda. Back then, I had come to the conclusion that ‘Growth of the game of basketball would be postulated by how many people would be actively engaged in playing the game’. My premises had envisioned a grandfather teaching their grandchild the art of the jump shot on a hoop in their family house backyard. Perhaps my sentiments held puissance but only for that time when basketball was just an alternative sport not so many Ugandans were familiar with. In hindsight, and I beg to change my sentiments and state that “the growth of basketball and the future of basketball – both, will be spotlighted by the ability of the basketball Culture to survive and even more so, to thrive.”
You may be seeing where I’m going with this but first, allow me in a way define a Culture. Culture is a sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from one generation to another. Some might even argue that a culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. And to borrow that tagline from the Nike commercials, Tradition Never Graduates.
I shouldn’t miss to point out that even within the same culture exists different layers. These can manifest at a national level, regional level, team level and the individual athlete’s level. Basketball came to Uganda in the 1960s, through Peace Corps volunteers and missionaries. The sport, like many events and activities of the time, got caught up into the political turmoil. Uganda was a very unstable political state. Basketball in Uganda would then gain some traction in the 1970s during the reign of Gen. Idi Amin. Those playing in the early 1970s were true pioneers of the sport. During these times we cannot realistically make any reference to a basketball culture in view of the truth that the whole country had but a handful of basketball courts in schools like SMACK and Aga Khan and only a handful of community courts at YMCA, Makindye and Luzira.
The formative years of the Ugandan basketball culture are mostly marked by the conspicuous infusion with the Ugandan Hip-hop genre. To best understand this infusion of the basketball and hip-hop cultures, I had the rare privilege to discourse with the Godfather of Ugandan Hip-Hop and the originator of the LugaFlow Movement – Babaluku.
“Basketball was an alternative sport. Just like the hip-hop genre, those who participated literally came from a space of pure passion. The two cultures represented a cultural shift that was happening in Uganda at that time. These were truly platforms for minority voices of youth expression that were rising out of our communities.”
From these infusions, broke out a Ugandan hip-hop culture that was connected to basketball at the hip. Babaluku recounts that it was imperative that the two cultures were infused. ‘We understood that the two cultures had no dichotomy. It always showed that hip-hop and basketball always went together.’, Babaluku told me. There was no greater show of this basketball-hip-hop collaboration at the national level than at the PAM Awards (Pearl of Africa Music Awards) of 2005 when Babaluku and his Bataka Squad performed alongside basketball players performing streetball moves much to the amusement of a large television audience.
“The two cultures were now powerful black activities emerging out of our communities for young men to dream different.”, Babaluku told me.
From then on, it wasn’t uncommon for basketball players to become rappers and rappers to become basketball players pushing the boundaries of both cultures. Babaluku himself and some Bataka Squad members had grown up in Makindye, hooping at the basketball court at the barracks. Arts like KlearKut that would later notably produce Navio and The Mith – these were hoopers and hoop fans, GNL ‘The Legend of Zamba’, Lyrical G, Big Trill, Keko, Nicky Nola, Hanz Tactic, St NellySade, Burna Mutibwa, Charcoal The Judge, some of these stars actually played actively in the local leagues – the young Ugandan Hip-hop genre had found a space where it was homely embraced – basketball, and vice versa.
I’m convinced that culture goes way beyond the confines of the sport. Playgrounds, cities and townships, teams and individual players are capable of cultivating their own culture as laced to the sport. Every playground has its own traditions. The pick-up games rules and design of Makerere PoolCourt may not be the same rules applicable at the Wandegeya YMCA or Makerere MainGround or Mengo much as these playgrounds are within a two-mile radius of each other. Each playground has always been able to adopt a tradition and a culture that becomes the proverbial ‘House Rules’ and in some way, shape or form been able to pass on these same norms and traditions across a long divide of basketball generations.
Let me ask! Who’s the quintessential basketball player to come out of Makerere Main-Grounds? I reckon the most typical response will include players that take the shape of Joseph Ikong and perhaps Mubiru Robert Jordan. Flashy skills and monstrous dunks, right? But you can’t skip talking about who had the influence on these players’ kind of game. And anybody would argue, that the Legend Stephen Omony had the greatest influence on players that came out of Makerere Main Ground. Aggressive, assertive, professional and a high flyer. If Stephen Omony is who you watched growing up at the playground, you definitely desired to throw down some monster dunks. As with all the flash that came out of Mainground, It’s got Hakeem ‘Sick Wid It’ Iga written all over it. Hakeem dedicated his basketball career for the most part to streetball – a flashy version of basketball that has since disappeared, and he was such a sight for young aspiring basketball players from the Mainground. We could furthermore make contrasts between players that have come from playgrounds and townships like BushCourt, Jinja S.S, Gulu Caribbean, and more many more. Playgrounds don’t only imbue their influences on players alone but also the fans that affiliate to the teams representing those townships. What have you heard about Gulu Hawks fans at the Caribbean Courts at Kaunda Grounds in Gulu? My supposition is that I’ve managed to paint a Picasso of how the playground and the township can affect culture of the game.
But is culture so important for excellence and the survival of sports organizations? Is anybody troubled by the demise or the fall from grace of some of the greatest basketball teams in Ugandan basketball? Falcons – six times Uganda NBL Champion and once the basketball pride of this country faces relegation even further to Division II, Kyambogo Warriors – two time Uganda NBL Champions are a defunct entity, Sky Jammers –the Jinja based former Uganda NBL Champions are in Division II, Charging Rhinos is in Division II, Miracle is in Division I, Bushcourt is in Division II, Power – five times Uganda NBL Champion was relegated to Division I after an awful show in the NBL last season. All the while, the City Oilers have won the NBL ten straight times! Each of these basketball establishments had built their own basketball cultures. Did these dynasties fall because they failed to uphold the values, the goals, the tools, the norms, the mantras, the symbols, the rituals, or even the heroes that once carried them to greatness?
For answers, I looked to the Miami Heat – the NBA franchise that has cultivated the so called ‘Heat Culture’. The Heat culture is the vision of Pat Riley – currently the President of the Miami Heat, for the franchise when he became the coach for the 1995-1996 NBA season. In essence, the concept of “Heat Culture” refers to the relentless pursuit of excellence in Miami from the top of the organization to the bottom and the expectations placed on every person who contributes to the team. Since it’s naissance, the ‘Heat Culture’ has recorded the second-best winning percentage and fourth-most playoff wins and has three championships in seven finals appearances. The Heat have had several different groups of players experience success in South Beach, from Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning to DwayneWade and Shaquille O’Neal to LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Wade to the current Jimmy Butler/Bam Adebayo pairing. No matter who the players are, one thing remains constant: Heat players, coaches, staff and front office members are held to the highest possible standard every single day. This has always allowed the team to outperform expectations time and again, regardless of who is on the roster. One of the staples of the Heat’s impressive culture is only bringing in players capable of matching their standard of toughness, grit, execution and basketball IQ – attributes that are often underrated in today’s analytical game and allow teams to play better than the sum of their parts by squeezing everything they can out of their guys. A few weeks ago, the Miami Heat unveiled at a lavish event, a Dwayne Wade statue outside their Kesaya Arena and I’ll later on say why this is an important mention. Miami is also sometimes referred to as ‘Wade County’ after Dwayne Wade.
For many like myself that were sold to Power Basketball culture as young fans, we watched with the inaudible sounds of our hearts breaking the game between Power and Livingstone, the 61-54 loss that would seal Power’s relegation from the Uganda NBL to Division I. You couldn’t make up such tales that the mighty Power would ever suffer such an ordeal let alone just not compete for the national title. But had it been a foreseen trajectory for any keen observer? Management was visibly navigating the waters with disregard to Power traditions and norms, attracting players that knew little or nothing about Power culture, the conspicuous absence of so many that once were the heroes to this franchise. The team that had arguably the biggest fan base chanting “Power – Power – Power“ could no longer get a dozen staunch fans to watch their games. Without being outrightly critical, these questions lurked about in my mind; Do these guys know you can’t have jersey number 11 on Power because it was retired to honor Wilbrod Oketcho (God rest his soul)! Do they know who the Big Aristotle is? Do they know Ken Balyejjusa or Marvin Banks, or Wapera Julius or David Kiberu or Peter Mubanda and so many names synonymous with this Power franchise? One couldn’t make the argument about poor coaching because Timothy Odeke has a proven resumé and him pairing with Brian Namake, there couldn’t have been any better tandem. Was it questionable leadership or just not enough quality in the players? Power like all the other franchises I made reference to, fell because they abandoned their traditions, their culture – the very fabric that had given them the fanbase and many accolades.
While making the case for preservation of sporting cultures, I can’t be oblivious to knowing disintegration. In his ‘Book of Five Rings’, and I would argue that it’s essentially a book about mastery, Miyamoto Musashi says that; “disintegration is something that happens to everything. When a house crumbles, a person crumbles”. Musashi argues that ‘the adversary crumbles or falls apart by getting out of rhythm with the times’.
So is there room for cultivating culture in today’s mostly ‘analytical game’ like they call it? My argument is that the answer to this can be found in the scholarly cultural determinism notion. Whether the optimistic version that tends to look at players or humans in general as being infinitely malleable and can freely choose the ways they prefer or the pessimistic version that looks at players or even people as passive and that they have to be conditioned to comply with the culture. Whichever notion of cultural determinism, there must be a custodian of the culture – the traditions, the symbols, the rituals, the heroes and even the preserved stories. The absence of these custodians spells death to these dynasties.
Generally speaking, the Ugandan Basketball Culture can be likened to a couple that seeks to have a child. Repeatedly, the couple tries. But it’s not even because they can’t get pregnant. It’s just that they always labor nine months and when the child is born, they eat it! – What a tragedy! How many times have we mud slang our icons? The guys that sacrificed to give this game some recognition? The guys that played for our National Teams without pay? How much have we supported their after basketball hassles? While they played we etched their names in stone, built invisible statues and hoisted them on inexistent pedestals, and while they were off the stage we crashed all that and told them they didn’t amount to anything! A culture that does not celebrate its icons is built on very soggy sand. And if this thing of ours must stand, names like Stephen Omony, James Adoa , Norman Blick, Vicent Chatti, Hakeem Iga, Ken Balyejjusa, Ronnie Kasewu, Okias Stephen, Wilbrod Oketcho, Sam Obol, Henry Malinga, Suzan Kafumbe, Humphrey Hakiza, Robert Ndamagye, Ochan Moses and so many more must forever remain in the discourse to grant our basketball stories legitimacy.
In closing, Uganda as a country must make room for a thriving basketball culture and this should trickle down to regions, to cities and towns, to teams and basketball clubs and finally players must develop their individual cultures. This is enshrined in the notion of Sports ethnocentrism – the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own sports culture. This can play a pivotal role in the growth of Ugandan basketball and its associated culture. By fostering a strong sense of pride and identity around a localized basketball style, traditions, icons and values, it encourages community engagement and loyalty. This localized pride will drive grassroots development, as players and fans feel connected to a distinct basketball heritage that represents their inherent spaces. Additionally, it creates a competitive edge, as communities strive to showcase their unique contributions to the Ugandan basketball landscape, pushing for innovation and excellence. Ultimately, this ethnocentric passion can amplify the sport’s cultural relevance, solidify its presence in society, and inspire generational dedication.
Worrisome about the dwindling number of fans in our basketball arenas, Babaluku challenged me when he said that “as ball players, its your responsibility to build communities that will sit in the arenas. Empty arenas only point to the fact the community hasn’t been engaged to participate.” The accountability is on you to allow young people to experience what basketball means to you, he continued. If the culture did spring out of the communities as a means for young Ugandans to dream different, then back to the communities it must return.
By Cucu Brian. | brian@basketball256.net | Twitter: @Cucubrian
The views expressed herein are only the views of the author. Brian is an ardent Ugandan basketball follower, a basketball junkie and the founder of Basketball256 LLC.
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