26-year old Yusuf Qaafow was four years old when Somalia last participated at the biennial FIBA Africa Zone V Afrobasket championship in 1991. As captain for the war-stricken country at the just concluded event, Qaafow who featured for the Melbourne Tigers in Australia’s top flight league-the National Basketball League (NBL) last season led seven other Somalis from colleges in the USA, Canada and two Mogadishu-based players to a remarkable performance at the regional tourney.
The ten very determined players had never met in their entire lives but just under a week of training, the youngsters created rapport amongst each other and put country first with an objective of creating hope for the Somalians back home.
Grouped with regional giants Kenya and minnows Burundi, Somalia was written off even before they played their first game which was against their neighbours to the south. In a surprise result, Somalia defeated Kenya 81-78 before beating Burundi 98-80 to qualify for the semi-finals against the reigning champions Rwanda.
“We are really honoured to have represented Somalia at this tournament and now that we know the kind of competition at this event we are going back to the drawing board to work hard and we shall be back strong,” revealed Qaafow in an exclusive interview.
Over 200 Somalis who reside in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam converged at the National Indoor stadium to support their countrymen who were carrying their country’s flag after such a long time.
Photo shots and autograph signing after every game was always the highlight of the post-match activities every time the Somali team stepped off the court.
Clad in the number 12 jersey, the NBA D-league 13thdraft pick for the Santa Cruz Warriors Faisal Aden was always the talk among basketball fans as the lad executed spectacular basketball scoring an amazing 59 points against Rwanda in the semi-final despite his team’s loss. According to FIBA Africa, this is the highest score by a player in a single game on the continent.
Captain Qaafow believes that basketball which is the second most popular sport in Somalia after football will bring hope to the people in his country and according to him the basketball authorities have vowed to keep this team together and will be reinforced to make it stronger for future engagements.
Coached by Qatar-based Omar Barajab, the foreign based players included the trio of Abdi Faras (California), Munye Sufi (Ohio) and Tabid Abukari Mohamed (Seattle) from USA while Osman Mohamed, Hussein Mahdi and Liban Hassan (Ontario) feature for colleges in Canada. Mohamed Ibrahim and Osman Maslah are the Mogadishu based players who feature in the six-team league.
According to the Somalia Basketball Federation vice president also head-of-delegation Mohamed Hagi, everything is being done to revive the game in the country and communication has already been made with the world governing body FIBA to see to it that instructors are sent to Mogadishu to train coaches and referees in April this year.
Somalia dominated African basketball in the 1970s and 1980s but most notably in 1979 when Mogadishu hosted the All Arab Games which attracted 22 countries from across the world. Somalia won gold in the men’s basketball category.
Two years later, Somalia hosted the FIBA Africa championships and finished in third position but along the way defeated Angola, Algeria and Tunisia in Pool A to make it to the semi-finals where the horn of Africa lost to eventual finalists Egypt. Somalia finished third in what is their best ranking at the continental tournament.
Team manager of the team to Dar-es-salaam also a basketball legend in Somalia, Ahmed Muse who featured on the team that won gold in 1979 revealed that the team’s presence at this event was due to the collective effort of Somalis from across the world including Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Qatar, Germany, USA and Canada to mention but a few.
Somalia’s consul to Tanzania Dr Mohamed Diriye Elmi said, “This team has made us proud and has put Somalia back onto the world map.”
By Usher Komugisha
